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SELECTIONS  AND  DOCUMENTS 
IN  ECONOMICS 

TRUSTS,  POOLS  AND  CORPORATIONS 
By  William  Z.  Ripley,   Ph.D.,   Professor  of 
Economics,  Harvard  University 

TRADE   UNIONISM  AND  LABOR 
PROBLEMS 

By  John  R.  Commons,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy,  University  of  Wisconsin 

SOCIOLOGY  AND  SOCIAL  PROGRESS 

By  Thomas  N.  Carver,   Ph.D.,   Professor  of 
Economics,  Harvard  University 

SELECTED  READINGS  IN  PUBLIC 
FINANCE 

By  Charles  J.  Bullock,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor of  Economics,  Harvard  University 

RAILWAY  PROBLEMS 

By  William   Z.  Ripley,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of 
Economics,  Harvard  University 

SELECTED  READINGS  IN  ECONOMICS 
By  Charles  J.  Bullock,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor of  Economics,  Harvard  University 

ECONOMIC  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES. 

By  Guy  Stevens  Callender,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy,  Yale  University 


SELECTIONS   FROM 

THE  ECONOMIC  HISTORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 

1765-1860 

WITH  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAYS 


BY 


GUY  STEVENS  CALLENDER 

PROFESSOR    OF    POLITICAL    ECONOMY    IN    THE    SHEFFIELD 
SCIENTIFIC    SCHOOL,  YALE    UNIVERSITY 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •   NEW  YORK   •   CHICAGO   •  LONDON 


28229 


\       '  Copyright,  igog,  by 

GUY  STEVENS  CALLENDER 


ALL    KIGHTS    RESERVED 


/ 


/ 


(,:nn  anh  cijmi'anv-  pro- 
prietors •  liOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


'I    *' 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  the  result  of  an  effort  to  provide  a  manageable 
body  of  reading  for  college  and  university  classes  in  American 
economic  history.  It  was  prepared  in  connection  with  a  course  of 
lectures  on  that  subject  by  the  editor  giving  an  outline  of  our  eco- 
nomic development  and  discussing  the  more  important  economic 
questions  which  the  American  people  have  had  to  consider.  It  is 
intended  to  be  used  as  reading  to  supplement  such  a  course  of 
lectures,  or  in  connection  with  a  brief  text-book  serving  the  same 
purpose.  The  short  essays  at  the  beginning  of  each  chapter,  together 
with  the  footnotes  and  the  headings  under  which  the  selections  are 
arranged,  will  make  their  significance  and  bearing  tolerably  clear. 
Some  effort  has  been  made  to  render  it  useful  also  in  those  general 
courses  in  American  history  which  give  considerable  attention  to  the 
economic  and  social  as  well  as  to  the  political  side  of  our  national 
development.  It  is  not  designed  to  be  a  collection  of  documents 
and  sources,  although  it  is  made  up  largely  of  such  materials.  It  is 
rather  an  account  of  economic  affairs  by  persons  who,  for  various 
reasons,  were  in  a  position  to  understand  them.  Travelers  and  other 
contemporary  observers,  statesmen  and  publicists  who  took  part  in 
the  discussion  of  economic  questions,  a  few  economists  who  have 
been  interested  in  American  history,  and  still  fewer  historians  who 
have  given  attention  to  economics  are  the  sources  from  which  most 
of  the  extracts  are  taken.  Some  compilation  of  this  sort  is  greatly 
needed  by  teachers  in  order  to  make  available  such  treatment 
of  our  economic  history  as  exists,  scattered  through  a  great  num- 
ber of  volumes  and  quite  impossible  of  use  by  any  considerable 
number  of  students.  This  is  an  attempt  to  bring  together  a  por- 
tion of  these  scattered  fragments  and  to  indicate  by  their  grouping 


iv  PREFACE 

and   arrangement  with   some    comment   the   important   topics   to 
be  considered. 

It  may  be  well  to  add  here  a  brief  statement  of  the  editor's  con- 
ception of  the  scope  of  economic  history  in  order  to  furnish  a  clue 
to  his  selection  of  topics  and  arrangement  of  materials.  According 
to  his  view,  the  economic  history  of  a  country  ought  to  embrace 
three  fairly  distinct  matters  :  first,  it  should  describe  and  explain 
the  economic  life  of  the  people  at  all  stages  of  their  development ; 
second,  it  should  investigate  the  relation  of  economic  affairs  to 
politics  ;  third,  it  should  attempt  to  show  the  influence  of  eco- 
nomic life  upon  the  social  evolution  of  the  country.  The  first  of 
these  is  obviously  the  most  important  and  constitutes  the  chief  task 
of  the  economic  historian.  It  should  include  much  more  than  an 
account  of  the  different  industries  of  the  country  and  the  various 
branches  of  commerce  carried  on  by  it,  which  historians  have  long 
been  accustomed  to  introduce  into  their  narrative.  The  whole  eco- 
nomic organization  of  the  country  ought  to  be  examined  and  its 
chief  features  set  forth.  The  so-called  factors  of  production  —  the 
natural  agents,  labor  and  capital  —  must  be  considered  in  their  rela- 
tions and  all  the  circumstances  affecting  their  efficiency  pointed 
out.  All  those  institutions  and  devices  which  exist  primarily  for 
the  production  of  wealth  must  be  shown  in  their  development,  such 
as  the  currency,  the  transportation  system,  the  ownership  and 
control  of  the  land,  and  the  means  by  which  the  combination  of 
labor  and  of  capital  have  been  secured.  Important  changes  in 
economic  conditions,  commercial  crises,  periods  of  prosperity  and 
depression,  should  be  noted  and  the  influences  which  produced 
them  investigated.  The  economic  problems  which  have  had  to  be 
met  ought  to  be  considered  and  their  discussion  reviewed.  In  a 
word,  economic  history  ought  to  illustrate  and  render  concrete  the 
science  of  economics  so  far  as  the  experience  of  one  country  will 
do  it.  The  economic  historian  ought  to  apply  the  science  of  eco- 
nomics to  past  conditions  and  past  problems  in  exactly  the  same 
way  that  it  is  ordinarily  applied  to  current  conditions  and  current 
problems. 


PREFACE  V 

Such  is  the  first  and  principal  object  of  economic  history.  The 
otlier  matters  do  not  so  obviously  come  within  its  scope.  There 
are,  however,  good  reasons  for  giving  them  a  considerable  amount 
of  attention.  The  relation  of  politics  to  economics  is  a  double  one. 
It  includes,  on  the  one  hand,  the  influence  of  the  government  on 
economic  affairs,  —  its  economic  policy,  —  and,  on  the  other,  the 
influence  of  economic  conditions  on  political  action.  The  first  of 
these  has  always  been  considered  a  proper  subject  for  the  con- 
sideration of  economists,  and  more  attention  has  been  given  to  it 
than  any  other  part  of  our  economic  histoiy.  The  influence  of 
economic  conditions  upon  our  political  affairs  has  been  enormous, 
and  no  correct  understanding  of  American  politics  is  possible 
without  taking  it  into  consideration.  The  economic  historian  bet- 
ter than  any  one  else  should  be  able  to  investigate  economic  con- 
ditions and  estimate  their  influence  upon  the  people.  As  to  the 
third  matter,  whatever  one  may  think  of  the  so-called  economic 
interpretation  of  history  in  general,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the 
character  of  the  American  people,  as  well  as  the  form  and  spirit 
of  their  institutions,  has  been  profoundly  influenced,  to  say  the 
least,  by  their  economic  life.  It  is  in  economic  affairs  that  we 
have  shown  the  greatest  originality  and  energy.  These  have  ab- 
sorbed our  interest  more  completely  perhaps  than  that  of  any  other 
people  of  modern  times.  No  study  of  American  economic  life  can 
be  considered  complete  or  satisfactory  which  does  not  attempt  to 
show  the  way  this  fact  has  influenced  American  society.  What 
marks  has  it  left  upon  the  national  character  and  the  structure  of 
society  ?  Why,  for  example,  has  the  Anglo-Saxon  developed  a 
different  character  in  the  United  States  than  in  other  new  coun- 
tries, like  Canada  and  Australia  ?  WHiat  was  it  that  created  the 
equality  that  so  impressed  De  Tocqueville  in  the  thirties  ?  What 
has  so  completely  destroyed  that  equality  since  that  time  and 
brought  almost  as  great  inequality  into  American  as  is  to  be 
found  in  European  society  .-'  It  is  difficult  no  doubt,  perhaps  im- 
possible, to  find  definite  answers  to  such  questions  as  these,  but 
they  should  not  for  that  reason  be  ignored.  The  economic  historian 


VI  PREFACE 

is  bound  to  consider  them  and  to  show  how  far  our  economic  Hfe 
has  affected  us  in  these  ways. 

In  selecting  and  arranging  these  extracts,  all  three  of  these 
matters  have  been  kept  in  mind,  and  the  aim  has  been  to  present 
such  material  bearing  upon  them  as  exists. 

GUY   STEVENS  CALLENDER 
Sheffield,  Massachusetts 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   UNITED  STATES   IN  THE    ECONOMIC    HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

Pac;e 
Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States  [1S36]         i 
Dunbar,  "Economic   Science  in  America,   1776-1876,"  A^oiik  A?nert- 
can  AVzvVtc,  January,  1876 i 

CHAPTER    H 

COLONIAL   ECONOMY 

Introihiction  by  the  Edi'pok 6 

L    Population,  Products  and  Trade. 

A.  General  Account. 

Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce       9 

B.  New  England. 

Burke,  European  Settlements  in  America  [1761] 12 

Burnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  Amer- 
ica [i759-'76o] 12 

C.  Middle  Colonies. 

Kalm,  Travels  into  North  America  [1749] 16 

D.  Southern  Colonies. 

Hurnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  Amer- 
ica [i  759-1 760] 20 

American  Husbandry  [1775J -~ 

n.    Manufactures. 

Report  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade  and   Plantations  to  the 

House  of  Commons  [1731-1732] 29 

Burnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  America 

[1759-1760] 34 

Franklin,  Canadian  Pamphlet  [1760J 35 

Eddis,  Letters  from  America  [1769-1777] 36 

American  Husbandry  [1775] 3^ 

HI.   Immigration  and  the  vSuitly  of  Laborers. 

Burke,  European  Settlements  in  America  [1761] 44 

Eddis,  Letters  from  America  f I7(')9-I777] 45 

American  Husbandry  [1775]     • 5° 

vii 


viu  CONTENTS 

Pagb 

IV.  The  Trade  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  Mediterranean. 

An  Essay  on  the  Trade  of  the  Northern  Colonies  of  Great  Britain  in 

North  America  [1764] 51 

Edwards,  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in 

the  West  Indies  [1793] 54 

Remonstrance  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  to  the  Lords  Commis- 
sioners of  Trade  and  Plantations  [1764] 56 

V.  Currency. 

Hildreth,  History  of  the  United  States  of  America 63 

Pownall,  The  Administration  of  the  Colonies  [1764] 65 

Dickinson,  The   Late   Regulations   Respecting  the  British  Colonies, 

Considered  [1765] 67 

VI.  Miscellaneous  Features  of  Economic  Life. 

American  Husbandry  [1775] 69 

Franklin,  Observations  concerning  the  Increase  of  Mankind  and  the 

Peopling  of  Countries  [1755]       75 

Kalm,  Travels  into  North  America  [1749] 76 

VII.  Importance  of  West  Indian  Colonies  to  European  Nations. 

Raynal,  A  Philosophical  and  Political  History  of  the  Settlements  and 

Trade  of  the  Europeans  in  the  East  and  West  Indies  [1783]      .     .  78 
Edwards,  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in 

the  West  Indies  [1793] 79 

Campbell,  Considerations  on  the  Nature  of  the  Sugar  Trade  [1763]    .  81 

Long,  The  History  of  Jamaica  [1774]        83 

Franklin,  Canadian  Pamphlet  [1760] 83 


CHAPTER  III 
COLONIAL  POLICY 

Introduction  ky  the  Editor 85 

I.  The  Influence  of  the  Trade  Laws. 

Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765 88 

II.  Contemporary  Views. 

A.  The  Mercantile  View. 

American  Husbandry  [1775] 95 

Postlethwayt,  Britain's  Commercial  Interest  [1757] 97 

B.  Colonial  Governors. 

Bernard,  Select  Letters  on  the  Trade  and  Government  of  America 

[1764] 100 

Pownall,  The  Administration  of  the  t'olonies  [1764] 102 

.X    C.  The  Radical  View. 

Smith,  The  Wcaltli  of  Nations  [1776] 108 


CONTENTS  IX 

Pac;e 
III.    Modern  Views. 

Seeley,  Expansion  of  England 113 

Ashley,  Commercial  Legislation  of  J<2ngland  and  the  American  Colo- 
nies, 1660-1760 116 

Channing,  The  United  States  of  America,  1765-1865 120 

CHAPTER    IV 
ECONOMIC  ASPECTS   OF  THK   REVOLUTION 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 122 

I.  Influences  leading  to  the  Revolution. 

A.  Economic  Depression. 

Anderson,  An  Historical  and  Chronological  Deduction  of  the  Ori- 
gin of  Commerce 125 

Dickinson,  The  Late  Regulations  Respecting  the  IJritish  Colonies, 

Considered  [1765] 130 

Bernard,  Select  Letters  on  the  Trade  and  Government  of  .\merica 

[1764] ■    ■     ^33 

Petition  of  [Massachusetts]  Council  and  House  of  Representatives 

to  the  Honorable  House  of  Commons,  November  3,  1764      .     .     135 

B.  Social  Conditions  L^nfavorable  to  Taxation. 

Sumner,  The  Financier  and  the  Finances  of  the  American  Revolution     1 37 

C.  Partial  Spirit  of  Colonial  Policy  revealed  by  Controversy. 

Franklin,  Causes  of  the  American  Discontent  before  1768      ...     140 

II.  Resources  for  carrying  on  the  Struggle. 

A.  The  Issue  of  Paper  Money. 

Franklin,  The  Paper  Money  of  the  United  States i;  * 

B.  Commerce  as  a  Political  Influence  —  the  Non-Importation  Associa- 

tions. 
Sumner,  The  Financierand  the  Finances  of  the  American  Revolution      143 

Wealth  of  Nations  [1776] 144 

Petitions  in  Parliament  against  the  American  Stamp  Act,  1766   .     .     145 
Non-Importation  Agreements  of  lioston  and  New  York,  Annual 

Register,  1768 14S 

The  Association  of  the  Continental  Congress,  1774 151 

Petitions  of  the  Merchants  of  London  and  Bristol  for  Reconcilia- 
tion with  America,  January  23,  1775 155 

Petition  of  the  West  India  Planters  to  the  Commons  respecting 

the  American  Non-Im_portation  Agreement,  February  2,  1775    .     157 

C.  Commerce  as  a  Military  Resource  —  The  French  Alliance. 

Autobiography  of  John  Adams 159 

Appointment  of  the  Committee  of  Secret  Correspondence      .    .    .  163 

Letter  of  Franklin  to  Dumas,  December  19,  1775 163 

Letter  of  Franklin  et  al.,  Committee  of  Secret  Correspondence,  to 

Silas  Deane,  March  3,  1776 164 

Letter  of  Robert  Morris  to  the  Commissioners  at  Paris,  December 

21,  1776 i(>S 


X  CONTENTS 

Page 
Letter  from  Franklin,  Deane,  and  Arthur  Lee  to  Vergennes,  Paris, 

December  23,  1776       166 

Letter  from  Franklin,  Deane,  and  Lee  to  Vergennes,  Paris,  Janu- 
ary 5,  1777 167 

in.   Results  of  the  War. 

A.  Changes  in  American  Society. 

Ramsay,  The  History  of  the  American  Revolution  [1789]    ....    168 
Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1796-1815]     .     .    172 

B.  Influence  upon  Europe. 

Letter  from  Franklin  and  Deane  to  Committee  of  Secret  Corre- 
spondence, Paris,  March  12,  1777 174 

Price,  Observations  on  the  Importance  of  the  American  Revolution 

[1785]       175 

Letter  of  Turgot  to  Dr.  Price,  March  22,  177S 176 

Brissot  de  Warville,  The  Commerce  of  America  with  Europe  [1788]  176 

Seeley,  The  Expansion  of  England 177 

CHAPTER   V 
THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  AND  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 180 

I.  General  Conditions  —  Economic  Depression  of  the  Country. 

riildreth.  History  of  the  United  States  of  America 183 

Madison's  Letters  to  Jefferson  and  R.  H.  Lee,  1785-1786 185 

Letter  of  John  Adams  to  the  Marquis  of  Carmarthen,  July  29,  1785    .  193 

The  Federalist  [1788],  No.  XV 194 

II.  Struggle  with  the  Mercantile  System  of  Europe. 

A.  The  Policy  of  securing  Commercial  Treaties. 

Letters  of  John  Adams  to  Livingston,  Paris,  July  14,  1783  ....     196 
Instructions  to  the  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  appointed  to  negotiate 

Treaties  of  Commerce  with  the  European  Nations,  May  7,  1784     200 
Letters  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  James  Monroe,  1785 201 

B.  Relations  with  France. 

Conference  of  Jefferson  with  the  Count  de  Vergennes  on  the  Sub- 
ject of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  with  France,  1785   .    202 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States 

of  America 207 

C.  Relations  with  England. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States 

of  America 208 

Sheffield,  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  American  States 

[1783],  The  British  View 210 

Letters  of  John  Adams  to  Jay,  1785,  The  American  View    ....    214 

III.  Commercial  and  Financial  Reasons  for  a  More  Perfect  Union. 

Tench  Coxe,  An  Enquiry  into  the  Pri^nciples  on  which  a  Commercial 

System  for  the  United  States  of  America  should  be  founded  [1787]     221 
The  Federalist  [1788],  Nos.  IV,  XI,  XII 223 


CONTENTS  xi 

Pagf. 
IV.   The    Return    of    Prosim.kitv  —  Inkij-ExNck    ok    the    New    Gov- 
ernment. 

Letter  of  Washington  to  La  Fayette,  June  iS,  178S 231 

Letter  of  Washington  to  Jefferson,  August  31,  i7S<S 232 

Letter  of  Washington  to  La  Fayette,  January  29,  17S9 234 

Letter  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  C.  W.  F.  Dumas,  May,  1791     .     .    .     .  235 

Ilildreth,  History  of  the  United  States  of  America 235 

CHAPTER  VI 

FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 
Introduction  by  the  Editor 239 

I.  The  European  Wars  and  the  Neutral  Trade. 

A.  Growth  of  Neutral  Trade. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of 

America  [1835] 240 

Seybert,  Statistical  Annals  [1S19] 244 

B.  Influence  upon  the  Country. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of 

America  [1835] 245 

Seybert,  Statistical  Annals  [18 19] 246 

C.  Depredations  of  the  Belligerents. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of 

America 248 

D.  Continental  System,  Orders  in  Council,  and  T'.mbargo. 

Williams,  Statesman's  Manual 251 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of 

America 259 

II.  The  Industrial  Revolution. 

McCulloch,  Commercial  Dictionary 260 

Tench  Coxe,  Statement  of  the  Arts  and  Manufactures  of  the  United 

States  [1813],  American  State  Papers 266 

Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina  [1809] 268 

CHAPTER   Vn 
RISE   OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

Introduction  isy  the  Editor 271 

I.    Features  of  Internal  Commerce. 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  New  Vork  Convention  of  the 
Friends  of  Domestic  Industry  [October  26,  1831]  on  Coasting 

Trade  and  Internal  Commerce 275 

A.  The  West  and  its  Commerce. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States 

of  America  [1835] 276 

De  Bow,  The  Industrial  Resources  of  the  Southern  and  Western 

States  [1852] 278 


xii  CONTENTS 

Page 

B.  The  South  and  its  Commerce. 

Kettell,  Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits  [i860] 280 

Russell,  North  America:  Its  Agriculture  and  Climate  [1856]  .    .    .     283 
The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the  Commercial  Relations  between 

the  North  and  South  [1861] 286 

C.  Southern  Dependence  for  Agricultural  Supplies. 

Mills,  Statistics  of  South  Carolina  [1826] 290 

Olmsted,  Seaboard  Slave  States  [1856] 290 

Buckingham,  Slave  States  of  America  [184 1] 292 

Russell,  North  America:  Its  Agriculture  and  Climate  [1S56]  .    .     .  292 

Stuart,  Three  Years  in  North  America  [1828] 294 

Christy,  Cotton  is  King  [1856] 294 

De  Bow,  Resources  of  Southern  and  Western  States  [Commerce  of 

Cincinnati,  etc.] 300 

D.  The  Manufactures  of  the  East. 

Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1797]      ....    302 
Kettell,  Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits  [i860] 305 

E.  The  Domestic  Slave  Trade. 

Slavery  and  the  Internal  Slave  Trade  in  the  United  States  [1841]  .  306 

Dew,  On  Slavery  [1832] 309 

Olmsted,  The  Cotton  Kingdom  [1856] 310 

F.  The  Lumber  Trade. 

Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years'  Progtess  [i860] 311 

II.  Development  of  Commerce  on  the  Western  Rivers. 

'        Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  18S7     .     .    .    313 

III.  Development  of  Lake  Commerce. 

Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years'  Progress  [i860] 321 

Andrews,  Report  on  Colonial  and  Lake  Trade  [1852] 324 

IV.  Commercial  Rivalry  of  Seaboard  Cities. 

Poor,  Railroads  and  Canals  of  the  United  States,  in  Andrews'  Report 

on  Colonial  and  Lake  Trade  [1852] 326 

V.  Competition  of  Canals  and  Railroads  with  the  Mississippi. 

Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  1887     .     .     .    337 
The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the  Commercial  Relations  between  the 

North  and  South  [1861]       341 

CHAPTER  VIII 

TRANSPORTATION 

Introduction  hy  the  Editor 345 

I.    Shipping. 

Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of 

America  [1835] 348 


CONTENTS  xili 

Paor 

Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years'  Progress  [i860] 350 

Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [i860] 353 

Tudor,  Letters  on  the  Eastern  States  [1S19] 353 

De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1835] 356 

II.  The  Transportation  System. 

Lardner,  Railway  Economy ;  A  Treatise  on  the  New  Art  of  Trans- 
port [1850] 359 

Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States  [1836]  360 

Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [1S60] 373 

III.  Economical  View  of  Railroads  and  Canals. 

Seaman,  Progress  of  Nations  [1852] 376 

Poor,  Railroads  and  Canals  of  the  United  States,  in  Andrews'  Report 

on  Colonial  and  Lake  Trade  [1852] 379 

IV.  The  Policy  of  Internal  Improvements. 

Gallatin's  Report  on  Roads  and  Canals,  1808 387 

Madison's  Veto  Message,  March  3,  1817  [The  Bonus  Bill]      ....  39P 

Clay's  Speech  on  Internal  Improvements,  1818 393       ^ 

Calhoun's  Report  on  Roads  and  Canals,  1819 39^,     ' 

Monroe's  Veto  Message,  May  4,  1822  [Bill  for  the  Repair  of  the  Cum- 
berland Road] 397 

Jackson's  Veto  Message,  May  27,  1830  [Maysville  Turnpike  Bill]  .     .  401 

V.  Methods  of  Travel. 

A.  General  Description  of  Conditions,  1830-1840. 

Marryat,  Diary  in  America  with  Remarks  on  its  Institutions  [1840]     404 
Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834]       411 

B.  Personal  Experiences,  1788-1860. 

Brissot  de  Warville,  New  Travels  in  the  Ignited  States  of  America 

[1788]       418 

Weld,  Travels  through  the  States  of  North  America  [i 795-1 797]    .  419 

Postel,  The  Americans  as  They  Are  [1828]      . 420 

'  Buckingham,  The  Slave  States  of  America  [1839] 422 

Dickens,  American  Notes  [1842] 426 

TroUope,  North  America  [1S61] 4-S 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 43- 

I.  Relation  of  Manufactures  to  Commerce  in  the  Colonies. 

Beer,  The  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American  Col- 
onies     434 

II.  Interruption    of    Commerce    and    Growth    of    Manufactures, 

'   1765-1793- 
Tench  Coxe,  A  View  of  the  United  States  of  America  [1787-1792]    .    439 

Hamilton's  Report  on  Manufactures,  1791 443 


xiv  CONTENTS 

Page 

III.  Influence    of    the    Neutral    Trade,    and    its    Interruption, 

1793-1815- 

Taussig,  The  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States 446 

Gallatin's  Report  on  Manufactures,  18 10 449 

Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1803] 458 

IV.  Conditions  after  the  Close  of  the  Europe.\n  W.vrs,  iSi 5-1840. 

Gallatin,  Memorial  of  the  Free  Trade  Convention,  1S31 459 

Tudor,  Letters  on  the  Eastern  States  [1819] 461 

Holmes,  .\n  Account  of  the  United  States  of  America  [1823]     .    .     .  465 
Montgomery,  A  Practical  Detail  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture  of  the 

United  States  of  America  [1840] 469 

V.  The  Decade  1850-1860. 

Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [1S60] 471 

The  Industry  of  the  United  States  in  Machinery,  Manufactures,  and 
Useful  and  Ornamental  Arts  ;  compiled  from  the  Official  Reports 
of  Messrs.  Whitworth  and  Wallis  to  the  British  Government  [1854]    478 

CHAPTER  X 
REPRESENTATIVE   VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 487 

I.  The  National  View  —  Protection  as  a  Means  of  Defense. 

Jefferson's  Letter  to  Benjamin  Austin,  1816 490 

Madison's  Message  to  Congress,  February,  181 5 492 

Madison's  Message  to  Congress,  December,  18 15 493 

Madison's  Letter  to  D.  Lynch,  1817 494 

Calhoun's  Speech  on  the  Tariff  Bill  of  181 6 494 

II.  The   Middle   States   and   West — Manufactures   and   a   Home 

Market. 
Clay's  Speech  of  1824 498 

III.  New   England  —  Commerce   and    Navigation   versus    Manufac- 

tures. 

Webster's  Speech  of  1824 50-^ 

Webster's  Speech  of  1828 510 

Webster's  Speech  of  1846 513 

IV.  The  South  —  Protection  a  Burden  with  No  Compensations. 

McDuffie's  Speech  of  1830 514 

V.  Wages  and  the  Tariff. 

A.  High  Wages  an  Obstacle  to  Manufactures. 

Hamilton's  Report  on  Manufactures,  1791 536 

Clay's  Speech  of  1824 539 

Webster's  Speech  of  1824 '.    .  540 

B.  High  Wages  the  Result  of  Manufactures. 

Webster's  Speech  of  1846 542. 


CONTENTS  XV 

Page 
Speech  of  W.  Hunt  of  New  \'ork,  in   House  of  Representatives, 

June  26,  1846 544 

Speech  of  R.  C.  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts,  in  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, June  25,1846 545 

VI.    Some  Individual  Vikws. 

A.  Development  of  the  Productive  Powers — List  and  Hamilton. 

List,  National  System  of  Political  Kconomy 546 

Hamilton,  Report  on  Manufactures,  1791 550 

B.  Concentration  of  Population  and  Increase  of  Economic   Efficiency 

—  Carey. 
Carey,  Principles  of  Social  Science 552 

C.  Cheap  Land  a  Bounty  to  Agriculture  —  Rush. 

Rush,  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  1827 558 

Memorial  of  the  New  York  Convention  of  the  Friends  of  Domestic 
Industry  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  presented 
March  26,  1S32 561 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE  CURRENCY 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 564 

I.  The  Banking  System  and  the  National  Bank. 

Gallatin,  Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Banking  System  of  the 

United  States  [1831] 565 

II.  The  Independent  Treasury  and  the  Hard  Money  Policy. 

Van  Buren's  Special  Session  Message,  September  4,  1S37 578 

Van  Buren's  Annual  Message,  December  2,  1839 584 

III.  Economic  Conditions  affecting  American  Banking. 

Gallatin,  Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Banking  System  of  the 

United  States  [1831] 589 

Gallatin,  Suggestions  on  the  Banks  and  Currency  of  the  Several 
United  States  in  Reference  Principally  to  the  Suspension  of 
Specie  Payments  [1841] 59- 

CHAPTER  XII 

SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 597 

I.   The  Pioneer  and  His  Ways. 

Observations  on  the  North  American  Land  Company,  Lately  instituted 

in  Philadelphia  [1796] 601 

Letter  from  Robert  G.  Harper,  Esq.,  Member  of  Congress  for  South 

Carolina,  September  16,  1795 603 

Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1796-1S1  5]     ...    604 
Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years  [1826] <Jo8 


xvi  CONTENTS 

Page 

II.  The  Process  of  Pioneering  in  New  England. 

Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1796-1815]     .    .    .    610 

III.  E.A.RLY  Life  in  the  Middle  West. 

Imlay,  A  Topographical  Description  of  the  Western   Territory  of 

North  America  [1792] 617 

Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years  [1826] 623 

IV.  The  Settlement  of  the  Prairie  Region. 

Stirling,  Letters  from  the  Slave  States  [1856] 633 

Trollope,  North  America  [1861] 636 

V.  Pioneering  with  Slaves  in  the  Southwest. 

Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter 641 

Martin»Gu,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836] 646 

Postel,  The  Americans  as  They  Are  [1828] 650 

VI.  The  Evil  of  Dispersion. 

Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1834] 652 

Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836] 655 

Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy  [1856] 657 

VII.  Economic  Conditions  affecting  New  Settlements. 

Smith,  The  Wealth  of  Nations 658 

Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Economy 660 

Porter,  Speech  on  Internal  Improvements,  Annals  of  Congress,  1810    665 

CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 666 

I.  Principal  Features. 

Donaldson,  The  Public  Domain 668 

II.  Attack  and  Defense  of  the  Policy. 

Clay's  Report  on  Public  Lands,  1832 680 

TIT.    EsTiM.viES  OF  the  P(JLICY. 

Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy  [1856] 686 

Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836] 689 

Buchanan's  Veto  Message  of  June  22,  i860  [The  First  Homestead  Bill]  690 

CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

Introduction  by  the  Editor 693 

I.   The  Labor  Problem  of  New  Countries. 

Wakefield,  A  View  of  the  Art  of  Colonization  [1851] 695 

Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836] 697 


CONTENTS  xvii 

Pa<;k 
II      LAIiOR   CONDITTONS    IN    AMERICA. 

Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1S36] 701 

Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States  [iiS36]  703 

Poussin,  The  United  States  ;  its  Power  and  Progress  [1851]   ....  711 

Trollope,  North  America  [1861] 715 

III.  The  Coming  of  the  Immigrants. 

Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [1S60] 719 

Von  Raumer,  America  and  the  American  People  [1845] 724 

Grattan,  Civilized  America  [1859J 726 

IV.  The  Rise  of  Corporations. 

Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Economy 727 

Seaman,  Essays  on  the  Progress  of  Nations  [1852] 729 

De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1841] 730 

Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy  [1856] 733 

Raymond,  Elements  of  Political  Economy  [1819] 735 


X 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE   ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 


Introduction  by  the  Editor 738 

I.  The  Origin  of  Slavery  in  the  New  World. 

Wakefield,  A  View  of  the  Art  of  Colonization  [1S51] 742 

Weston,  The  Progress  of  Slavery  [1857] 748 

Hammond,  Letters  [to  Clarkson]  on  Slavery,  1845 75^ 

II.  Economic  Advantages  and  Disadvantages  of  Slavery. 

Cairnes,  The- Slave  Power  [1861] 752 

Hildreth,  Despotism  in  America  [1854] 757 

IIL<  Competition  of  the  Planters  and  Farmers   fur  the  Cotton 

Fields. 

Weston,  The  Progress  of  Slavery  [1857] 760 

Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina  [1808] 763 

Michaux,  Travels   to   the   Westward   of   the    Alleghany    Mountains 

[1802]       764 

Olmsted,  Seaboard  Slave  States  [1856] 765 

Olmsted,  A  Journey  in  the  Back  Country  [i860] 767 

IV.   Influence  of  Slavery  on  Southern  Society. 

Olmsted,  The  Cotton  Kingdom  [1861] 768 

Olmsted,  A  Journey  through  Texas  [1857] 775 

Mrs.  Stowe,  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  [1853]        779 

Hundley,  Social  Relations  in  our  Southern  States  [1860] 781 

De  Bow,  Manufactures  in  the  South  and  West,  in  Industrial  Resources 

of  the  Southern  and  Western  States  [1852] 785 

Helper,  The  Impending  Crisis  [1859] 79^ 


xviii  CONTENTS 

Page 

V.  Economic  Advantages  of  Slavery  to  the  North. 

Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1834] 793 

VI.  Strength  and  Weakness  ok  Slavery  in  the  United  States. 

Cairnes,  The  Slave  Power  [1861] 796 

De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1S36] 797 

Olmsted,  A  Journey  in  the  Back  Country  [i860] 800 

Weston,  The  Progress  of  Slavery  [1857] 801 

De  Bow,  Industrial  Resources  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States 

[1852]       807 

Stirling,  Letters  from  the  Slave  States  [1857] 807 

The  Effect  of  .Secession  upon  the  Commercial  Relations  between  the 

North  and  South  [1861]       812 

Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1834J 817 


ECONOMIC    HISTORY  OF 
THE    UNITED    STATES 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  THE  ECONOMIC  HISTORY 
OF  THE  WORLD 

1  This  countiy  is  not  a  second  edition  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
repubhcs  ;  it  is  a  gigantic  commercial  house,  which  owns  its  wheat- 
fields  in  the  Northwest,  its  cotton,  rice  and  tobacco  plantations  in 
the  South,  which  maintains  its  sugar  works,  its  establishments  for 
salting  provisions,  and  some  beginnings  of  manufactures,  which 
has  its  harbours  in  the  Northeast  thronged  with  fine  ships,  well 
built  and  better  manned,  by  means  of  which  it  undeitakes  to  carry 
for  the  world,  and  to  speculate  on  the  wants  of  all  nations.  .   .  . 

2  When  we  come  to  inquire  what  part  our  own  country  has  taken, 
and  what  contribution  it  has  made  in  building  up  this  science  [polit- 
ical economy],  we  are  struck  at  the  outset  by  the  fact  that  the 
growth  of  the  United  States  has  been  a  circumstance  of  prime  im- 
portance in  the  economic  history  of  the  world  during  the  centur)\ 
It  must  be  placed  in  the  same  rank  with  the  brilliant  succession 
of  discoveries  in  the  industrial  arts,  or  with  the  extensive  improve- 
ment of  government  and  social  organizations-,  as  one  of  the  half- 
dozen  great  influences  which  have  changed  the  face  of  the  civilized 
world.  Without  entering  into  the  details  of  a  comparison,  to  which 
every  reader  is  likely  to  have  his  attention  sufficiently  drawn  during 
the  present  year  [1876],  we  may  here  note  a  few  of  the  facts  which 

1  Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States. 

2  Dunbar, "Economic  Science  in  America,  1 776-1 S76,"  ^\ <;;-///  American  Rez'iev.<, 
January,  1876;  reprinted  in  Economic  Essays. 

I 


2        THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ECONOMIC  HISTORY 

have  given  to  the  development  of  this  country  so  great  an  influ- 
ence upon  that  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  Beginning  with  the  state- 
ment of  mere  area,  the  organized  states  of  the  Union  now  occupy 
a  territory  larger  than  the  whole  of  Europe,  outside  of  the  Russian 
Empire.  The  improved  land  of  these  states,  measuring  two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-five  thousand  square  miles  in  1870,  cannot  be 
much  less  than  the  total  improved  surface  of  England  and  Ireland, 
France  and  Prussia,  together.  Of  this  vast  field  of  production, 
we  may  fairly  say  that  the  whole  has  been  brought  into  the  circle 
of  international  exchanges  and  added  to  the  available  resources 
of  mankind  within  this  century,  so  insignificant  were  its  relations 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Moreover,  the  products  to  which  this  territory  is  adapted  by  nature 
are  such  as  have  a  singularly  direct  and  important  bearing  on  the 
welfare  of  other  countries.  How  great  an  industrial  revolution 
has  been  wrought  by  cotton,  and  what  the  nineteenth  century 
would  be  without  that  fibre,  of  which  we  produce  more  than  half 
of  all  that  comes  to  the  markets  of  Europe  and  America,  it  would 
be  hard  to  say  ;  but  the  memory  of  our  Civil  War  is  still  fresh 
enough  to  tell  us  what  universal  disaster  must  follow  the  intermp- 
tion  of  our  supply,  and  what  a  chain  of  consequences,  involving 
the  well-being,  the  peace,  the  institutions,  and  even  liberty  of  mil- 
lions of  men,  have  followed  from  the  addition  of  the  cotton-plant 
to  the  agricultural  products  of  the  South.  Of  different  but  hardly 
inferior  significance  in  the  economy  of  the  world  is  our  supply  of 
gold.  The  astonishing  expansion  of  industry  and  commerce  for 
which  the  close  of  the  wars  of  Napoleon  seems  to  have  given  the 
signal,  which  has  stimulated  and  been  stimulated  by  our  growth, 
is  one  of  the  great  phenomena  in  the  history  of  mankind.  This 
expansion,  however,  must  have  been  checked  at  the  most  critical 
period,  had  not  fresh  discoveries  of  gold  supplied  the  enlarged 
medium  of  exchange  required  by  the  new  scale  of  transactions  ; 
and  of  this  series  of  discoveries,  the  second  in  importance  in  re- 
corded history,  California  made  one  of  the  chief  and  also  the 
earliest.  From  that  time  the  United  States  have  continued  to  be 
the  first  in  importimce  of  the  sources  of  gold  ;  and  were  this  our 
only  economic  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  influence  of 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ECONOMIC   HISTORY  3 

our  rise  as  a  nation  upon  the  general  well-being  must  be  admitted 
to  be  direct  and  powerful  in  an  extraordinaiy  degree. 

Tobacco,  one  of  our  earliest  staples  for  export,  has  become  not 
only  an  article  of  great  moment  in  the  revenue  systems  of  several 
leading  nations,  but  stands  in  a  peculiar  relation  as  one  of  the 
few  luxuries  which  enters  largely  into  the  consumption  of  the 
poorer  classes  of  all  countries,  thus  requiring,  as  it  were,  a  social 
importance  far  beyond  its  simple  pecuniary  value.  And  of  tobacco, 
the  United  States  are  now  the  leading  source  of  supply  for  I'mg- 
land,  France  and  Germany.  To  turn  from  this  to  petroleum,  one 
of  our  newest  staple  articles  of  export,  and  now  the  third  or  fourth 
in  importance  on  our  list,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  to  the  majority 
even  the  ludicrous  incidents  of  the  discovery  do  not  continue  to 
be  more  familiar  than  the  reflection  that  by  the  timely  introduction 
of  a  cheap  and  excellent  artificial  light  an  immense  boon  was  con- 
ferred upon  a  large  part  of  the  civilized  world.  And  last  among 
those  economically  important  natural  products  to  which  we  shall 
refer  are  the  cereals.  Our  capacity  for  the  supply  of  these,  although 
of  secondary  importance  in  the  markets  of  other  countries,  has 
made  it  possible  for  us  to  sustain  an  increase  of  population  which, 
for  years,  has  been  cited  as  the  standard  example  of  maximum 
natural  growth.  This  abundance  of  cheap  food  has  also  made  it 
for  our  interest,  simultaneously  with  this  rapid  natural  increase  of 
numbers,  to  invite  from  the  Old  World  an  immigration  on  a  scale 
so  vast  as  to  constitute  in  itself  an  economic  phenomenon  of  no 
mean  order,  the  result  being  the  relief  of  the  older  countries  from 
a  serious,  if  not  dangerous,  pressure  of  numbers,  by  the  transfer 
to  our  shores  of  more  than  nine  millions  of  people,  or  a  number 
equal  to  the  whole  population  of  Great  Britain  at  the  date  of  our 
independence.  And  the  population  thus  established  on  our  soil, 
whether  native  born  or  of  immediate  foreign  extraction,  has  proved 
to  be  no  inert  mass,  but,  from  the  start,  has  been  active  and  reso- 
lute to  a  fault,  in  improving  all  material  advantages  and  in  pushing 
its  way  to  a  place  among  the  great  powers  of  the  modern  world. 
Mineral  resources  of  remarkable  variety,  and  of  extent  not  even 
yet  fully  measured,  together  with  fortunate  conditions  of  physical 
geography,  have  seconded  these  efforts  and  often  enabled  us  to 


4         THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ECONOMIC  HISTORY 

enter  into  sharp  competition  with  the  longer  estabhshed  industries 
of  Europe.  To  excellent  natural  facilities  for  communication  has 
been  added  a  railway  system  of  seventy-five  thousand  miles,  being 
Httle  less  than  half  the  railway  mileage  of  the  world,  and  going 
far  to  neutralize  the  disadvantages  of  great  distances,  which,  in 
some  directions,  threatened  to  hamper  our  growth,  A  mercantile 
marine,  which  even  in  its  present  depressed  condition  is  not  far 
short  of  the  greatest  on  the  ocean,  and  is  of  nearly  double  the 
magnitude  of  its  next  competitor,  helps  in  part  to  connect  this 
vast  internal  network  with  the  general  commercial  system  of  the 
world.  So  great,  however,  is  the  volume  of  our  exchanges  with 
other  countries,  that  scarcely  one-third  of  it  is  transported  by  our 
own  shipping.  With  the  mother-country,  especially,  our  commerce 
has  grown,  until  it  overshadows  that  of  eveiy  other  nation  with 
whom  she  carries  on  a  trade  either  of  export  or  of  import.  What 
a  growth  this  has  been  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  steam-tonnage 
now  annually  cleared  for  New  York  alone  from  the  United  King- 
dom exceeds  the  total  tonnage  of  ships  annually  cleared  for  all 
parts  of  the  world  down  to  the  close  of  our  Revolution, 

In  the  process  of  development  indicated  by  these  few  leading 
facts,  the  United  States,  by  a  natural  and  steady  though  rapid 
movement,  have  taken  among  commercial  nations  a  place  not  lower 
than  the  second,  and  likely  soon  to  become  the  first,  —  the  second 
or  first  place  it  must  be  remembered,  in  a  changed  world,  and  in  a 
scale  of  magnitudes  hardly  comparable  with  those  of  1776,  We 
have  advanced  to  the  front  among  competitors  who  were  themselves 
all  rapidly  advancing.  But,  with  improved  facilities  for  intercourse, 
the  economic  ties  between  countries  have  been  vastly  multipled  and 
strengthened,  and  to  hold  a  leading  position  in  commerce  now 
implies  a  direct  connection  with  the  progress  of  others  and  with 
their  material  well-being,  immeasurably  closer  than  has  tver  existed 
before.  Every  fresh  conquest  over  nature  made  by  us  belongs  to 
the  family  of  nations  also,  and  every  loss  suffered  by  us  is  also  their 
loss.  Infinite  mutually  dependent  interests  unite  us  with  Europe 
and  with  the  very  antipodes.  Every  pulsation  in  the  financial 
system  is  felt  alike  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic.  A  crisis  in  Lon- 
don has  its  instant  counterpart  here,  and  the  great  revulsions  which 


THE  UNITED  STATES   IN    ECONOMIC   HISTORY         5 

periodically  sweep  over  the  commercial  world  may  begin,  alm(xst  as 
chance  may  dictate,  in  New  York  or  in  Vienna. 

The  value  of  the  triumphs  of  material  development  achieved  by 
the  United  States  is  not  to  be  underrated.  They  represent  but  one 
side  of  human  progress,  but  their  influence  on  interests  of  a  higher 
order  is  immediate  and  powerful.  The  world  cannot  yet  dispense 
with  the  stimulus  which  the  search  for  wealth  gives  to  some  of  the 
pursuits  and  institutions  which  most  elevate  and  ennoble  civilized 
life.  Doubtless  Carlyle  is  right  when  he  says  that  "'  America's 
battle  is  yet  to  fight.  .  .  .  Their  quantity  of  cotton,  dollars,  indus- 
try, and  resources  I  believe  to  be  almost  unspeakable  ;  but  I  can  by 
no  means  worship  the  like  of  these."  But  these  have  been  one  of 
the  great  factors  in  producing  whatever  of  progress  and  hope  the 
world  has  gained  in  our  age.  If  not  to  be  worshipped,  they  are 
still  not  to  be  despised,  for  from  them  comes,  as  must  be  admitted, 
much  that  is  itself  worshipful.  Even  our  merely  material  growth 
may  then  fairly  be  a  subject  of  pride,  so  long  as  we  remember  that 
it  is  itself  only  the  means  for  higher  ends. 


CHAPTER  II 

COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

INTRODUCTION 

The  most  important  feature  of  economic  life  in  a  colony  or  newly  settled 
community  is  its  commercial  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Upon  this 
more  than  upon  any  other  circumstance  depends  its  prosperity.  It  may  be 
true,  as  a  general  rule,  that  "  the  colony  of  a  civilized  country  which  takes 
possession  of  a  waste  country  or  one  so  thinly  inhabited,  that  the  natives  easily 
give  place  to  the  new  settlers,  advances  more  rapidly  in  wealth  and  greatness 
than  any  other  human  society."^  But  this  progress  does  not  take  place  unless 
the  colony  possesses  markets,  where  it  can  dispose  of  its  staple  products.  The 
history  of  modern  colonization  does  not  show  a  single  case  where  a  newly  set- 
tled country  has  enjoyed  any  considerable  economic  prosperity,  or  made  not- 
able social  progress,  without  a  flourishing  commerce  with  other  communities. 
This  dominance  of  foreign  commerce  in  economic  affairs  may  be  considered 
the  most  characteristic  feature  of  colonial  economy. 

Why  this  is  so  will  be  apparent  if  we  consider  briefly  economic  conditions  in 
new  countries.  The  only  marked  advantage  in  the  production  of  wealth,  which 
such  communities  possess  over  old  ones,  lies  in  their  rich  natural  resources. 
In  all  other  respects  they  are  likely  to  be  at  a  disadvantage  rather  than  other- 
wise. Their  labor,  considered  as  a  separate  factor  of  production,  is  not  more 
productive  than  that  of  older  communities.  The  knowledge  of  the  arts  is  likely 
to  be  less  and  the  difficulty  of  combining  and  organizing  labor,  amounting  in 
many  colonies  to  practical  impossibility,  more  than  counterbalances  the  superi- 
ority of  energy,  which  the  inhabitants  of  a  new  country  may  possess.  In  all 
industries,  where  the  economies  of  production  on  a  large  scale  are  great,  the 
efficiency  of  laboi  is  therefore  low.  These  include  nearly  all  industries  except 
certain  branches  of  agriculture.  Then  too  the  outfit  of  capital  in  a  new  country, 
by  means  of  which  its  labor  is  applied  to  the  natural  resources,  is  sure  to  be  far 
inferior  to  that  of  older  countries,  whose  inhabitants  are  of  the  same  grade  of 
civilization.  This  is  true  even  in  recent  times,  when  new  countries  are  able  to 
borrow  largely,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century  when  they  had  to  accumulate 
nearly  all  their  capital  by  the  slow  process  of  saving  from  their  own  industry, 
this  difference  was  vastly  greater.  Under  these  conditions  it  is  clear  that  to 
advance  rapidly  in  the  production  of  wealth  new  countries  must  devote  their 

1  Wealth  of  Nations,  lik.  IV,  ch.  vii. 
6 


INTRODUCTION  7 

labor  chiefly  to  those  extractive  industries,  in  which  they  can  utilize  their  rich 
natural  resources.  But  to  do  this  they  must  be  able  to  find  markets  in  other 
communities,  where  they  can  exchange  the  products  of  these  industries  for  all 
the  other  forms  of  wealth  they  may  require,  or  where  they  can  secure  money 
on  credit  with  which  to  purchase  them  in  still  other  communities.  Without 
these  markets  their  one  great  economic  advantage,  rich  natural  resources,  can- 
not be  utilized.  These  may  enable  the  inhabitants  to  .satisfy  their  primary  and 
immediate  wants  with  litde  labor,  and  to  easily  maintain  a  state  of  society, 
where  rude  comfort  is  universal  and  actual  want  unknown.  But  these  very 
conditions  render  it  still  more  difficult  than  in 'old  countries  to  provide  the  only 
substitute  for  foreign  markets,  i.e.  a  home  market,  —  industries  which  will  take 
the  extractive  products,  and  give  all  kinds  of  manufactures  in  return.  PVanklin, 
who  knew  colonial  conditions  well,  declared  that  "  no  man,  who  can  have  a 
piece  of  land  of  his  own,  sufficient  by  his  labor  to  subsist  his  family  in  plenty, 
is  poor  enough  to  be  a  manufacturer,  and  work  for  a  master."  Especially  is 
this  true,  if  every  one  in  the  community  is  accustomed  to  the  simple,  rude  life 
of  the  frontier,  and  land  ownership  be  the  object  of  universal  ambition.  If  such 
a  community  has  no  foreign  trade,  domestic  manufactures  will  flourish  and 
many  small  industries  will  spring  up  which  satisfy  the  most  pressing  wants  and 
require  little  combination  of  labor.  Such  are  saw  and  grist  mills,  iron  forges, 
black-smith  shops  and  the  making  of  cabinet  ware,  wagons,  harness,  boots  and 
shoes  and  such  necessary  articles  of  universal  use.  These  industries  on  a 
small  scale  always  thrive  on  the  frontier;  but  beyond  this  development  is  slow 
and  difficult  and  may  not  take  place  at  all. 

The  obstacles  to  social  progress  are  equally  great.  The  population  is  dis- 
persed over  a  wide  area ;  towns  and  cities  do  not  grow,  for  these  are  the 
creation  of  trade  and  industry;  no  wealthy  class  with- new  wants  to  satisfy 
develops ;  the  whole  population  becomes  accustomed  to  the  simple,  easy  con- 
ditions of  life,  and  there  is  small  incentive  to  strive  to  change  them.  Indeed 
if  a  community  remains  for  several  generations  in  such  condition,  .social  deteri- 
oration instead  of  social  progress  may  result.  Such  examples  of  arrested  social 
development  are  not  prominent  in  colonial  history,  because  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  the  world  knows  litde  about  such  communities  and  cares  less.  But 
they  are  not  entirely  lacking.  The  mountain  population  of  the  south  and  the 
Boers  of  South  Africa  show  how  commercial  isolation  for  several  generations 
may  influence  the  social  evolution  of  a  colony.  Foreign  markets  therefore  and 
foreign  trade  are  absolutely  vital  elements  in  ihe  economic  prosperity  as  well 
as  the  social  progress  of  new  communities. 

The  American  colonies  were  fortunate  during  the  greater  part  of  their  his- 
tory in  possessing  this  prime  requisite  of  prosperity.  The  principal  products 
of  the  New  World,  for  which  there  was  a  demand  in  Europe,  were  the  precious 
metals,  sugar,  tobacco  and  cocoa,  the  cereals,  rice  and  wheat,  fishery  products 
and  furs,  several  dyestuffs  like  indigo,  logwood  and  cochineal,  timber  and  the 
naval  stores,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine  and  masts.     It  was  the  production  of  these 


8  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

commodities  that  furnished  the  economic  basis  of  profitable  colonization. 
America  was  practically  the  only  source  of  supply  of  the  first  three  articles  and 
all  Europe  was  eager  to  import  them.  There  were  other  sources  of  supply  for 
the  rest  of  them  either  in  the  East  or  in  Europe  itself ;  but  for  various  reasons 
the  American  product  found  a  ready  market.  Thus  furs  and  dyewoods  were  in 
demand  almost  everywhere,  because  they  were  scarce  and  difficult  to  get.  The 
Mediterranean  countries  were  compelled  to  import  a  portion  of  their  food 
supply  in  the  shape  of  fish  and  cereals,  especially  rice.  Western  Europe  was 
dependent  upon  the  Baltic  for  timber  and  naval  stores,  and,  as  the  rivalry  in 
sea  power  became  more  intense,  the  development  of  an  American  supply  was  a 
welcome  relief.  Directly  or  indirectly  the  Thirteen  Colonies  shared  in  the  sup- 
ply of  all  these  products  except  the  precious  metals.  By  far  the  most  important 
single  product,  which  they  sold  directly  to  Europe,  was  tobacco.  Rice  and  fish 
with  some  flour  were  sent  to  the  Mediterranean.  Naval  stores,  fishery  prod- 
ucts, furs  and  indigo  went  to  the  mother-country.  For  all  the  colonies  north  of 
Maryland,  however,  this  European  market  was  very  small  and  quite  inadequate 
to  support  any  considerable  economic  growth.  Additional  markets  must  be 
found  elsewhere  outside  of  Europe.  They  were  found  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  were  created  there  by  the  development  of  the  sugar  industry  with  slave 
labor.  With  the  increasing  demand  for  that  commodity  in  Europe  its  produc- 
tion became  almost  as  profitable  as  that  of  the  precious  metals.  The  northern 
colonies  were  able  to  share  in  the  production  of  this  valuable  commodity  by 
providing  the  planters  with  food,  timber  and  other  supplies.  It  was  the  West 
India  trade  more  than  anything  else,  which  enabled  them  to  utilize  their  fish- 
eries, forests  and  fertile  soil;  that  built  up  their  towns  and  cities,  and  supplied 
cargoes  for  their  large  merchant  marine. 

There  are  two  other  features  of  colonial  economic  life  which  may  be  said  to 
be  characteristic  of  new  countries.  Since  they  have  both  played  a  great  part  in 
our  later  economic  history,  they  deserve  a  word  of  comment  here.  The  first  has 
already  been  alluded  to.  It  is  the  scarcity  of  labor  for  hire,  and  the  consequent 
difficulty  of  securing  what  Wakefield  called  "  combination  and  constancy  of 
labor  "  in  any  industry.  It  is  the  diflficulty  of  organizing  labor,  of  inducing  men 
to  labor  for  hire,  of  establishing  mastership  in  industry.  This  diflficulty  was  the 
root  of  the  system  of  negro  slavery  in  this  country,  and  was  also  responsible 
for  a  fully  developed  system  of  bond,  or  indentured,  servants  among  the  whites 
in  some  of  the  colonies.  The  facilities  for  emigration  in  our  own  time  have 
partially  solved  this  problem  of  new  countries,  but  have  not  entirely  removed 
it.  It  arises  from  the  existence  of  unoccupied  agricultural  land,  to  which  the 
emigrant  has  easy  access,  and  so  long  as  that  continues  in  a  new  country, 
the  relation  between  labor  and  capital  will  not  be  what  is  considered  normal  in 
older  countries.  The  other  characteristic  feature  of  colonial  life  is  the  existence 
of  currency  diflficulties,  and  the  disposition  to  make  use  of  some  form  of  cheap 
money,  usually  inconvertible  paper.  This  does  not  arise  from  any  exceptional 
ignorance  of  monetary  science  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants,  nor  to  a  dishonest 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADE       9 

desire  to  defraud  creditors,  but  is  the  natural  result  of  their  economic  situation. 
Given  a  demand  for  their  staple  products  from  other  communities,  their  most 
pressing  need  is  for  capital  to  aid  in  the  production  of  those  staples.  It  is  natural 
and  inevitable  that  they  should  resort  to  every  means  of  economizing  capital. 
The  use  of  paper  money,  or  commodities  like  furs,  or  ware-house  receipts,  — 
such  as  the  tobacco  notes  in  Virginia,  are  all  devices  of  this  kind.  Specie  is  no 
doubt  the  most  perfect  instrument  to  serve  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  but  it  is 
a  very  expensive  one,  and  a  new  country  may  for  some  time  be  too  poor  to 
afford  it.  The  same  necessity,  which  induces  the  inhabitants  to  use  inferior 
tools  of  husbandry,  induces  them  to  adopt  a  like  policy  with  regard  to  their 
currency.  It  was  not  economic  delusion  simply  that  caused  Franklin  and  Dick- 
inson to  regard  colonial  paper  money  with  favor  and  its  prohibition  by  the 
mother-country  as  an  act  of  tyranny.  Poor  as  the  paper  money  was,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, at  least,  it  seemed  to  them  more  economical  than  specie.  It  is  always  a 
question  how  far  the  losses  due  to  an  inferior  currency  outweigh  its  economies, 
and  in  a  new  country  men  are  always  prone  to  consider  that  question  and  test 
it  by  experience. 


I.    POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADE 
A.    General  Account 

^  The  soil  of  the  New-England  provinces  scarcely  furnishes  pro- 
visions sufficient  to  support  the  inhabitants.  Their  industry  has 
therefore  been  chiefly  directed  to  the  sea,  to  fishing,  navigation, 
and  the  various  branches  of  business  subservient  to  them.  The 
cod,  salmon,  mackerel,  sturgeon,  and  other  species  of  fish,  which  fre- 
quent their  coasts  and  their  rivers  in  prodigious  sholes,  afforded 
employment  to  great  numbers  in  taking,  curing,  and  packing  them. 
The  New-Englanders  also  frequented  the  banks  and  coasts  of 
Newfoundland  and  the  fishing  grounds  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence as  far  as  the  coasts  of  Labrador.  Besides  their  own  fishing 
they  procured  from  the  Newfoundland  fishermen  a  part  of  the 
fish  taken  by  them  in  exchange  for  rum  of  their  own  manufacture, 
and  other  articles  of  American  and  West-Indian  produce.  The 
fish,  after  being  sorted  in  their  harbours,  were  shipped  off  to  the 
countries,  for  which  each  quality  was  best  adapted.  The  best  were 
carried  to  the  southern  parts  of  Eurojje,  and  the  proceeds  were 
generally  remitted  to  Great  Britain  in  bills  of  exchange  to  pay  for 

1  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  III,  567-569. 


lO  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

the  goods  they  had  occasion  for.  A  small  quantity  of  the  hcst  fish 
was  also  brought  to  Britain  :  and  the  inferior  sorts  were  destined 
to  give  a  relish  to  the  plantains  and  yams,  which  constitute  the 
principal  part  of  the  food  of  the  negro  slaves  in  the  West-Indies, 
After  the  peace  of  1763  they  increased  their  whale  fishery  in  the 
seas  between  their  own  coasts  and  Labrador,  in  consequence  of  the 
encouragement  given  to  it  by  the  great  reduction  of  the  duties  on 
their  oil  and  whale  fins  (by  the  act  4  Geo.  Ill,  c.  29)  so  much, 
that  instead  of  80  or  90  sloops,  which  had  formerly  gone  upon  the 
whale  fishery,  they  employed  160  in  that  business  before  the  year 
1775  ;  and  the  other  branches  of  their  fishery  increased  in  the 
same  proportion.  In  addition  to  the  commerce  supported  by  the 
produce  of  their  fisheries,  they  drove  a  very  profitable  circuitous 
carrying  trade,  which  greatly  enriched  them,  and  supplied  most  of 
the  money,  which  circulated  among  them.  Besides  building  vessels 
for  the  service  of  their  own  commerce,  they  built  great  numbers, 
but  of  no  very  good  quality  of  wood  or  workmanship,  for  sale  :  and 
from  the  molasses,  which  they  had  brought  in  great  quantities  from 
the  West-Indies  (chiefly  from  the  French  islands)  they  distilled  a 
kind  of  rum,  which,  though  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  West- 
Indies,  was  very  acceptable  to  the  Indians,  who  joyfully  received 
it  in  exchange  for  their  furs  and  peltry.  They  also  found  a  great 
vent  for  it  among  their  own  fishermen  and  others  engaged  in  the 
Newfoundland  fishery  :  and  they  carried  considerable  quantities  of 
it  to  Africa  where  they  exchanged  it  for  slaves,  or  sold  it  to  the 
resident  European  slave-merchants  for  gold  dust,  ivory,  woods,  wax, 
and  gums.  The  candles  made  of  spermaceti,  furnished  by  their 
whale  fisher}^  formed  also  an  article  of  export  to  the  amount  of  three 
or  four  hundred  thousand  pound  weight  in  a  year,  besides  what  were 
consumed  upon  the  continent.  Their  exports  to  Great  Britain  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  fish  oil,  whale  bone  (or  fins),  masts  and  other  spars, 
to  which  were  added  several  raw  materials  for  manufactures  col- 
lected in  their  circuitous  trading  voyages,  and  a  balance  paid  in  for- 
eign gold  and  silver  coins.  In  short,  their  earnest  application  to 
fisheries  and  the  carrying  trade,  together  with  tlieir  unremitting 
attention  to  the  most  minute  article  which  could  be  made  to  yield  a 
profit,  obtained  them  the  appellation  of  tJie  Dutchmen  of  America. 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AM)  TRAD?:  n 

New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  have  a 
much  better  soil  than  that  of  the  New-l^ngland  provinces,  and 
they  produce  corn  and  cattle  of  all  kinds  in  great  abundance,  and 
also  hemp,  flax,  and  lumber ;  to  which  may  be  added  iron,  pot- 
ashes, and  pearl-ashes.  Their  exports  were  corn  of  all  kinds,  flour, 
and  bread,  in  great  quantities  ;  salted  provisions  of  all  sorts  ;  live 
stock,  including  horses,  horned  cattle,  hogs,  and  sheep,  and  all 
kinds  of  poultry  in  great  numbers  ;  flax,  and  hemp  ;  boards,  scant- 
ling, staves,  shingles,  and  wooden  houses  framed  and  ready  to  set 
up  ;  iron  in  pigs  and  bars  ;  and  vessels,  superior  in  workmanship  to 
those  of  New-England.  Their  chief  markets  for  these  commodities 
were  the  British  and  foreign  West-Indies,  Spain,  Portugal,  the 
Western  islands,  Madeira,  and  the  Canary  islands,  whence  they 
carried  home  the  produce  of  each  country  and  bullion.  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  received  from  them  iron,  hemp,  flax-seed, 
some  lumber,  and  skins  and  furs  the  produce  of  their  trade  with 
the  Indians ;  together  with  some  articles  of  their  imports  from 
other  provinces  and  from  foreign  countries  which  were  raw 
materials  for  British  manufactures,  and  bullion. 

Maryland  and  Virginia  almost  from  their  first  settlement  made 
tobacco  the  principal  object  of  their  culture,  and  it  long  continued 
to  constitute  the  most  valuable  export  of  British  America.  But  the 
quantity  of  tobacco  was  diminishing  in  these  provinces  for  many 
years  before  the  Revolution,  owing  to  the  soil  being  exhausted  by 
it ;  and  the  planters  had  turned  much  of  their  tobacco  land  to  the 
cultivation  of  wheat  and  other  grain.  Their  tobacco  could  by  law 
be  exported  only  to  Great  I^ritain  :  but  their  corn,  flour,  lumber, 
&c.,  were  carried  to  the  West-Indies  and  elsewhere. 

North  Carolina  produced  also  some  tobacco;  and  it  furnished 
pitch,  tar,  and  turpentine,  of  which  about  130,000  barrels  were 
annually  exported,  whereof  the  greatest  part  came  to  Britain.  The 
exports  to  the  West-Indies  consisted  mostly  of  salt  pork,  Indian  corn, 
peas,  &c.  But  the  foreign  trade  of  this  province  was  very  trifling  in 
proportion  to  its  great  extent,  and  even  to  the  quantity  of  its  pro- 
ductions, and  was  mostly  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants  of  the 
adjacent  provinces  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  and  of  the 
New-Englanders. 


12  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

In  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  rice  and  indigo  were  the  staple 
articles.  The  former  grows  on  the  marshy  grounds  near  the  coast, 
and  the  latter  on  the  dry  soil  of  the  inland  country.  The  planters 
had  for  some  time  applied  to  the  culture  of  tobacco  ;  and  they  made 
considerable  quantities  of  lumber.  Their  exports  consisted  of  these 
articles  ;  and  the  merchants  of  Charlestown  also  shipped  some  skins 
obtained  by  trade  with  the  neighbouring  Indians,  and  part  of  the 
produce  of  North  Carolina. 

B.    New  England 

^  There  is  not  one  of  our  settlements  which  can  be  compared,  in 
the  abundance  of  people,  the  number  of  considerable  and  trading 
towns,  and  the  manufactures  that  are  carried  on  in  them,  to  New 
England.  The  most  populous  and  flourishing  parts  of  the  mother 
country  hardly  make  a  better  appearance.  Our  provinces  to  the 
Southward  on  this  continent  are  recommendable  for  the  generous 
warmth  of  the  climate,  and  a  luxuriance  of  soil  which  naturally 
throws  up  a  vast  variety  of  beautiful  and  rich  vegetable  produc- 
tions ;  but  New  England  is  the  first  in  America,  for  cultivation,  for 
the  number  of  people,  and  for  the  order  which  results  from  both. 

Though  there  are  in  all  the  provinces  of  New  England  large 
towns  which  drive  a  considerable  trade,  the  only  one  which  can 
deserve  to  be  much  insisted  upon  in  a  design  like  ours,  is  Boston ; 
the  capital  of  Massachusetts  bay,  the  first  city  of  New  England, 
and  of  all  North  America. 

2  The  province  of  Rhode  Island  is  divided  into  counties  and 
townships ;  of  the  former  there  are  four  or  five,  but  they  are 
exceedingly  small ;  of  the  latter  between  twenty  and  thirty ;  the 
towns  themselves  are  inconsiderable  villages  :  however  they  send 
members  to  the  assembly,  in  the  whole  about  seventy.  The  num- 
ber of  inhabitants,  with  Negroes,  and  Indians,  of  which  in  this 
province  there  are  several  hundreds,  amounts  to  35,000.  As  the 
province  affords  but  few  commodities  for  exportation  ;    horses, 

1  Burke,  European  Settlements  in  America  [1761]  II,  171-172. 

2  Hurnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  America  [1759- 
1760],  pp- 93-94,  104-106,  1 1 5-1 16. 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADE      13 

provisions,  and  an  inconsiderable  quantity  of  grain,  with  spermaceti 
candles,  being  the  chief  articles  ;  they  are  obliged  to  Connecticut, 
and  the  neighbouring  colonies,  for  most  of  their  traffic  ;  and  by 
their  means  they  carry  on  an  extensive  trade.  Their  mode  of  com- 
merce is  this  ;  they  trade  to  Great  Britain,  tlolland,  Africa,  the 
West  Indies,  and  the  neighbouring  colonies  ;  from  each  of  which 
places  they  import  the  following  articles  ;  from  Great  l^ritain,  dry 
goods  ;  from  Holland,  money  ;  from  Africa,  slaves  ;  from  the  West 
Indies,  sugars,  coffee,  and  molasses  ;  and  from  the  neighbouring 
colonies,  lumber  and  provisions  :  and  with  what  they  purchase  in 
one  place  they  make  their  returns  in  another.  Thus  with  the 
money  they  get  in  Holland,  they  pay  their  merchants  in  London ; 
the  sugars  they  procure  in  the  West  Indies,  they  carry  to  Holland  ; 
the  slaves  they  fetch  from  Africa  they  send  to  the  West  Indies, 
together  with  lumber  and  provisions,  which  they  get  from  the 
neighbouring  colonies  :  the  rum  that  they  distil  they  export  to 
Africa ;  and  with  the  dry  goods,  which  they  purchase  in  London, 
they  traffick  in  the  neighbouring  colonies.  By  this  kind  of  circular 
commerce  they  subsist  and  grow  rich.  They  have  besides  these 
some  other  inconsiderable  branches  of  trade,  but  nothing  worth 
mentioning.  They  have  very  few  manufactures  ;  they  distil  rum 
and  make  spermaceti  candles  ;  but  in  the  article  of  dry  goods,  they 
are  far  behind  the  people  of  New  York  and  Pensylvania.  .  .  . 

The  number  of  souls  in  this  province  (Massachusetts)  is  supposed 
to  amount  to  200,000  ;  and  40,000  of  them  to  be  capable  of  bear- 
ing arms.  They  carry  on  a  considerable  traffick,  chiefly  in  the 
manner  of  the  Rhode-Islanders  ;  but  have  some  material  articles 
for  exportation,  which  the  Rhode-Islanders  have  not,  except  in  a 
very  trifling  degree  :  these  are  salt  fish,  and  vessels.  Of  the  latter 
they  build  annually  a  great  number,  and  send  them,  laden  with 
cargoes  of  the  former  to  Great  Britain,  where  they  sell  them.  They 
clear  out  from  Boston,  Salem,  Marblehead,  and  the  different  ports 
in  this  province,  yearly,  about  70,284  ton  of  shipping,  lixclusive 
of  these  articles,  their  manufactures  are  not  large  ;  those  of  spirits, 
fish-oil,  and  iron,  are,  I  believe,  the  most  considerable.  They 
fabricate  beaver-hats,  which  they  sell  for  a  moidore  a-piece  ;  and 
some  years  ago   they  erected  a   manufactoiy,  with  a   design  to 


14 


COLONIAL  ECONOMY 


encourage  the  Irish  settlers  to  make  hnens  ;  but  at  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  the  price  of  labour  was  inhanced  so  much,  that  it 
was  impossible  to  carry  it  on.  Like  the  rest  of  the  colonies  they 
also  endeavour  to  make  woollens ;  but  they  have  not  yet  been  able 
to  bring  them  to  any  degree  of  perfection  ;  indeed  it  is  an  article 
in  which  I  think  they  will  not  easily  succeed  ;  for  the  American 
wool  is  not  only  coarse,  but  in  comparison  of  the  linglish,  exceed- 
ingly short.  Upon  the  best  inquiiy  I  could  make,  1  was  not  able 
to  discover  that  any  one  had  ever  seen  a  staple  of  American  wool 
longer  than  seven  inches  ;  whereas  in  the  counties  of  Lincoln  and 
Leicester,  they  are  frequently  twenty-two  inches  long.  In  the  south- 
ern colonies,  at  least  in  those  parts  where  I  travelled,  there  is  scarcely 
any  herbage ;  and  whether  it  is  owing  to  this,  or  to  the  excessive 
heats,  I  am  ignorant,  the  wool  is  short  and  hairy.  The  northern 
colonics  have  indeed  greater  plenty  of  herbage,  but  are  for  some 
months  covered  with  snow  ;  and  without  a  degree  of  attention  and 
care  in  housing  the  sheep,  and  guarding  them  against  accidents, 
and  wild  beasts,  which  would  not  easily  be  compensated,  it  would 
be  very  difficult  to  increase  their  numbers  to  any  great  amount. 
The  Americans  seem  conscious  of  this  fact,  and,  notwithstanding 
a  very  severe  prohibition,  contrive  to  procure  from  Lngland,  every 
year  a  considerable  number  of  rams,  in  order  to  improve  and  multi- 
ply the  breed.  What  the  lands  beyond  the  Alleghenny  and  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Ohio  may  be,  I  do  not  know  ;  they  are  said  to  be 
very  rich  :  but  the  climate  I  believe  is  not  less  severe  ;  and  I  think, 
upon  collating  different  accounts,  that  the  severity  of  heat  and  cold 
is  not  much  abated  by  cultivation.  The  air  becomes  dryer  and  more 
wholesome,  in  proportion  as  the  woods  are  cut  down,  and  the  ground 
is  cleared  and  cultivated  ;  but  the  cold  is  not  less  piercing,  nor  the 
snow  less  frequent.  I  think  therefore  upon  the  whole,  that  America, 
though  it  may  with  particular  care  and  attention,  produce  small  quan- 
tities of  tolerably  good  wool,  will  yet  never  be  able  to  produce  it  in 
such  plenty  and  of  such  a  quality  as  to  serve  for  the  necessary  con- 
sumption of  its  inhabitants.   .  .  . 

The  capital  of  this  province  [New  Hampshire]  is  Portsmouth, 
which  is  situated  upon  the  river  :  it  is  an  inconsiderable  place,  and 
chiefly  built  of  wood.    Very  little  can  be  said  of  the  province  of 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND    IRADE  15 

New  Hampshire,  materially  different  from  what  has  been  said  of 
Massachusetts  J^ay.  —  The  climate,  produce,  trade,  government,  re- 
ligion, and  manners  of  it  are  much  the  same.  —  There  are  supposed 
to  be  about  40,000  inhabitants,  8,000  militia,  and  6  or  700  pro- 
vincial troops.  —  There  are  only  two  missionaries  of  the  church  of 
England,  and  one  of  these  has  lately  applied  to  be  removed  to 
Rhode  Island.  —  The  chief  articles  for  exportation  are  fish,  cattle, 
ships,  of  which  they  annually  build  near  200,  and  masts  for  the 
royal  navy.  These  are  made  of  the  white  pine,  and  are,  I  believe, 
the  finest  in  the  world,  many  of  them  being  forty  yards  long,  and 
as  many  inches  in  diameter.  They  never  cut  them  down  but  in 
times  of  deep  snow,  as  it  would  be  impossible  in  an)'  other  season 
to  get  them  down  to  the  river.  When  the  trees  are  fallen,  they 
yoke  seventy  or  eighty  pair  of  oxen,  and  drag  them  along  the  snow. 
It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  put  them  first  into  motion,  which  they 
call  raising  them  ;  and  when  they  have  once  effected  this,  they  never 
stop  upon  any  account  whatsoever  till  they  arrive  at  the  waters  side. 
Frequently  some  of  the  oxen  are  taken  ill  ;  upon  which  they  im- 
mediately cut  them  out  of  the  gears  ;  and  are  sometimes  obliged, 
I  was  told,  to  destroy  five  or  six  pair  of  them.  —  The  forests,  where 
these  masts  grow,  are  reserved  to  the  crown,  which  appoints  a  sur- 
veyor of  them  ;  who  is  commonly  the  governor  of  this  province. 
This  is  not  the  only  expedient  employed  by  government  for  the 
preservation  of  such  trees  as  may  be  of  use  for  the  ro\'al  navy  ; 
for  there  is  an  act  of  parliament,  I  believe,  which  prohibits,  under 
pain  of  certain  fines  and  penalties,  the  cutting  down,  or  destroying 
of  any  white  pine-tree,  of  specified  dimensions,  not  growing  within 
the  boundaries  of  any  township,  without  his  majesty's  licence,  in 
any  of  the  provinces  of  New  England,  New  York,  or  New  Jersey  : 
a  restriction  absolutely  necessary,  whether  considered  as  securing 
a  provision  for  the  navy,  or  as  a  check  upon  that  ver)'  destructive 
practice,  taken  from  the  Indians,  of  fire-hunting.   .  .  . 


1 6  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 


C.    Middle  Colonies 


^  New  York  probably  carries  on  a  more  extensive  commerce, 
than  any  town  in  the  Enghsh  North  American  provinces  ;  at  least 
it  may  be  said  to  equal  them  :  Boston  and  Philadelphia  however 
come  very  near  up  to  it.  The  trade  of  New  York  extends  to  many 
places,  and  it  is  said  they  send  more  ships  from  thence  to  London, 
than  they  do  from  Philadelphia.  They  export  to  that  capital  all 
the  various  sorts  of  skins  which  they  buy  of  the  Indians,  sugar, 
logwood,  and  other  dying  woods,  rum,  mahogany,  and  many  other 
goods  which  are  the  produce  of  the  West  Indies  ;  together  with 
all  the  specie  which  they  get  in  the  course  of  trade.  Every  year 
they  build  several  ships  here,  which  are  sent  to  London,  and  there 
sold  ;  and  of  late  years  they  have  shipped  a  quantity  of  iron  to 
England.  In  return  for  these,  they  import  from  London  stuffs 
and  every  other  article  of  English  growth  or  manufacture,  together 
with  all  sorts  of  foreign  goods.  England,  and  especially  London, 
profits  immensely  by  its  trade  with  the  American  colonies  ;  for  not 
only  New  York,  but  likewise  all  the  other  English  towns  on  the 
continent,  import  so  many  articles  from  England,  that  all  their 
specie,  together  with  the  goods  which  they  get  in  other  countries, 
must  altogether  go  to  Old  England,  in  order  to  pay  the  amount, 
to  which  they  are  however  insufficient.  From  hence  it  appears 
how  much  a  well  regulated  colony  contributes  to  the  increase  and 
welfare  of  its  mother  countiy. 

New  York  sends  many  ships  to  the  West  Indies,  with  flour, 
corn,  biscuit,  timber,  tuns,  boards,  flesh,  fish,  butter,  and  other 
provisions ;  together  with  some  of  the  few  fruits  that  grow  here. 
Many  ships  go  to  Boston  in  New  England,  with  corn  and  flour, 
and  take  in  exchange,  flesh,  butter,  timber,  different  sorts  of  fish, 
and  other  articles,  which  they  carry  further  to  the  West  Indies. 
They  now  and  then  take  rum  from  thence,  which  is  distilled  there 
in  great  quantities,  and  sell  it  here  with  a  considerable  advantage. 
Sometimes  they  send  yachts  with  goods  from  New  York  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  at  other  times  yachts  are  sent  from  Philadelphia  to 

^  Kalm,  Travels  into  North  America  [1749],  I,  253-258,  237,  238,  240,  243-245, 
31.  49-50- 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADE      17 

New  York  ;  which  is  only  done,  as  appears  from  the  gazettes,  be- 
cause certiiin  articles  are  cheaper  at  one  place  than  at  the  other. 
They  send  ships  to  keland  every  year,  laden  with  all  kinds  of 
West  India  goods  ;  but  especially  with  linseed,  which  is  reaped  in 
this  province.  I  have  been  assured,  that  in  some  years  no  less  than 
ten  ships  have  been  sent  to  Ireland,  laden  with  nothing  but  linseed  ; 
because  it  is  said  the  flax  in  Ireland  does  not  afford  good  seed. 
But  probably  the  true  reason  is  this  :  the  people  of  Ireland,  in 
order  to  have  the  better  flax,  make  use  of  the  plant  before  the  seed 
is  ripe,  and  therefore  are  obliged  to  send  for  foreign  seed  ;  and 
hence  it  becomes  one  of  the  chief  articles  in  trade. 

At  this  time  a  bushel  of  linseed  is  sold  for  eight  shillings  of 
New  York  currency,  or  exactly  a  piece  of  eight. 

The  goods  which  are  shipped  to  the  West  Indies,  are  some- 
times paid  for  with  ready  money,  and  sometimes  with  West  India 
goods,  which  are  either  first  brought  to  New  York,  or  immediately 
sent  to  England  or  Holland.  If  a  ship  does  not  chuse  to  take  in 
West  India  goods  in  its  return  to  New  York,  or  if  no  body  will 
freight  it,  it  often  goes  to  Newcastle  in  England,  to  take  in  coals 
for  ballast,  which  when  brought  home  sell  for  a  pretty  good  price. 
In  many  parts  of  the  town  coals  are  made  use  of,  both  for  kitchen 
fires,  and  in  rooms,  because  they  are  reckoned  cheaper  than  wood, 
which  at  present  costs  thirty  shillings  of  New  York  currency  per 
fathom  ;  of  which  measure  I  have  before  made  mention.  New 
York  has  likewise  some  intercourse  with  South  Carolina ;  to 
which  it  sends  corn,  flour,  sugar,  rum,  and  other  goods,  and  takes 
rice  in  return,  which  is  almost  the  only  commodity  exported  from 
South  Carolina. 

The  goods  with  which  the  province  of  New  York  trades  are  not 
very  numerous.  They  chiefly  export  the  skins  of  animals,  which 
are  bought  of  the  Indians  about  Oswego ;  great  quantities  of 
boards,  coming  for  the  most  part  from  Albany  ;  timber  and  ready 
made  lumber,  from  that  part  of  the  country  which  lies  about  the 
river  Hudson  ;  and  lasdy  wheat,  flour,  barley,  oats  and  other  kinds 
of  corn,  which  are  brought  from  New  Jersey  and  the  cultivated 
parts  of  this  province.  I  have  seen  yachts  from  New  Brunswick, 
laden  with  wheat  which  lay  loose  on  board,  and  with  flour  packed 


1 8  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

up  into  tuns  ;  and  also  with  great  quantities  of  linseed.  New  York 
likewise  exports  some  flesh  and  other  provisions  out  of  its  own 
province,  but  they  are  very  few  ;  nor  is  the  quantity  of  pease  which 
the  people  about  Albany  bring  much  greater.  Iron  however  may 
be  had  more  plentifully,  as  it  is  found  in  several  parts  of  this  prov- 
ince, and  is  of  a  considerable  goodness  ;  but  all  the  other  products 
of  this  countiy  are  of  little  account. 

Most  of  the  wine,  which  is  drank  here  and  in  the  other  colonies 
is  brought  from  the  Isle  of  Madeira  and  is  very  strong  and  fiery. 

No  manufactures  of  note  have  as  yet  been  established  here  ;  at 
present  they  get  all  manufactured  goods,  such  as  woollen  and  linen 
cloth,  &c.  from  England,  and  especially  from  London.   .   .   . 

About  New  York  they  find  innumerable  quantities  of  excellent 
oysters,  and  there  are  few  places  which  have  oysters  of  such  an 
exquisite  taste,  and  of  so  great  a  size.   .   .   . 

The  merchants  here  buy  up  great  quantities  of  oysters  about  this 
time,  pickle  them  in  the  above-mentioned  manner,  and  send  them 
to  the  West  Indies  :  by  which  they  frequently  make  a  considerable 
profit :  for,  the  oysters,  which  cost  them  five  shillings  of  their  cur- 
rency, they  commonly  sell  for  a  pistole,  or  about  six  times  as  much 
as  they  gave  for  them  ;  and  sometimes  they  get  even  more  :  the 
oysters  which  are  thus  pickled  have  a  very  fine  flavour.  .   .  . 

Lobsters  are  likewise  plentifully  caught  hereabouts,  pickled  much 
in  the  same  way  as  oysters,  and  sent  to  several  places.  .   .  . 

Among  the  numerous  shells  which  are  found  on  the  sea  shore, 
there  are  some  which  by  the  English  here  are  called  Clams,  and 
which  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  human  ear.  They  have  a  con- 
siderable thickness,  and  are  chiefly  white,  excepting  the  pointed 
end,  which  both  without  and  within  has  a  blue  colour,  between 
purple  and  violet.  They  are  met  with  in  vast  numbers  on  the  sea 
shore  of  New  York,  Long  Island,  and  other  places.  The  shells 
contain  a  large  animal,  which  is  eaten  both  by  the  Indians  and 
Europeans  settled  here. 

A  considerable  commerce  is  carried  on  in  this  article,  with  such 
Indians  as  live  further  up  the  country.  When  these  people  in- 
habited the  coast,  they  were  able  to  catch  their  own  clams,  which 
at  that  time  made  a  great  part  of  their  food  ;  but  at  present  this 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADK       19 

is  the  business  of  the  Dutch  and  Enghsh,  who  hve  in  Long 
Lsland  and  other  maritime  provinces.  As  soon  as  the  shells  are 
caught,  the  fish  is  taken  out  of  them,  drawn  upon  a  wire,  and 
hung  up  in  the  open  air,  in  order  to  dry  by  the  heat  of  the  sun. 
When  this  is  done,  the  fish  is  put  into  proper  vessels,  and  carried 
to  Albany  upon  the  river  LIudson  ;  there  the  Lidians  buy  them, 
and  reckon  them  one  of  their  best  dishes.  Besides  the  luu'opeans, 
many  of  the  native  Lidians  come  annually  down  to  the  sea  shore, 
in  order  to  catch  clams,  proceeding  with  them  afterwards  in  the 
manner  I  have  just  described. 

The  shells  of  these  clams  are  used  by  the  Lidians  as  money, 
and  make  what  they  call  their  wampum  ;  they  likewise  serve  their 
women  for  an  ornament,  when  they  intend  to  appear  in  full  dress. 
These  wampums  are  properly  made  of  the  purple  parts  of  the  shells 
which  the  Lidians  value  more  than  the  white  parts.  A  traveller, 
who  goes  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  is  well  stocked  with  them, 
may  become  a  considerable  gainer ;  but  if  he  take  gold  coin,  or 
bullion,  he  will  undoubtedly  be  a  loser ;  for  the  Lidians  who  live 
farther  up  the  countiy,  put  little  or  no  value  upon  these  metals 
which  we  reckon  so  precious,  as  I  have  frequently  observed  in  the 
course  of  my  travels.  The  Indians  formerly  made  their  own  wam- 
pums, though  not  without  a  deal  of  trouble  :  but  at  present  the 
Europeans  employ  themselves  that  way  ;  especially  the  inhabitants 
of  Albany,  who  get  a  considerable  profit  by  it.   .   .  . 

Philadelphia,  the  capital  of  Pensylvania,  a  province  which 
makes  part  of  what  formerly  was  called  New  Sweden  is  one  of 
the  principal  towns  in  North-America  ;  and  next  to  Boston  the 
greatest.   .   .   . 

Several  ships  are  annually  built  of  American  oak,  in  the  docks 
which  are  made  in  several  parts  of  the  town  and  about  it,  yet  they 
can  by  no  means  be  put  in  comparison  with  those  built  of  European 
oak,  in  point  of  goodness  and  duration. 

The  town  carries  on  a  great  trade,  both  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country,  and  to  other  parts  of  the  world,  especially  to  the  West 
Indies,  South  America,  and  the  Antilles  ;  to  England,  Ireland, 
Portugal,  and  to  several  English  colonies  in  North  America.  Yet 
none  but  P^nglish  ships  are  allowed  to  come  into  this  port. 


20  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

Philadelphia  reaps  the  greatest  profits  from  its  trade  to  the  West 
Indies.  For  thither  the  inhabitants  ship  almost  every  day  a  quantity 
of  flour,  butter,  flesh  and  other  victuals  ;  timber,  plank  and  the 
like.  In  return  they  receive  either  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  indigo, 
mahogany,  and  other  goods,  or  ready  money.  The  true  mahogany, 
which  grows  in  Jamaica,  is  at  present  almost  all  cut  down. 

They  send  both  West  India  goods,  and  their  own  productions 
to  England  ;  the  latter  are  all  sorts  of  woods,  especially  black 
walnut,  and  oak  planks  for  ships  ;  ships  ready  built,  iron,  hides 
and  tar.  Yet  this  latter  is  properly  bought  in  New  Jersey,  the 
forests  of  which  province  are  consequently  more  ruined  than  any 
others.  Ready  money  is  likewise  sent  over  to  England,  from 
whence  in  return  they  get  all  sorts  of  goods  there  manufactured, 
viz.  fine  and  coarse  cloth,  linen,  iron  ware,  and  other  wrought 
metals,  and  East  India  goods.  For  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Eng- 
land supplies  Philadelphia  with  almost  all  stuffs  and  manufactured 
goods  which  are  wanted  here. 

A  great  quantity  of  linseed  goes  annually  to  Ireland,  together 
with  many  of  the  ships  which  are  built  here.  Portugal  gets  wheat, 
corn,  flour,  and  maize  which  is  not  ground.  Spain  sometimes 
takes  some  corn.  But  all  the  money,  which  is  got  in  these  several 
countries,  must  immediately  be  sent  to  England,  in  payment  for 
the  goods  which  are  got  from  thence,  and  yet  those  sums  are  not 
sufificient  to  pay  all  the  debts.  .  .  . 

D.    Southern  Colonies 

^  Viewed  and  considered  as  a  settlement,  Virginia  is  far  from 
being  arrived  at  that  perfection  of  which  it  is  capable.  Not  a  tenth 
of  the  land  is  yet  cultivated  :  and  that  which  is  cultivated,  is  far 
fro".  being  so  in  the  most  advantageous  manner.  It  produces, 
however,  considerable  quantities  of  grain  and  cattle,  and  fruit  of 
many  kinds,  llie  Virginian  pork  is  said  to  be  superior  in  flavour 
to  any  in  the  world  ;  but  the  sheep  and  horned  cattle  being  small 
and  lean,  the  meat  of  them  is  inferior  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  or 

1  Hurnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  America  [1759- 
1760],  pp.  15-16,  17,  26-28,  29-30. 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  AND  TRADE      2 1 

indeed,  of  most  parts  of  Europe.  The  horses  are  fleet  and  beauti- 
ful ;  and  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia,  who  are  exceedingly  fond  of 
horse-racing,  have  spared  no  expencc  or  trouble  to  improve  the 
breed  of  them  by  importing  great  numbers  from  England.   .   .   . 

The  trade  of  this  colony  is  large  and  extensive.  Tobacco  is  the 
principal  article  of  it.  Of  this  they  export  annually  between  fifty 
and  sixty  thousand  hogsheads,  each  hogshead  weighing  eight  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  weight :  some  years  they  export  much  more. 
They  ship  also  for  the  Madeiras,  the  Streights,  and  the  West- 
Indies,  several  articles,  such  as  grain,  pork,  lumber,  and  cyder :  to 
Great  Britain,  bar-iron,  indigo,  and  a  small  quantity,  of  ginseng, 
though  of  an  inferior  quality ;  and  they  clear  out  one  year  with 
another  about  45,179  ton  of  shipping. 

Their  manufactures  are  very  inconsiderable.  They  make  a  kind 
of  cotton-cloth,  with  which  they  clothe  themselves  in  common,  and 
call  after  the  name  of  their  country  ;  and  some  inconsiderable 
quantities  of  linen,  hose,  and  other  trifling  articles  :  but  nothing 
to  deserve  attention.   .   .   . 

The  public  or  political  character  of  the  Virginians,  corresponds 
with  their  private  one  :  they  are  haughty  and  jealous  of  their  liber- 
ties, impatient  of  restraint,  and  can  scarcely  bear  the  thought  of 
being  controuled  by  any  superior  power.  Many  of  them  consider 
the  colonies  as  independent  states,  not  connected  with  Great  Britain, 
otherwise  than  by  having  the  same  common  king,  and  being  bound 
to  her  by  natural  affection.  There  are  but  few  of  them  that  have  a 
turn  for  business,  and  even  those  are  by  no  means  expert  at  it.  I 
have  known  them,  upon  a  very  urgent  occasion,  vote  the  relief  of 
a  garrison,  without  once  considering  whether  the  thing  was  practi- 
cable, when  it  was  most  evidently  and  demonstraljly  otherwise.  In 
matters  of  commerce  they  are  ignorant  of  tiie  necessary  principles 
that  must  prevail  between  a  colony  and  the  mother  country  ;  they 
think  it  a  hardship  not  to  have  an  unlimited  trade  to  every  part  of 
the  world.  They  consider  the  duties  upon  their  staple  as  injurious 
only  to  themselves  ;  and  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  persuade  them 
that  they  affect  the  consumer  also.  However,  to  do  them  justice, 
the  same  spirit  of  generosity  prevails  here  which  docs  in  their  pri- 
vate character ;  they  never  refuse  any  necessary  supplies  for  the 


2  2  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

support  of  government  when  called  upon,  and  are  a  generous  and 
loyal  people.  .  .   . 

It  is  hard  to  determine,  whether  this  colony  can  be  called 
flourishing,  or  not :  because  though  it  produces  great  quantities 
of  tobacco  and  grain,  yet  there  seem  to  be  ver)'  few  improvements 
carrying  on  in  it.  Great  part  of  Virginia  is  a  wilderness,  and  as 
many  of  the  gentlemen  are  in  possession  of  immense  tracts  of 
land,  it  is  likely  to  continue  so.  A  spirit  of  enterprize  is  by  no 
means  the  turn  of  the  colony,  and  therefore  few  attempts  have 
been  made  to  force  a  trade  :  which  I  think  might  easily  be  done, 
both  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  Ohio.  They  have  eveiy  thing 
necessary  for  such  an  undertaking  ;  viz.  lumber,  provisions,  grain, 
and  every  other  commodity,  which  the  other  colonies,  that  subsist 
and  grow  rich  by  these  means,  make  use  of  for  exports  ;  but, 
instead  of  this,  they  have  only  a  trifling  communication  with  the 
West  Indies  ;  and  as  to  the  Ohio,  they  have  suffered  themselves, 
notwithstanding  the  superior  advantages  they  might  enjoy  from 
having  a  water  carriage  almost  to  the  Yoghiogheny,  to  neglect  this 
valuable  branch  of  commerce  ;  while  the  industrious  Pensylvanians 
seize  eveiy  opportunity,  and  struggle  with  innumerable  difficulties, 
to  secure  it  to  themselves.  The  Virginians  are  content  if  they  can 
but  live  from  day  to  day  ;  they  confine  themselves  almost  intirely 
to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  ;  and  if  they  have  but  enough  of  this  to 
pay  their  merchants  in  London,  and  to  provide  for  their  pleasures, 
they  are  satisfied,  and  desire  nothing  more.  Some  few,  indeed,  have 
been  rather  more  enterprising,  and  have  endeavoured  to  improve 
their  estates  by  raising  indigo,  and  other  schemes  :  but  whether 
it  has  been  owing  to  the  climate,  to  their  inexperience  in  these 
matters,  or  their  want  of  perseverance,  I  am  unable  to  determine, 
but  their  success  has  not  answered  their  expectations.   .   .   . 

^  This  plant  [tobacco]  is  cultivated  in  all  parts  of  North  America, 
from  Quebec  to  Carolina,  and  even  the  West  Indies  ;  but,  except 
in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  they  plant  no  more  than 
for  private  use,  making  it  an  object  of  exportation  only  in  these 
provinces,  where  it  is  of  such  immense  consequence.   .   .   . 

1  American  Husbandry  [i775]'  I»  222,  225-227,  229-231,  237-238,  244-245,  331- 
332'33(>'  337-341.  350-351- 


POPULATION,   PRODUCTS  AND  'l"RADE  23 

One  of  the  greatest  advantages  attending  the  culture  of  tobacco, 
is  the  quick,  easy,  and  certain  method  of  sale.  This  was  effected 
by  the  inspection  law,  which  took  j^lace  in  Virginia  in  the  year 
1730,  but  not  in  Maryland  till  174S.  The  planter,  by  virtue  of 
this,  may  go  to  any  place  and  sell  his  tobacco,  without  carrying  a 
sample  of  it  along  with  him,  and  the  merchant  may  buy  it,  though 
lying  a  hundred  miles,  or  at  any  distance  from  his  store,  and  yet 
be  morally  sure  both  with  respect  to  quantity  and  quality.  r\)r  thi:: 
purpose,  upon  all  the  rivers  and  bays  of  both  provinces,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  about  twelve  or  fourteen  miles  from  each  other,  are  erected 
warehouses,  to  which  all  the  tobacco  in  the  country  must  be  brought, 
and  there  lodged,  before  the  planters  can  offer  it  for  sale  ;  and  in- 
spectors are  appointed  to  examine  all  the  tobacco  brought  in,  receive 
such  as  is  good  and  merchantable,  condemn  and  burn  what  appears 
damnified  or  insufficient.  The  greatest  part  of  the  tobacco  is  prized, 
or  put  up  into  hogsheads  by  the  planters  themselves,  before  it  is 
carried  to  the  warehouses.  Each  hogshead,  by  an  act  of  assembly, 
must  be  950  lb.  neat,  or  upwards  ;  some  of  them  weigh  14  cwt.  and 
even  18  cwt.  and  the  heavier  they  are  the  merchants  like  them  the 
better ;  because  four  hogsheads,  whatsoever  their  weight  be,  are 
esteemed  a  tun,  and  pay  the  same  freight.  The  inspectors  give 
notes  of  receipt  for  the  tobacco,  and  the  merchants  take  them  in 
payment  for  their  goods,  passing  current  indeed  over  the  whole 
colonies  ;  a  most  admirable  invention,  which  operates  so  greatly, 
that  in  Virginia  they  ha\e  no  paper  currency. 

The  merchants  generally  purchase  the  tobacco  in  the  countr)^, 
by  sending  persons  to  open  stores  for  them  ;  that  is,  warehouses 
in  which  they  lay  in  a  great  assortment  of  British  commodities 
and  manufactures,  to  these,  as  to  shops,  the  planters  resort,  and 
supply  themselves  with  what  they  want,  pa}ing,  in  inspection 
receipts,  or  taking  on  credit  according  to  what  will  be  given  them  ; 
and  as  they  are  in  general  a  very  luxurious  set  of  people,  they 
buy  too  much  upon  credit ;  the  consequence  of  which  is,  their 
getting  in  debt  to  the  London  merchants,  who  take  mortgages  on 
their  plantations,  ruinous  enough,  with  the  usury  of  eight  per  cent. 
But  this  is  apparently  the  effect  of  their  imprudence  in  living  upon 
trust.   .  .  . 


24  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

There  is  no  plant  in  the  world  that  requires  richer  land,  or  more 
manure  than  tobacco  ;  it  will  grow  on  poorer  soils,  but  not  to  yield 
crops  that  are  sufficiently  profitable  to  pay  the  expences  of  negroes, 
&c.  The  land  they  found  to  answer  best  is  fresh  woodlands,  where 
many  ages  have  formed  a  stratum  of  rich  black  mould.  Such  land 
will,  after  clearing,  bear  tobacco  many  years,  without  any  change, 
prove  more  profitable  to  the  planter  than  the  power  of  dung  can  do 
on  worse  lands  :  this  makes  the  tobacco  planters  more  solicitous 
for  new  land  than  any  other  people  in  America,  they  wanting  it 
much  more.  Many  of  them  have  very  handsome  houses,  gardens, 
and  improvements  about  them,  which  fixes  them  to  one  spot ;  but 
others,  when  they  have  exhausted  their  grounds,  will  sell  them  to 
new  settlers  for  corn-fields,  and  move  backwards  with  their  negroes, 
cattle,  and  tools,  to  take  up  fresh  land  for  tobacco  ;  this  is  common, 
and  will  continue  so  as  long  as  good  land  is  to  be  had  upon  navi- 
gable rivers  :  this  is  the  system  of  business  which  made  some,  so 
long  ago  as  1750,  move  over  the  Allegany  mountains,  and  settle 
not  far  from  the  Ohio,  where  their  tobacco  was  to  be  carried  by 
land  some  distance,  which  is  a  heavy  burthen  on  so  bulky  a 
commodity,  but  answered  by  the  superior  crops  they  gained  :  the 
French  encroachments  drove  tfiese  people  all  back  again ;  but 
upon  the  peace,  many  more  went,  and  the  number  increasing, 
became  the  occasion  of  the  new  colony  which  has  been  settled  in 
that  country. 

A  very  considerable  tract  of  land  is  necessary  for  a  tobacco  plan- 
tation ;  first,  that  the  planter  may  have  a  sure  prospect  of  increasing 
his  culture  on  fresh  land ;  secondly,  that  the  lumber  may  be  a 
winter  employment  for  his  slaves,  and  afford  casks  for  his  crops. 
Thirdly,  that  he  may  be  able  to  keep  vast  flocks  of  cattle  for  raising 
provisions  in  plenty,  by  ranging  in  the  woods  ;  and  where  the  lands 
are  not  fresh,  the  necessity  is  yet  greater,  as  they  must  yield  much 
manure  for  replenishing  the  worn-out  fields.  This  want  of  land  is 
such,  that  they  reckon  a  planter  should  have  50  acres  of  land  for 
every  working  hand  ;  with  less  than  this  they  will  find  themselves 
distressed  for  want  of  room.  .  ,  . 

The  tobacco  planters  live  more  like  country  gentlemen  of  fortune 
than  any  other  settlers  in  America ;  all  of  them  are  spread  about 


POPULATION,  PRODUCTS  ANT)  TKADK      25 

the  country,  their  labour  being  mostly  by  slaves,  who  are  left  to 
overseers  ;  and  the  masters  live  in  a  state  of  emulation  with  one 
another  in  buildings,  (many  of  their  houses  would  make  no  slight 
figure  in  the  English  counties)  furniture,  wines,  dress,  diversions, 
&c.  and  this  to  such  a  degree,  that  it  is  rather  amazing  they  should 
be  able  to  go  on  with  their  plantations  at  all,  than  they  should  not 
make  additions  to  them  :  such  a  country  life  as  they  lead,  in  the 
midst  of  a  profusion  of  rural  sports  and  diversions,  with  little  to 
do  themselves,  and  in  a  climate  that  seems  to  create  rather  than 
check  pleasure,  must  almost  naturally  have  a  strong  effect  in 
bringing  them  to  be  just  such  planters,  as  foxhunters  in  England 
make  farmers,  ... 

The  poverty  of  the  planters  here,  many  of  them  at  least,  is  much 
talked  of,  and  from  thence  there  has  arisen  a  notion  that  their  hus- 
bandry is  not  profitable  :  this  false  idea  I  have  endeavoured  to  ob- 
viate, and  to  shew  that  the  cause  of  it  has  little  or  no  reference  to 
their  culture,  but  to  the  general  luxury,  and  extravagant  way  of 
living  which  obtains  among  the  planters  —  a  circumstance  which 
ought  rather  to  occasion  a  contrary  conclusion  ;  —  a  supposition 
that  their  agriculture  was  very  valuable  ;  for  men  without  some 
rich  article  of  product  cannot  afford,  even  with  the  assistimce  of 
credit,  to  live  in  such  a  manner  :  it  must  be  upon  the  face  of  it  a 
profitable  culture,  that  will  support  such  luxury,  and  pay  eight  per 
cent,  interest  on  their  debts.  What  common  culture  in  Europe 
will  do  this .?   .   .   . 

The  products  of  North  Carolina  are  rice,  tobacco,  indigo,  cotton, 
wheat,  peas,  beans,  Indian  corn,  and  all  sorts  of  roots,  especially 
potatoes.  Rice  is  not  so  much  cultivated  here  as  in  South  Carolina  : 
but  in  the  latter  they  raise  no  tobacco,  whereas  in  North  Carolina 
it  is  one  of  their  chief  articles.  It  grows  in  the  northerly  parts  of 
the  province,  on  the  frontiers  of  Virginia,  from  which  colony  it  is 
exported.  Indigo  grows  very  well  in  the  province,  particularly  in 
the  southern  parts,  and  proves  a  most  profitable  branch  oi  culture. 
Cotton  does  very  well,  and  the  sort  is  so  excellent,  that  it  is  much 
to  be  wished  they  had  made  a  greater  progress  in  it.  The  greatest 
articles  of  their  produce  which  is  exported  are  tar,  pitch,  turpen- 
tine, and  every  species  of  lumber,  in  astonishing  quantities.   .   .  . 


26  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

Notwithstanding  these  great  advantages,  there  are  very  few 
people  in  North  Carohna  ;  this  has  been  owing  to  several  causes  : 
there  were  obstructions  in  settling  it,  which  occasioned  some  to 
leave  the  country,  and  a  general  idea,  was  spread  to  its  disadvan- 
tage ;  but  the  principal  evil  was  the  want  of  ports,  of  which  there 
was  not  one  good  one  in  all  North  Carolina :  the  river  Pedee  falls 
into  the  sea  at  Winyaw,  which  is  in  South  Carolina,  and  that  has 
prevented  an  exportation  of  products  from  thence  of  the  growth  of 
North  Carolina.  And  this  want  of  good  ports,  and  a  trading  town, 
has  checked  the  culture  of  rice  a  good  deal  ;  but  it  has  had  another 
effect,  which  may  probably  prove  a  great  advantage  ;  it  has  driven 
the  new  settlers  back  into  the  country,  and  thrown  them  very  much 
into  common  husbandry.   .   .   . 

It  is  this  common  husbandry  which  desen^es  our  attention  par- 
ticularly, since  in  many  respects  it  is  different  from  that  of  any 
other  part  of  America. 

The  two  great  circumstances  which  give  the  farmers  of  North 
Carolina  such  a  superiority  over  those  of  most  other  colonies,  are, 
first,  the  plenty  of  land  ;  and,  secondly,  the  vast  herds  of  cattle 
kept  by  the  planters.  The  want  of  ports,  as  I  said,  kept  numbers 
from  settling  here,  and  this  made  the  land  of  less  value,  conse- 
quently every  settler  got  large  grants  ;  and,  falling  to  the  business 
of  breeding  cattle,  their  herds  became  so  great,  that  the  profit  from 
them  alone  is  exceeding  great.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to 
see  one  man  the  master  of  from  300  to  1200,  and  even  to  2000 
cows,  bulls,  oxen,  and  young  cattle ;  hogs  also  in  prodigious  num- 
bers. Their  management  is  to  let  them  run  loose  in  the  woods  all 
day,  and  to  bring  them  up  at  night  by  the  sound  of  a  horn ;  some- 
times, particularly  in  winter,  they  keep  them  during  the  night  in 
inclosures,  giving  them  a  little  food,  and  letting  the  cows  and  sows 
to  the  calves  and  pigs  ;  this  makes  them  come  home  the  more  regu- 
larly. Such  herds  of  cattle  and  swine  arc  to  be  found  in  no  other 
colonies  ;  and  when  this  is  better  settled,  they  will  not  be  so  com- 
mon here  ;  for  at  present  the  woods  are  all  in  common,  and  people's 
property  has  no  other  boundary  or  distinction  than  mai"ks  cut  in 
trees,  so  that  the  cattle  have  an  unbounded  range  ;  but  when  the 
country  becomes  more  cultivated,  estates  will   be  surrounded  by 


POPULATION,  i'RODLiCi'S  AND  TRADE  27 

enclosures,  and  consequently  the  numbers  of  cattle  kept  by  the 
planters  will  be  proportioned  to  llu'lr  own  lands  only. 

It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  these  vast  Hocks  of  cattle  niij^ht 
be  of  surprising  consequence  in  tlie  raising  manure,  were  the 
planters  as  attentive  as  they  ought  to  be  to  this  essential  object: 
they  might  by  this  means  cultivate  indigo  and  tobacco  to  greater 
advantage  than  their  neighbours  ;  some  few  make  a  good  use  of 
the  advantage,  but  more  of  them  are  drawn  from  it  by  the  j^lenty 
of  rich  land,  which  they  run  over,  as  in  the  northern  colonies, 
till  it  is  exhausted,  and  then  take  fresh,  relying  on  such  a  change, 
instead  of  making  the  most  of  their  manure,  which  would  add 
infinitely  to  their  profit. 

Their  system  is  to  depend  (where  they  have  no  navigation,  and 
are  at  a  considerable  distance  from  it,  which  however  is  not  the 
case  in  many  parts)  on  the  hides  of  their  cattle,  and  on  barrelled 
meat,  with  some  corn,  roots,  and  pitch  and  tar,  &c.  for  the  profit 
of  their  plantation  ;  but  the  most  bulky  of  these  commodities  yield 
but  little,  unless  near  some  river ;  accordingly  there  are  not  many 
plantations  at  any  distance  from  water,  since  it  is  not  an  inland 
navigation  that  is  wanted  in  North  Carolina,  but  ports  at  the 
mouths  of  the  rivers  that  will  admit  of  large  ships. 

The  mode  of  common  husbandry  here  is  to  break  up  a  piece  of 
wood  land,  a  work  very  easily  done,  from  the  trees  standing  at 
good  distances  from  each  other ;  this  they  sow  with  Indian  corn 
for  several  years  successively,  till  it  will  yield  large  crops  no  longer  : 
they  get  at  first  fourscore  or  an  hundred  bushel  an  acre,  but  sixty 
or  seventy  are  common  :  when  the  land  is  pretty  well  exhausted 
they  sow  it  with  peas  or  beans  one  year,  of  which  the)-  will  get 
thirty  or  forty  bushels  per  acre  ;  and  aftei-wards  sow  it  with  wheat 
for  two  or  three  years  :  it  will  yield  good  crops  of  this  grain  when 
it  would  bear  Indian  corn  no  longer,  which  shews  how  excellent 
the  land  must  be.  But  let  me  remark  that  this  culture  of  wheat 
to  such  advantage  is  only  in  the  back  part  of  the  province,  where 
the  climate  is  far  more  temperate  than  on  the  coast ;  upon  the 
latter  it  does  not  succeed  well,  a  circumstance  much  deserving 
attention  ;  for  we  may  lay  it  down  as  a  universal  rule,  that  where 
wheat  thrives  well,  there  the  climate  is  healthy,  and  agreeable  to 


28  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

the  generality  of  constitutions  :  it  does  well  neither  in  extreme 
cold,  nor  in  great  heat. 

In  this  system  of  crops  they  change  the  land  as  fast  as  it  wears 
out,  clearing  fresh  pieces  of  wood  land,  exhausting  them  in  suc- 
cession ;  after  which  they  leave  them  to  the  spontaneous  growth. 
It  is  not  here  as  in  the  northern  colonies,  that  weeds  come  first 
and  then  grass  ;  the  climate  is  so  hot,  that,  except  on  the  rich 
moist  lands,  any  sort  of  grass  is  scarce  ;  but  the  fallow  in  a  few 
years  becomes  a  forest,  for  no  climate  seems  more  congenial  to 
the  production  of  quick  growing  trees.  If  the  planter  does  not  re- 
turn to  cultivate  the  land  again,  as  may  probably  be  the  case,  from 
the  plenty  of  fresh,  it  presently  becomes  such  a  wood  as  the  rest 
of  the  country  is  ;  and  woods  are  here  the  pasture  of  the  cattle, 
which  is  excellent  for  hogs,  because  they  get  quantities  of  mast  and 
fruit ;  but  for  cattle  is  much  inferior  to  pastures  and  meadows.  .  .  . 

Another  very  great  defect  in  their  management,  is  the  careless 
manner  in  which  they  conduct  their  cattle  :  immense  herds  are 
kept  that  yield  a  profit  to  the  planters  more  inconsiderable  than 
can  at  first  be  imagined  ;  this  is  not  for  want  of  a  market,  since 
no  commodity  more  readily  yields  its  price  in  North  America,  than 
beef  and  pork  in  barrels  ;  and  hides  are  eveiy  where  a  commodity 
easily  to  be  turned  into  money ;  but  it  is  owing  to  a  want  of  at- 
tention —  to  keeping  a  proper  proportion  of  them  to  the  winter 
food  —  to  not  fatting  them  well,  and  many  not  at  all,  which  is  ow- 
ing to  a  want  of  pasturage,  and  also  to  leaving  them  too  much  to 
themselves  in  the  woods  without  a  sufficiency  of  attendants  to 
watch  and  take  care  of  them.  The  mere  multiplication  of  cattle 
is  not  the  only  object,  though  it  sounds  greatly ;  bringing  them 
up  in  health  and  vigour,  of  a  due  size  and  fatness,  are  as  essential ; 
but  the  stunted  diminutive  size  of  all  the  cattle  in  North  America, 
to  the  northward,  as  well  as  in  the  southern  colonies,  shews  plainly 
the  great  want  of  pastures  :  cattle  will  live  and  multiply  in  their 
woods,  but  they  will  never  be  cattle  of  any  value  ;  and  yielding  a 
profit  as  inconsiderable  as  their  worth. 


MANUFACTURES  29 

II.  MANUFACTURES  1 

2  Pursuant  to  an  order  of  the  British  house  of  commons,  directed 
to  the  lords  commissioners  of  trade  and  plantations  in  the  later 
end  of  the  last,  or  the  beginning  of  this  [1732]  year,  relating  to 
the  dispute  still  subsisting  between  the  sugar  colonics,  and  the 
northern  continental  colonies  of  America,  that  board  reported,  with 
respect  to  laws  made,  manufactures  set  up,  or  trade  carried  on, 
there,  detrimental  to  the  trade,  navigation,  or  manufactures,  of  Great 
Britain,  as  follows,  viz.   .   .   . 

In  New-England,  New- York,  Connecticut,  Rhode-Island,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  in  Maryland,  they  have 
fallen  into  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloth  and  linen  cloth,  for 
the  use  of  their  own  families  only. 

For  the  product  of  those  colonies  being  chiefly  cattle  and 
grain,  the  estates  of  the  inhabitants  depended  wholely  on  farming, 
which  could  not  be  managed  without  a  certain  quantity  of  sheep  ; 
and  their  wool  would  be  entirely  lost,  were  not  their  servants 
employed  during  the  winter  in  manufacturing  it  for  the  use  of 
their  families. 

F"lax  and  hemp  being  likewise  easily  raised,  the  inhabitants 
manufactured  them  into  a  coarse  sort  of  cloth,  bags,  traces,  and 
halters,  for  their  horses,  which  they  found  did  more  service  than 
those  they  had  from  any  part  of  Europe.  However,  the  high  price 
of  labour  in  general  in  America  rendered  it  impracticable  for  people 
there  to  manufacture  their  linen  cloth  at  less  than  20  per  cent  more 
than  the  rate  in  England,  or  woollen  cloth  at  less  than  50  per  cent 
dearer  than  that  which  is  exported  from  hence  for  sale.  It  were 
to  be  wished,  that  some  expedient  might  be  fallen  upon  to  divert 
their  thoughts  from  undertakings  of  this  nature  ;  so  much  the 
rather,  because  those  manufactures,  in  process  of  time,  may  be 
carried  on  in  a  greater  degree,  unless  an  early  stop  be  put  to  their 
progress,  by  employing  them  in  naval  stores.  Wherefor  we  take 
leave  to  renew  our  repeated  proposals,  that  reasonable  encourage- 

^  See  extracts  from   Burnaby,  Kalm,  Franklin,  Townall,  and   Beer,  pp.  12,  16, 

75.  107.  434- 

2  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  III,  186,  1S7-191. 


30  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

ment  be  given  to  the  same.  Moreover,  we  find  that  certain  trades 
carried  on,  and  manufactures  set  up  there,  are  detrimental  to  the 
trade,  navigation,  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain.  For  the 
state  of  those  plantations  vaiying  almost  every  year,  more  or  less, 
in  their  trade  and  manufactures,  as  well  as  in  other  particulars,  we 
thought  it  necessary  for  his  majesty's  service,  and  for  the  discharge 
of  our  trust,  from  time  to  time,  to  send  certain  general  queries  to 
the  several  governors  in. America,  that  we  might  be  the  more  ex- 
actly informed  of  the  condition  of  the  plantations,  among  which 
there  were  several  that  related  to  their  trade  and  manufactures,  to 
which  we  received  the  following  returns,  viz. 

The  governor  of  New-Hampshire,  in  his  answer,  said,  that  there 
were  no  settled  manufactures  in  that  province,  and  that  their  trade 
principally  consisted  in  lumber  and  fish. 

The  governor  of  Massachusets-bay  informed  us,  that  in  some 
parts  of  this  province  the  inhabitants  worked  up  their  wool  and 
flax  into  an  ordinary  coarse  cloth  for  their  own  use,  but  did  not 
export  any.  That  the  greatest  part  of  the  woollen  and  linen  cloth- 
ing, worn  in  this  province,  was  imported  from  Great  Britain,  and 
sometimes  from  Ireland  ;  but,  considering  the  excessive  price  of 
labour  in  New-England,  the  merchants  could  afford  what  was  im- 
ported cheaper  than  what  was  made  in  that  country.  That  there 
were  also  a  few  hat-makers  in  the  maritime  towns  ;  and  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  leather  used  in  that  country  was  manufactured 
among  themselves ;  that  there  had  been  for  many  years  some  iron 
works  in  that  province,  which  had  afforded  the  people  iron  for 
some  of  their  necessary  occasions  ;  but  that  the  iron  imported 
from  Great  Britain  was  esteemed  much  the  best,  and  wholely  used 
by  the  shipping.  And  that  the  iron  works  of  that  province  were 
not  able  to  supply  the  twentieth  part  of  what  was  necessary  for  the 
use  of  the  country. 

They  had  no  manufactures  in  the  province  of  New- York,  that' 
deserved  mentioning :  their  trade  consisted  chiefly  in  furs,  whale- 
bone, oil,  pitch,  tar,  and  provisions. 

No  manufactures  in  New-Jersey,  that  deserve  mentioning : 
their  trade  being  chiefly  in  provisions  shipped  from  New- York 
and  Pennsylvania. 


MANUFACTURES 


31 


The  chief  trade  of  Pennsylvania  lay  in  the  exportation  of  provi- 
sions and  lumber ;  no  manufactures  being  established,  and  their 
clothing  and  utensils  for  their  houses  being  all  imported  from 
Great  Britain. 

By  further  advices  from  New-Hampshire,  the  woollen  manu- 
facture appears  to  have  decreased,  the  common  lands  on  which 
the  sheep  used  to  feed,  being  now  appropriated,  and  the  people 
almost  wholely  clothed  with  woollen  from  Great  Britain.  The 
manufacture  of  flax  into  linen,  some  coarser,  some  finer,  da)]y 
increased  by  the  great  resort  of  people  from  Ireland  thither,  who 
are  well  skilled  in  that  business.  And  the  chief  trade  of  this 
province  continued,  as  for  many  years  past,  in  the  exportation  of 
naval  stores,  lumber,  and  fish. 

By  later  accounts  from  Massachusets-bay  in  New-England,  the 
assembly  have  voted  a  bounty  of  30s.  for  every  piece  of  duck  or 
canvas  made  in  the  province.  Some  other  manufactures  are  car- 
ried on  there,  as  brown  Hollands  for  women's  wear,  which  lessens 
the  importation  of  calicoes,  and  some  other  sorts  of  East-India 
goods.  They  also  make  some  small  quantities  of  cloth,  made  of 
linen  and  cotton,  for  ordinary  shirting  and  sheeting.  By  a  paper- 
mill  set  up  three  years  ago,  they  make  to  the  value  of  JQ200  ster- 
ling yearly.  There  are  also  several  forges  for  making  bar  iron,  and 
some  furnaces  for  cast  iron,  or  hollow  ware,  and  one  slitting  mill, 
and  a  manufacture  of  nails. 

The  governor  writes  concerning  the  woollen  manufacture,  that 
the  country  people,  who  used  formerly  to  make  most  of  their  cloth- 
ing out  of  their  own  wool,  do  not  now  make  a  third  part  of  what 
they  wear,  but  are  mostly  clothed  with  British  manufactures.  The 
same  governor,  (Belcher)  by  some  of  his  letters  of  an  older  date, 
in  answer  to  our  annual  queries,  writes,  that  there  are  some  few 
copper  mines  in  this  province,  but  so  far  distant  from  water-carriage, 
and  the  ore  so  poor,  that  it  is  not  worth  the  digging.  I'he  surveyor- 
general  of  his  majesty's  woods  writes,  that  they  have  in  New-England 
six  furnaces  and  nineteen  forges  for  making  iron  ;  and  that  in  this 
province  many  ships  are  built  for  the  h'rench  and  Spaniards,  in 
return  for  rum,  melasses,  wines,  and  silks,  which  they  truck  there, 
by  connivance.    Great  quantities  of  hats  are  made  in  New-England, 


32  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

of  which  the  company  of  hatters  of  London  have  hkewise  lately 
complained  to  us.  That  great  quantities  of  those  hats  are  exported 
to  Spain,  Portugal,  and  our  West-Lidia  islands.  They  also  make 
all  sorts  of  iron  work  for  shipping.  There  are  several  still-houses 
and  sugar-bakers  established  in  New-England. 

By  later  advices  from  New-York,  there  are  no  manufactures 
there  that  can  affect  those  of  Great-Britain.  There  is  yearly  im- 
ported into  New-York  a  very  large  quantity  of  the  woollen  manu- 
factures of  this  kingdom,  for  their  clothing,  which  they  would  be 
rendered  incapable  to  pay  for,  and  would  be  reduced  to  the  neces- 
sity of  making  for  themselves,  if  they  were  prohibited  from  receiv- 
ing from  the  foreign  sugar  colonies,  the  money,  rum,  sugar,  melasses, 
cacao,  indigo,  cotton-wool,  &c.  which  they  at  present  take  in  return 
for  provisions,  horses,  and  lumber,  the  produce  of  that  province, 
and  of  New-Jersey,  of  which,  he  affirms,  the  British  sugar  colonies 
do  not  take  off  above  one  half.  But  the  company  of  hatters  of 
London  have  since  informed  us,  that  hats  are  manufactured  in 
great  quantities  in  this  province. 

By  the  last  letters  from  the  deputy-governor  of  Pennsylvania,  he 
does  not  know  of  any  trade  carried  on  in  that  province,  that  can 
be  injurious  to  this  kingdom.  They  do  not  export  any  woollen  or 
linen  manufactures  ;  all  that  they  make  which  are  of  a  coarser  sort, 
being  for  their  own  use.  We  are  farther  informed,  that  in  this 
province  are  built  many  brigantines  and  small  sloops,  which  they 
sell  to  the  West-Lidies. 

The  governor  of  Rhode-Island  informs  us  in  answer  to  our 
queries,  that  there  are  iron  mines  there  ;  but  not  a  fourth  part 
iron  enough  to  serve  their  own  use.  But  he  takes  no  notice  of 
any  sort  of  manufacture  set  up  there. 

No  return  from  the  governor  of  Connecticut.  But  we  find  by 
some  accounts,  that  the  produce  of  this  colony  is  timber,  boards, 
all  sorts  of  English  grain,  hemp,  flax,  sheep,  black  cattle,  swine, 
horses,  goats  and  tobacco.  That  they  export  horses  and  lumber  to 
the  West-Indies,  and  receive  in  return,  sugar,  salt,  melasses  and 
rum.  We  likewise  find  that  their  manufactures  are  very  incon- 
siderable ;  the  people  there  being  generally  employed  in  tillage ; 
some  few  in  tanning,  shoemaking,  and  other  handicrafts ;  others 


MANUFACTURES  33 

in  building,  and  joiner's,  tailor's,  and  smith's,  work,  without  which 
they  could  not  subsist. 

No  report  is  made  concerning  Carolina,  the  Bahama  nor  the 
Bermuda  isles  :  and  as  for  Newfoundland  it  is  scarcely  to  be 
called  a  plantation,  and  Hudson's-bay  not  at  all. 

By  the  last  returns  which  we  have  had  from  the  sugar  islands, 
we  do  not  find  that  they  have  any  other  manufactures  established, 
besides  those  of  sugar,  melasses,  rum  and  indigo,  of  their  own 
produce.  These,  with  cotton,  aloes,  pimento,  and  some  other  pro- 
ductions of  less  note,  are  their  whole  dependence,  which  are  com- 
modities noway  interfering  with  the  manufactures  of  this  kingdom. 
In  the  year  1 724,  Mr.  Worsley,  then  governor  of  Barbados  informed 
us,  that  of  cotton  they  made  hammocks,  a  few  stockings,  and  nets 
for  horses. 

From  the  foregoing  state,  it  is  obser\'able,  that  there  are  more 
trades  carried  on,  and  manufactures  set  up,  in  the  provinces  on 
the  continent  of  America  to  the  northward  of  Virginia,  prejudicial 
to  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  particularly  in 
New-England,  than  in  any  other  of  the  British  colonies  ;  which  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at :  for  their  soil,  climate,  and  produce,  being 
pretty  near  the  same  with  ours,  they  have  no  staple  commodities 
of  their  own  growth  to  exchange  for  our  manufactures  ;  which 
puts  them  under  greater  necessit)',  as  well  as  under  greater 
temptation,  of  providing  for  themselves  at  home  ;  to  which  may 
be  added,  in  the  charter  governments,  the  little  dependence  they 
have  upon  the  mother  country,  and  consequently  the  small 
restraints,  they  are  under  in  any  matters  detrimental  to  her 
interests. 

And  therefor,  we  would  humbly  beg  leave  to  report  and  sub- 
mit to  the  wisdom  of  this  honourable  house,  the  substance  of  w^hat 
we  formerly  proposed  in  our  report  on  the  silk,  linen,  and  woollen, 
manufactures  herein  before  recited  ;  namely,  whether  it  might  not 
be  expedient  to  give  those  colonies  proper  encouragements  for 
turning  their  industry  to  such  manufactures  and  products  as 
might  be  of  service  to  Great  Britain,  and  more  particularly  to 
the  production  of  all  kinds  of  naval  stores.  —  (Signed)  Paul 
Dockminique  &c.  Whitehall,  Februar}^  15,  173 1-2. 


34  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

1  The  trade  of  Pensylvania  is  surprisingly  extensive,  carried  on 
to  Great  Britain,  the  West  Indies,  every  part  of  North-America, 
the  Madeiras,  Lisbon,  Cadiz,  Holland,  Africa,  the  Spanish  main, 
and  several  other  places  ;  exclusive  of  what  is  illicitly  carried  on 
to  Cape  Franc^ois,  and  Monte-Christo.  Their  exports  are  Provisions 
of  all  kinds,  lumber,  hemp,  flax,  flax-seed,  iron,  furs,  and  deerskins. 
Their  imports,  English  manufactures,  with  the  superfluities  and 
luxuries  of  life.  By  their  flag-of-truce  trade,  they  also  get  sugar, 
which  they  refine  and  send  to  Europe. 

Their  manufactures  are  very  considerable.  The  German-town 
thread-stockings  are  in  high  estimation  ;  and  the  year  before  last, 
I  have  been  credibly  informed,  there  were  manufactured  in  that 
town  alone,  above  60,000  dozen  pair.  Their  common  retail  price 
is  a  dollar  per  pair. 

The  Irish  settlers  make  very  good  linens  :  some  woollens  have 
also  been  fabricated,  but  not,  I  believe,  to  any  amount.  There 
are  several  other  manufactures,  viz.  of  beaver  hats,  which  are 
superior  in  goodness  to  any  in  Europe,  of  cordage,  linseed-oil, 
starch,  myrtle-wax  and  spermaceti  candles,  soap,  earthen  ware, 
and  other  commodities.   .   .   . 

The  people  [of  New  York]  carry  on  an  extensive  trade,  and  there 
are  said  to  be  cleared  out  annually  from  New  York,  48,275  tons 
of  shipping.  They  export  chiefly  grain,  flour,  pork,  skins,  furs, 
pig-iron,  lumber,  and  staves.  Their  manufactures,  indeed,  are  not 
extensive,  nor  by  any  means  to  be  compared  with  those  of  Pen- 
sylvania ;  they  make  a  small  quantity  of  cloth,  some  linen,  hats, 
and  other  articles  for  wearing  apparel.  They  make  glass  also,  and 
wampum  ;  refine  sugars,  which  they  import  from  the  West  Indies  ; 
and  distil  considerable  quantities  of  rum.  They  also,  as  well  as  the 
Pensylvanians,  till  both  were  restrained  by  act  of  parliament,  had 
erected  several  slitting  mills,  to  make  nails,  &c.  But  this  is  now 
prohibited,  and  they  are  exceedingly  dissatisfied  at  it.  They  have 
several  other  branches  of  manufactures,  but,  in  general,  so  incon- 
siderable, that  I  shall  not  take  notice  of  them  :  one  thing  it  may 
be  necessary  to  mention,  I  mean  the  article  of  ship-building;  about 
which,  in  different  parts  of  the  province,  they  employ  many  hands. 

1  ]>urnaby,  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  North  America  [1759- 
1760],  pp   63-64,  ,S4-cS5. 


MANUFACTURES  35 

^  ,  .  .  A  people,  spread  through  the  whole  tract  of  country,  on 
this  side  the  Mississippi,  and  secured  by  Canada  in  our  hands, 
would  probably  for  some  centuiies  lind  employment  in  agriculture, 
and  thereby  free  us  at  home  effectually  from  oiu-  fears  of  Ameri- 
can manufactures.  Unprejudiced  men  well  know,  that  all  the  penal 
and  prohibitory  laws  that  were  ever  thought  on  will  not  be  suFM- 
cient  to  prevent  manufactures  in  a  country,  whose  inhabitants  sur- 
pass the  number  that  can  subsist  by  the  husbandry  of  it.  That  thi.v; 
will  be  the  case  in  America  soon,  if  our  people  remain  confmcd 
within  the  mountains,  and  almost  as  soon  should  it  be  unsafe  for 
them  to  live  beyond,  though  the  country  be  ceded  to  us,  no  man 
acquainted  with  political  and  commercial  history  can  doubt.  Manu- 
factures are  founded  in  poverty.  It  is  the  multitude  of  poor  with- 
out land  in  a  countr)-,  and  who  must  work  for  others  at  low  wages 
or  starve,  that  enables  undertakers  to  carry  on  a  manufacture,  and 
afford  it  cheap  enough  to  prevent  the  importation  of  the  same  kind 
from  abroad,  and  to  bear  the  expense  of  its  own  exportation. 

But  no  man,  who  can  have  a  piece  of  land  of  his  own,  sufficient 
by  his  labor  to  subsist  his  family  in  plenty,  is  poor  enough  to  be 
a  manufacturer,  and  work  for  a  master.  Hence,  while  there  is  land 
enough  in  America  for  our  people,  there  can  never  be  manufactures 
to  any  amount  or  value.  It  is  a  striking  observation  of  a  very  able 
pen,  that  the  natural  livelihood  of  the  thin  inhabitants  of  a  forest 
country  is  hunting ;  that  of  a  greater  number,  pasturage  ;  that  of 
a  middling  population,  agriculture  ;  and  that  of  the  greatest,  manu- 
factures ;  which  last  must  subsist  the  bulk  of  the  people  in  a  full 
•countr\-,  or  they  must  be  subsisted  by  charity,  or  perish.  The  ex- 
tended population,  therefore,  that  is  most  advantageous  to  Great 
Britain,  will  be  best  effected,  because  only  effectually  secured,  by 
the  possession  of  Canada.   .   .   . 

In  fact,  the  occasion  for  iMiglish  goods  in  North  America,  and 
the  inclination  to  have  and  use  them,  is,  and  must  be  for  ages  to 
come,  much  greater  than  the  ability  of  the  people  to  pay  for  them  ; 
the}'  must  therefore,  as  they  now  do,  deny  themseh'es  many  things 
they  would  otherwise  choose  to  have,  or  increase  their  industiy  to 
obtain  them.    And  thus,  if  they  should  at  any  time  manufacture 

1  Franklin,  Canadian  ramphlct  [i7('>o],  in  Works  (Sparks  Edition),  IV,  19. 
40-41. 


36  COLONIAL  pCONOMY 

some  coarse  article,  which,  on  account  of  its  bulk  or  some  other 
circumstance,  cannot  so  well  be  brought  to  them  from  Britain  ;  it 
only  enables  them  the  better  to  pay  for  finer  goods,  that  otherwise 
they  could  not  indulge  themselves  in  ;  so  that  the  exports  thither 
are  not  diminished  by  such  manufacture,  but  rather  increased. 
The  single  article  of  manufacture  in  these  colonies,  mentioned  by 
the  Remarker,  is  Jiats  made  in  New  England.  It  is  true,  there 
have  been,  ever  since  the  first  settlement  of  that  countiy,  a  few 
hatters  there  ;  drawn  thither  probably  at  first  by  the  facility  of  get- 
ting beaver,  while  the  woods  were  but  little  cleared,  and  there  was 
plenty  of  those  animals.  The  case  is  greatly  altered  now.  The 
beaver  skins  are  not  now  to  be  had  in  New  England,  but  from 
veiy  remote  places  and  at  great  prices.  The  trade  is  accordingly 
declining  there  ;  so  that,  far  from  being  able  to  make  hats  in  any 
quantity  for  exportation,  they  cannot  supply  their  home  demand  ; 
and  it  is  well  known,  that  some  thousand  dozens  are  sent  thither 
yearly  from  London,  Bristol,  and  Liverpool,  and  sold  cheaper  than 
the  inhabitants  can  make  them  of  equal  goodness. 

In  fact,  the  colonies  are  so  little  suited  for  establishing  of 
manufacture,  that  they  are  continually  losing  the  few  branches 
they  accidentally  gain.  The  working  braziers,  cutlers,  and  pew- 
terers,  as  well  as  hatters,  who  have  happened  to  go  over  from 
time  to  time  and  settle  in  the  colonies,  gradually  drop  the  working 
part  of  their  business,  and  import  their  respective  goods  from 
England,  whence  they  can  have  them  cheaper  and  better  than  they 
can  make  them.  They  continue  their  shops  indeed,  in  the  same 
way  of  dealing ;  but  become  sellers  of  braziery,  cutlery,  pewter, 
hats,  &c.  brought  from  England,  instead  of  being  makers  of  those 
goods.  .  .  , 

^  Annapolis,  Feb.  20,  1773 

Your  observations  on  the  resources  of  America  are  well  founded. 
I  grant  they  are  infinite,  and  I  am  persuaded  that,  in  process  of 
time,  she  will  be  enabled  to  avail  herself  of  innumerable  advantages  ; 
but  those  that  assert  she  will  effectually  rival  Great  Britain  in  that 
invaluable  staple  of  her  commerce,  the  ivoollcn  mamifactory,  are, 

1  Eddis,  Letters  from  America  [1769-1777],  pp.  139-140,  141-145. 


MANUFACTURES 


Zl 


indeed,  by  far  too  sangiiine  in  tlicir  expectations  :  coarse  cloths 
for  the  wear  of  ser\ants  and  negroes,  tlie  colonists  may  probably 
be  enabled  to  manufacture,  but  insurmountable  objections  arise  to 
the  production  of  those  of  a  superior  quality.   .   .   . 

In  Maryland,  and  in  the  adjacent  provinces,  the  cold  is  more 
severe  from  January  till  the  beginning  of  May,  than  in  any  part  of 
the  island  of  Great  i^ritain  ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  American 
farmer  is  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  housing  his  sheep  during  that 
rigid  season.  Summer  may,  literally,  be  said  to  be  seated  on  the 
lap  of  winter,  and  the  immediate  transition  from  cold  to  heat  is, 
evidently,  extremely  prejudicial  to  the  growth  and  improxement  of 
wool ;  so  that  in  quality  it  is  greatly  inferior ;  nor  is  the  quantity 
produced  proportionable  to  what  is  yielded  in  the  milder  regions 
of  the  parent  state. 

Under  these  disadvantages  it  may  reasonably  be  concluded,  that 
the  American  settlements  will  ever  be  necessitated  to  look  up  to 
Britain  for  a  very  considerable  supply  of  her  invaluable  staple. 
And  even  if  these  causes  did  not  operate,  many  years  must  un- 
avoidably elapse  before  the  colonists  can  establish  or  conduct 
manufactures  in  such  a  manner,  as  to  enable  them  to  supply,  even 
their  own  wants,  on  terms  of  greater  advantage  than  by  relying  on 
external  assistance. 

This  immense  continent  will  require  a  considerable  population 
before  the  inhabitants  can,  with  any  propriety,  divert  their  atten- 
tion from  agriculture.  To  settle,  and  to  cultivate  lands  must  be 
their  first  great  object ;  and  the  produce  of  those  exertions  they 
must  barter  in  exchange  for  European  manufactures.  In  vain  is 
encouragement  held  forth,  to  induce  ingenious  artizans  to  emigrate 
from  their  original  situations.  On  their  arrival,  either  the  allure- 
ments which  tempted  them  deceive  their  expectations ;  or  the 
natural  wish  to  obtain  a  perm.anent  establishment,  supercedes 
every  other  consideration,  and  induces  a  great  majority  of  these 
adventurers  to  purchase  lands  which,  comparatively,  bear  no  price, 
and  the  purchasers  are  reduced  to  rely  on.  time  and  industiy  to 
recompence  their  assiduity. 

Another  circumstance,  very  imporUmt  in  its  nature,  likewise 
demands  attention.    The  price  of  labour  must  be  greatly  lessened 


38  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

before  the  Americans  can  possibly  manufacture  to  any  advantage  ; 
and  this  inconvenience  cannot  be  remedied,  until,  by  an  overplus 
of  people,  there  are  competitors  in  every  art,  and  a  sufficient 
number  of  opulent  inhabitants  to  encourage  and  reward  their 
ingenuity. 

At  present,  it  is  evident,  that  almost  every  article  of  use  or 
ornament,  is  to  be  obtained  on  much  more  reasonable  terms  from 
the  mother  country,  than  from  artizans  settled  on  this  side  the 
Atlantic,  It  is  also  as  certain,  that  goods  of  every  kind  produced, 
or  manufactured  in  England,  are  greatly  superior  to  the  produce 
or  manufactures  of  this  continent.  In  process  of  time,  but  a  time 
far  distant,  the  colonies  may,  undoubtedly,  from  their  great  re- 
sources, be  enabled  to  rival  Britain  in  many  valuable  articles  of 
commerce.  But  in  your  grand  staple,  the  growth  and  manufacture 
of  wool,  you  will,  in  a  general  point  of  view,  stand  single  and  prc- 
cniincnt.  Nature,  in  this  particular,  has  been  exuberantly  bounti- 
ful. Your  fertile  downs  are  a  source  of  inexhaustible  wealth. 
Support  that  superiority,  which  the  benevolence  of  heaven  has 
blessed  you  with,  by  a  judicious  and  industrious  exertion  of  local 
advantages,  and  the  power  and  splendor  of  Great  Britain  will  defy 
the  utmost  efforts  of  our  position,  and  remain  for  ages  with  un- 
diminished lustre  ! 

^  Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  bad  effects  of  the 
American  colonists  going  into  manufactures,  but  no  satisfactory 
account  has  been  given  of  the  amount  of  such  fabrics,  which  has 
been  owing  to  Parliament's  never  having  ordered  a  return  of  them 
to  be  laid  before  them.  Some  late  writers  have  urged  strongly  the 
magnitude  to  which  these  manufactures  have  arisen,  but  it  has 
been  from  calculations  founded  on  dubious  authority.  In  this  case 
the  general  idea  of  the  necessity  of  making  that  we  cannot  Iniy 
would  be  satisfactory,  did  we  know  the  amount  of  their  consump- 
tion, and  that  of  their  means  of  satisfying  it.   .   .   . 

By  manufactures  are  not  to  be  understood  the  fabrics  of  private 
families,  who  work  only  for  their  own  use,  but  th(«e  only  that  are 
wrought  for  sale,  and  which  are  the  only  or  principal  livelihood  of 

1  American  Husbandry  [1775],  -^I'  ~Sl~~^li  287-288. 


MANUFACTURES  39 

the  persons  concerned  and  employed  in  them.  This  is  a  distinction 
which  our  writers  have  not  attended  to  sufficiently  ;  for  tho'  the 
population  of  a  settlement  that  entirely  supports  itself  is  of  little 
or  no  value  to  Britain,  yet  as  it  is  passive,  and  no  more  than 
supports  itself,  it  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  another  branch  of 
population,  which  is  employed  in  cloathing,  &c.  itself  and  others 
too  —  that  is,  manufacturing  for  sale.  As  to  the  first  evil,  no 
remedy  in  the  world  can  be  applied  to  it  that  will  be  effectual  ; 
nor  is  it  an  object  which  can  ever  claim  the  attention  of  the 
mother-country.   .  .  . 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  discover  the  amount  of  their 
manufactures  for  sale  :  we  are  to  consider  that  there  are  other 
articles  in  their  imports  besides  manufactures,  wine,  rum,  sugar, 
India  commodities,  &c.  all  which  amount  to  considerable  sums. 
The  means  by  which  they  can  purchase  those  and  manufactures 
are  their  exports,  the  produce  of  their  lands  —  the  produce  of  their 
fisheries,  and  the  profits  of  their  commerce  ;  the  two  first  are  pretty 
well  known,  but  the  latter,  open  and  clandestine,  is  very  great,  and 
no  guess  can  be  given  of  its  amount. 

That  the  manufactures  for  sale  are  not  so  great  as  some  have 
imagined,  may  be  conceived  from  the  vast  number  of  inhabit^mts, 
who  in  all  probability  work  entirely  for  themselves  ;  in  a  country 
where  the  minute  division  of  landed  property  is  so  great  as  in  the 
most  populous  of  the  northern  colonies,  and  in  a  climate  that  will 
yield  little  valualole,  it  is  impossible  that  the  people  should  be  able 
to  p2irchasc  manufactures  :  poor  countiymen  in  England  do  it  be- 
cause all  their  income  is  paid  them  in  money,  whatever  may  be  their 
work ;  but  in  America  day-labourers  are  rarely  to  be  found,  except 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  great  towns  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  man  who 
in  England  would  be  a  labourer,  would  there  be  a  little  freeholder, 
who  probably  raising  for  many  years  but  little  for  sale,  is  forced  to 
work  up  his  wool  in  his  family,  his  leather,  and  his  flax,  after  which, 
the  rest  of  his  consumption  is  scarce  worth  mentioning.  The  num- 
ber of  people  in  the  northern  colonies  who  come  under  this  de- 
nomination is  very  great,  and  consequently  the  deductions  to  be 
made  from  the  total  consumption  veiy  considerable  :  it  is  not  a 
difficult  matter  to  calculate  how  much  a  head  would  supply  the  total 


40  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

of  a  people  with  manufactures  ;  this  has  been  calculated  ;  but  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  guess  the  amount  of  purchased  manufactures, 
which  is  the  only  important  point. 

In  this  enquiry  we  should  not  confine  ourselves  to  the  northern 
colonies,  but  take  into  the  account  that  part  of  the  population  of 
the  tobacco  ones  which  is  not  employed  on  tobacco  ;  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  total  :  as  any  person  may  judge  who  recollects 
that  soon  after  the  peace  the  number  of  people  in  Virginia  and 
Maryland  was  calculated  at  800,000,  the  export  of  tobacco  there- 
fore is  not  much  above  20s.  a  head  ;  instead  of  which,  those  who 
are  employed  by  that  staple  are  able,  in  all  probability,  to  consume 
5,  6,  or  81.  a  head  in  imported  commodities,  and  the  rest  of  the 
people  scarcely  any  thing,  as  they  must,  like  their  brethren  to  the 
north,  manufacture  almost  every  thing  they  use.  If  the  imported 
commodities  in  these  colonies  are  assigned  to  200,000  people, 
there  will  remain  600,000,  whose  purchased  consumption  is  small ; 
and  if  the  common  calculation  is  taken,  of  their  being  at  the 
peace  1,000,000  of  people  in  the  northern  colonies,  we  then  find 
1,600,000  souls,  among  whom  the  imports  are  in  some  proportion 
or  other  to  be  divided.  The  exports  from  Great  Britain  are  as 
follows  : 

Canada ^f  105, 000 

Nova  Scotia 26,500 

New  England 407,000 

New  York 531,000 

Pensylvania 611,000 

;,{^i,68o,5oo 

If  the  population  of  these  was  1,000,000,  they  imported  about 
32  s.  6d.  a  head:  if  we  allow  5  1.  a  head  for  all  \h-AX.  pnrcJiascd 
their  consumption,  the  number  this  importation  supplied  is  336,000, 
at  which  rate  (to  speak  nothing  of  West  Indian  and  foreign  im- 
ports) 664,000  persons  manufactured  for  themselves,  besides  the 
proportion  of  the  tobacco  settlements.  Hence  if  these  data  are  just, 
we  may  suppose  one  third  of  the  people  to  consume  purchased 
commodities,  and  two  thirds  to  manufacture  for  themselves  ;  but 
this  supposes  their  own  fabrics  for  sale  to  be  inconsiderable,  and 
that  5  1.  a  head  is  for  only  a  partial  consumption. 


MANUFACrURKS  4 1 

There  is  yet  another  lii;]it  in  which  this  point  is  to  be  viewed, 
which  is  a  diiferent  classing  of  the  people  ;  for  the  sake  of  explain- 
ing the  clearer  what  I  mean,  I  will  suppose  a  division  of  the  million 
of  people  in  the  northern  colonies. 

200,000  who  consume  of  foreign  manufactures,  Sec.  only  2s.  6cl.  a  head 
500,000  who  consume  a  liead  40  s. 
300,000  who  consume  5I. 

The  first ;i^25,ooo 

The  second 1,000,000 

The  third 1,500,000 

;^2, 525,000 

Import  from  Britain 1,680,500 

According  to  this  account,  they  must  buy  of  foreigners,  or 

work  among  tliemselves  for  sale,  to  the  amount  of   .     .     .     ^'844,500 

For  in  this  idea  the  fabrics  worked  in  private  families  have  no 
place ;  if  they  were  taken  in,  the  poorest  would  consume  far  more 
than  2s.  6d.  There  is  nothing  extravagant  in  this  account;  nor 
can  it  be  supposed  that  the  manufactures  of  the  northern  colonies 
amount  to  less  than  844,5001.  In  case  the  consumption  of  the 
classes  is  greater,  then  this  amount  will  of  course  be  proportion- 
ably  larger. 

Supposing  this  sum  to  be  the  fact,  or  near  it  —  or  if  we  call 
their  manufactures  for  sale  a  million,  I  do  not  think  it  an  amount 
that  ought  greatly  to  alarm  the  mother-countiy,  provided  she  took 
proper  measures  to  obviate  their  ill  effects,  which  measures  would 
be  very  easily  planned  and  executed.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  that 
a  very  considerable  portion  of  this  sum  must  be  expended  in  fab- 
rics, the  whole  of  which  Britain  cannot  expect  to  furnish  —  and 
which  in  fact  she  does  not  furnish  to  any  colony,  for  the  last  hand, 
to  a  variety  of  articles,  cannot  be  put  at  London,  but  must  neces- 
sarily be  executed  in  America,  and  the  labours  of  those  workmen 
and  artizans  is  there  blended  with  the  price  of  the  manufacture. 

All  that  this  kingdom  can  expect  from  the  northern  colonies,  is 
to  keep  down  public  manufactories,  which  take  the  wool  from  the 
sheeps  back,  and  convert  it  into  cloth  ;  the  flax  from  the  ground, 
and  make  it  into  linen  and  lace ;  the  skin  off  the  beast,  and  turn 
it  to  finished  fabrics  of  leather ;  the  iron  from  the  ore,  and  con- 
vert it  into  the  variety  of  utensils  which  Sheflfield  and  Birmingham 


42 


COLONIAL  ECONOMY 


exhibit ;  and  the  same  in  other  instances  :  but  this  reasoning  must 
not  be  carried  too  far  in  any  of  these  articles  ;  there  are  objects 
which  when  completed  from  wool,  leather,  and  iron,  will  still  be  of 
such  small  value,  that  the  very  freight  from  Britain  and  carriage  to 
the  consumer  would  be  twice  the  worth,  such  we  may  be  sure  will 
be  wrought  in  the  colony.  But  when  we  see  them  making  cloth  of 
I2s.  a  yard,  linen  of  5  s.,  hats  of  i6s.  each,  locks,  keys,  and  curi- 
ous articles  of  hard-ware,  which  is  the  case,  we  may  then  be  certain 
that  the  policy  of  this  kingdom  is  deficient ;  and  that  without  vio- 
lence, such  manufactures  might  be  put  down. 

We  are  to  remember,  that  the  colonists  are  under  great  difficul- 
ties in  their  attempts  to  raise  manufactories  for  sale.  The  mother- 
country  has  the  power  of  introducing  her  own  fabrics  as  cheap  as 
she  pleases,  and  under  whatever  advantages  of  bounties  or  premi- 
ums she  likes  to  grant ;  which  she  can  do  in  her  exportation  of 
them  to  no  other  market.  Every  where  else  they  meet  with  duties 
on  importation,  and  perhaps  prohibitions ;  but  in  America  the 
manufactories  of  Britain  are  openly  in  every  market  without  duty 
or  clog.  In  the  next  place  the  price  of  labour  is  very  great,  greater 
take  the  year  through  than  in  Britain,  which  is  a  material  article ; 
this  must  necessarily  be  the  case  where  land  can  be  had  for  nothing ; 
workmen  may  be  gained  for  high  wages,  but  those  high  wages  will 
presently  enable  them  to  set  up  for  planters  in  a  country  where 
twenty  pounds  is  a  fortune  sufficient  to  begin  with  ;  thus  the  master 
manufacturers  can  never  keep  the  men  after  they  have  got  them, 
which  must  lay  them  under  almost  insuperable  difficulties,  or  sub- 
ject them  to  expences  which  will  make  their  manufactures  much 
dearer  than  those  of  Britain. 

The  long  winters  and  severe  season  which  stops  most  employ- 
ments, have  been  urged  as  reasons  why  they  may  manufacture 
largely  for  sale  :  but  I  am  not  of  this  opinion  ;  those  who  are  con- 
versant in  our  fabrics  well  know,  that  in  very  sharp  frosts  many  of 
our  manufactures  are  at  a  stand  ;  what  therefore  would  be  at 
Boston  or  New  York,  where  the  frosts  are  in  common  20  degrees 
sharper  than  the  most  severe  we  feel  in  England  ;  and  where  the 
whole  winter  is  frost  and  snow  :  people  can  scarce  keep  their  ex- 
tremities from  freezing  who  attend  to  nothing  else,  how  therefore 


MANUFACTURES  43 

could  the  finer  sorts  of  manufactures  be  carried  on  ?  What  sort 
of  work  would  a  weaver  make,  whose  fingers  were  numbed  with 
cold  ;  or  a  workman  in  steel,  whose  flesh  froze  to  his  manufacture  ? 
In  such  a  climate  manufactures  must  be  carried  on  in  mild  or 
warm  weather,  and  then  the  workmen  may  have  what  they  will 
ask  in  the  field,  and  all  the  advantages  here  stated  are  at  once 
given  up.  Under  such  circumstances  no  fabrics  can  be  made  cheap 
enough  to  under-sell  Britain,  but  such  as  come  extravagantly  dear 
from  her,  and  can  be  made  reasonable  in  America  ;  or  others  so 
inferior  in  kind,  that  freight  and  carriage  make  a  large  proportion 
of  the  whole  value.  .  .  . 

Manufactures  in  these  colonies  have  been  owing  to  the  increase 
of  the  people  being  beyond  the  proportion  of  fresh  land  to  take  off 
the  surplus  of  population  ;  nothing  can  either  put  them  down  or 
prevent  their  increase,  but  drawing  off  many  of  the  inhabitants,  by 
tempting  them  with  a  better  country  and  plenty  of  land,  and  find- 
ing more  profitable  employments  than  manufacturing  for  such 
as  stay  at  home.  These  are  the  grand  objects  :  well  pursued  they 
would  prove  effectual  in  putting  down  all  their  manufactories  for 
sale,  and  preventing  new  ones  being  erected  ;  but  if  the  work  was 
not  sufficiently  executed  thereby,  the  bounty  on  similar  l^ritish  fab- 
rics would  give  the  finishing  stroke.  The  northern  colonies  under 
such  a  system  of  policy  would  no  more  have  manufactures  abound- 
ing among  them  of  their  own  make,  than  the  West  Indies  or  the 
southern  colonies,  excepting  what  was  the  private  work  of  families  ; 
an  object  not  of  much  jealousy  to  Britain,  and  even  those  would  be 
much  lessened  by  the  same  conduct.  At  the  same  time  that  this 
great  and  desirable  effect  took  place,  the  manufacturing  interest  of 
the  mother-country  would  be  amazingly  advanced  more  than  by  any 
other  measure  that  could  be  devised;  for- the  export  to  America 
would  be  increased  proportionably  to  tlie  quantity  made  by  the 
American  manufactories  for  sale,  and  the  import  of  naval  stores  ; 
so  that  instead  of  paying  a  vast  sum  in  bullion  to  the  Baltic  for 
those  commodities,  they  would  be  bought  of  the  colonies  with 
manufactures,  a  difference  infinitely  great.  The  trade  and  naviga- 
tion of  Britain  would  be  greaUy  encouraged  —  and  her  American 
affairs  would  be  thrown  on  a  footing  that  would,  if  well  pursued, 


44  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

be  effectual  in  preventing  those  many  evils  which  cannot  but  arise 
from  the  establishment  of  manufactures  among  the  colonists.  .  .  . 


in.    IMMIGRATION  AND  THE  SUPPLY  OF  LABORERS 

^  In  some  years,  more  people  have  transported  themselves  into 
Pennsylvania,  than  into  all  the  other  settlements  together.  In 
1729,  six  thousand  two  hundred  and  eight  persons  came  to  settle 
here  as  passengers  or  servants,  four  fifths  of  whom  at  least  were 
from  Ireland.  In  short,  this  province  has  increased  so  greatly 
from  the  time  of  its  first  establishment,  that,  whereas  lands  were 
given  by  Mr.  Penn  the  founder  of  the  colony  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
pounds  for  a  thousand  acres,  reserving  only  a  shilling  every  hun- 
dred acres  for  quit-rent ;  and  this  in  some  of  the  best  situated 
parts  of  the  province  :  yet  now,  at  a  great  distance  from  navigation, 
land  is  granted  at  twelve'  pounds  the  hundred  acres,  and  a  quit- 
rent  of  four  shillings  reserved  ;  and  the  land  which  is  near  Phila- 
delphia rents  for  twenty  shillings  the  acre.  In  many  places,  and 
at  the  distance  of  several  miles  from  that  city,  land  sells  for  twenty 
years  purchase. 

The  Pennsylvanians  are  an  industrious  and  hardy  people ;  they 
are  most  of  them  substantial,  though  but  a  few  of  the  landed  people 
can  be  considered  as  rich  ;  but  they  are  all  well  lodged,  well  fed, 
and  for  their  condition,  well  clad  too  ;  and  this  at  the  more  easy 
rate,  as  the  inferior  people  manufacture  most  of  their  own  wear, 
both  linens  and  woollens.  There  are  but  few  Blacks,  not  in  all 
the  fortieth  part  of  the  people  of  the  province.  .  .   . 

Pennsylvania  is  inhabited  by  upwards  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  people,  half  of  whom  are  Germans,  Swedes,  or  Dutch. 
Here  you  see  the  Quakers,  Churchmen,  Calvinists,  Lutherans, 
Catholics,  Methodists,  Menists,  Moravians,  Independents,  the  Ana- 
baptists, and  the  Dumplers,  a  sort  of  German  sect,  that  live  in 
something  like  a  religious  society,  wear  long  beards,  and  a  habit 
resembling  that  of  friars.  In  short,  the  diversity  of  people,  religions, 
nations,  and  languages  here,  is  prodigious,  and  the  harmony  in 
which  they  live  together  no  less  edifying.  .  .  . 

^  Burke,  European  Settlements  in  America  [1761],  II,  205-206,  199,  200-201. 


IMMIGRATION  AND  SUPPLY  OF  LABORERS  45 

It  was  certainly  a  very  right  policy  to  encourage  the  importation 
of  foreigners  into  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  into  our  other  colonies. 
By  this  we  are  great  gainers,  without  any  diminution  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  Great  Britain.  But  it  has  been  frequently  observed,  and, 
as  it  should  seem,  very  justly  complained  of,  that  they  are  left  still 
foreigners,  and  likely  to  continue  so  for  many  generations  ;  as  they 
have  schools  taught,  books  printed,  and  even  the  common  news 
paper  in  their  own  language  ;  by  which  means,  and  as  they  possess 
large  tracts  of  the  country  without  any  intermixture  of  ICnglisli, 
there  is  no  appearance  of  their  blending  and  becoming  one  people 
with  us.  This  certainly  is  a  great  irregularity,  and  the  greater,  as 
these  foreigners,  by  their  industry,  frugality,  and  a  hard  way  of 
living,  in  which  they  greatly  exceed  our  people,  have  in  a  manner 
thrust  themselves  out  in  several  places  ;  so  as  to  threaten  the  col- 
ony with  the  danger  of  being  wholly  foreign  in  language,  manners, 
and  perhaps  even  inclinations.  In  the  year  1750,  were  imported 
into  Pennsylvania  and  its  dependencies  four  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  Germans,  whereas  of  British  and  Irish  but  one 
thousand  arrived  ;  a  considerable  number,  if  it  was  not  so  vastly 
overbalanced  by  that  of  the  foreigners.  .  .  . 

1  In  the  course  of  my  excursions,  I  have  conversed  with  divers 
intelligent  planters  who  emigrated  to  this  countr)',  on  account  of 
various  discouraging  circumstances  which  baffled  their  utmost  in- 
dustiy  at  home.  A  principal  cause  which  has  been  assigned  by 
very  many  for  becoming  adventurers  in  this  part  of  the  world,  is 
the  custom,  which  is  becoming  too  prevalent  in  England,  of  farm- 
ing extensive  farms,  for  the  accomodation  of  wealthy  tenants,  and 
for  greater  facilit)-'  in  collecting  the  rents. 

Whatever  present  advantages  may  arise  from  this  practice,  be 
assured  a  perseverance  therein  will  be  attended  with  consequences 
very  prejudicial,  for  by  this  means  a  sensible  depopulation  will 
ensue  ;  a  considerable  tract  of  country  will  be  occupied  by  few 
inhabitants,  and  a  multitude  of  valuable  members  of  the  commu- 
nity, will  be  obliged  to  abandon  their  homes  and  connexions,  and 
to  court  fortune  in  a  distant  region,  where  land  may  be  procured 
1  Eddis,  Letters  from  America  [1769-1777],  pp.  109-110,  63-75. 


46  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

for  a  trifling  consideration,  and  where  the  greatest  encouragement 
is  held  out  to  skill  and  application.   .   .   . 

Your  information  relative  to  the  situation  of  servants  in  this 
country,  is  far  from  being  well-founded.  I  have  now  been  upwards 
of  twelve  months  resident  in  Maryland,  and  am  thereby  enabled  to 
convey  to  you  a  tolerable  idea  on  this  subject. 

t  Persons  in  a  state  of  servitude  are  under  four  distinct  denomi- 
nations :  negroes,  who  are  the  entire  property  of  their  respective 
owners  ;  convicts,  who  are  transported  from  the  mother  country 
for  a  limited  term  ;  indented  servants,  who  are  engaged  for  five 
years  previous  to  their  leaving  England  ;  and  free-willers,  who  are 
supposed,  from  their  situation,  to  possess  superior  advantages. 
y^he  negroes  in  this  province  are,  in  general,  natives  of  the 
country ;  very  few  in  proportion  being  imported  from  the  coast 
of  Africa.  They  are  better  cloathed,  better  fed,  and  better  treated, 
•than  their  unfortunate  brethren,  whom  a  more  rigid  fate  hath  sub- 
jected to  slavery  in  our  West  India  islands  ;  neither  are  their  em- 
ployments so  laborious,  nor  the  acts  of  the  legislature  so  partially 
oppressive  against  them.  The  further  we  proceed  to  the  northward, 
the  less  number  of  people  are  to  be  found  of  this  complexion  :  In 
the  New  England  government,  negroes  are  almost  as  scarce  as  on 
your  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  but  few  are  under  actual  slavery ; 
but  as  we  advance  to  the  south,  their  multitudes  astonishingly  in- 
crease, and  in  the  Carolinas  they  considerably  exceed  the  number 
of  white  inhabitants. 

Maryland  is  the  only  province  into  which  convicts  may  be  freely 
imported. '  The  Virginians  have  inflicted  very  severe  penalties  on  the 
masters  of  vessels,  or  others,  who  may  attempt  to  introduce  persons 
under  this  description  into  their  colony.  They  have  been  influ- 
enced in  this  measure  by  an  apprehension,  that,  from  the  admis- 
sion of  such  inmates  into  their  families,  the  prevalence  of  bad 
example  might  tend  to  universal  depravity,  in  spite  of  every  regu- 
lation, and  restraining  law. 

Persons  convicted  of  felony,  and  in  consequence  transported  to 
this  continent,  if  they  are  able  to  pay  the  expence  of  passage,  are 
free  to  pursue  their  fortune  agreeably  to  their  inclinations  or  abilities. 
Few,  however,  have  means  to  avail  themselves  of  this  advantage. 


IMMI(}RATION  AND  SUPPLY  OF  LABOR K.RS  47 

These  unhappy  beings  are,  generally,  consigned  to  an  agent,  who 
classes  them  suitably  to  their  real  or  supposed  qualifications  ;  ad- 
vertises them  for  sale,  and  disjaoses  of  them,  for  seven  years,  to 
planters,  to  mechanics,  and  to  such  as  choose  to  retain  tliem  for 
domestic  service.  Those  who  survive  the  term  of  servitude,  seldom 
establish  their  residence  in  this  country  :  the  stamp  of  infamy  is 
too  strong  upon  them  to  be  easily  erased  :  they  either  return  to 
Europe,  and  renew  their  former  practices  ;  or,  if  they  have  fortu- 
nately imbibed  habits  of  honesty  and  industry,  they  remove  to  a 
distant  situation,  where  they  may  hope  to  remain  unknown,  and  be 
enabled  to  pursue  with  credit  eveiy  possible  method  of  becoming 
useful  members  of  society. 

In  your  frequent  excursions  about  the  great  metropolis,  you 
cannot  but  observe  numerous  advertisements,  offering  the  most 
seducing  encouragement  to  adventurers  under  every  possible  de- 
scription ;  to  those  who  are  disgusted  with  the  frowns  of  fortune 
in  their  native  land  ;  and  to  those  of  an  enterprising  disposition, 
who  are  tempted  to  court  her  smiles  in  a  distant  region.  These 
persons  are  referred  to  agents,  or  crim]3s,  who  represent  the  advan- 
tages to  be  obtained  in  America,  in  colours  so  alluring,  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  resist  their  artifices.  L^nwary  persons  are  ac- 
cordingly induced  to  enter  into  articles,  by  which  they  engage  to 
become  servants,  agreeable  to  their  respective  qualifications,  for  the 
term  of  five  years  ;  every  necessar\'  acccjmodation  being  found  them 
during  the  voyage  ;  and  every  method  taken  tliat  they  may  be  treated 
with  tenderness  and  humanity  during  the  period  of  servitude  ;  at 
the  expiration  of  w^hich  they  arc  taught  to  expect,  that  opportuni- 
ties will  assuredly  offer  to  secure  to  the  honest  and  industrious,  ti 
competent  provision  for  the  remainder  of  their  days. 

The  generality  of  the  inhabitants  in  this  province  are  ver\'  little 
acquainted  with  those  fallacious  pretences,  by  whicli  numbers  are 
continually  induced  to  embark  for  this  continent.  On  the  contrary, 
they  too  generally  conceive  an  opinion  that  the  difference  is  merely 
nominal  between  the  indented  servant  and  the  convicted  felon  :  nor 
will  they  readily  believe  that  people,  who  had  the  least  experience 
in  life,  and  whose  characters  were  unexceptionable,  would  abandon 
their  friends  and  families,  and  their  ancient  connexions,  for  a  servile 


48  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

situation,  in  a  remote  appendage  to  the  British  Empire.  From 
this  persuasion  they  rather  consider  the  convict  as  the  more  profit- 
able servant,  his  term  being  for  seven,  the  latter  only  for  five  years  ; 
and,  I  am  sorry  to  observe,  that  there  are  but  few  instances  wherein 
they  experience  different  treatment.  Negroes  being  a  property  for 
life,  the  death  of  slaves,  in  the  prime  of  youth  or  strength,  is  a 
material  loss  to  the  proprietor ;  they  are,  therefore  almost  in  every 
instance,  under  more  comfortable  circumstances  than  the  miserable 
European,  over  whom  the  rigid  planter  exercises  an  inflexible  se- 
verity. They  are  strained  to  the  utmost  to  perform  their  allotted 
labour  ;  and,  from  a  prepossession  in  many  cases  too  justly  founded, 
they  are  supposed  to  be  receiving  only  the  just  reward  which  is  due 
to  repeated  offences.  There  are  doubtless  many  exceptions  to  this 
observation,  yet,  generally  speaking,  they  groan  beneath  a  worse 
than  Egyptian  bondage.  By  attempting  to  lighten  the  intolerable 
burthen,  they  often  render  it  more  insupportable.  For  real,  or  im- 
aginary causes,  these  frequently  attempt  to  escape,  but  very  few 
are  successful ;  the  countiy  being  intersected  with  rivers,  and  the 
utmost  vigilance  observed  in  detecting  persons  under  suspicious 
circumstances,  who,  when  apprehended,  are  committed  to  close 
confinement,  advertised,  and  delivered  to  their  respective  masters ; 
the  party  who  detects  the  vagrant  being  entitled  to  a  reward.  Other 
incidental  charges  arise.  The  unhappy  culprit  is  doomed  to  a  se- 
vere chastisement ;  and  a  prolongation  of  servitude  is  decreed  in 
full  proportion  to  expences  incurred,  and  supposed  inconveniences 
resulting  from  a  desertion  of  duty. 

The  situation  of  the  free-wilier  is,  in  almost  every  instance,  more 
to  be  lamented  than  either  that  of  the  convict  or  the  indented  serv- 
ant ;  the  deception  which  is  practiced  on  those  of  this  description 
being  attended  with  circumstances  of  greater  duplicity  and  cruelty. 
Persons  under  this  denomination  are  received  under  express  con- 
ditions that,  on  their  arrival  in  America,  they  are  to  be  allowed  a 
stipulated  number  of  days  to  dispose  of  themselves  to  the  greatest 
advantage.  They  are  told,  that  their  services  will  be  eagerly  solic- 
ited, in  proportion  to  their  abilities  ;  that  their  reward  will  be  ade- 
quate to  the  hazard  they  encounter  by  courting  fortune  in  a  distant 
region  ;  and  that  the  parties  with  whom  they  engage  will  readily 


IMMIGRATION  AND  SUPPLY  OF  T-.\PORERS         49 

advance  the  sum  agreed  on  for  their  passage ;  which,  being  aver- 
aged at  about  nine  pounds  sterling,  they  will  speedily  be  enabled 
to  repay,  and  to  enjoy,  in  a  sbite  of  liberty,  a  comparative  situation 
of  ease  and  affluence. 

With  these  pleasing  ideas  they  support,  with  cheerfulness,  the 
hardships  to  which  they  are  subjected  during  the  voyage  ;  and,  with 
the  most  anxious  sensations  of  delight,  approach  the  land  which  they 
consider  as  the  scene  of  future  prosperity.  But  scarce  have  they 
contemplated  the  diversified  objects  which  naturally  attract  atten- 
tion ;  scarce  have  they  yielded  to  the  pleasing  reflection,  that  every 
danger,  every  difficulty,  is  happily  surmounted,  before  their  fond 
hopes  are  cruelly  blasted,  and  they  find  themselves  involved  in  all 
the  complicated  miseries  of  a  tedious,  laborious,  and  unprofitable 
servitude. 

Persons  resident  in  America,  being  accustomed  to  procure  serv- 
ants for  a  very  trifling  consideration,  under  absolute  terms,  for  a 
limited  period,  are  not  often  disposed  to  hire  adventurers,  who  ex- 
pect to  be  gratified  in  full  proportion  to  their  acknowledged  quali- 
fications ;  but,  as  they  support  authority  with  a  rigid  hand,  they 
little  regard  the  former  situation  of  their  unhappy  dependants. 

This  disposition,  which  is  almost  universally  prevalent,  is  well 
known  to  the  parties,  who  on  your  side  of  the  Atlantic  engage  in 
this  iniquitous  and  cruel  commerce.  It  is,  therefore,  an  article  of 
agreement  with  these  deluded  victims,  that  if  they  are  not  success- 
ful in  obtaining  situations,  on  their  own  terms,  within  a  certain 
number  of  days  after  their  arrival  in  the  country,  they  are  then  to 
be  sold,  in  order  to  defray  the  charges  of  passage,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  master  of  the  vessel,  or  the  agent  to  whom  he  is  consigned 
in  the  province. 

You  are  also  to  observe,  that  servants  imported,  even  under  this 
favourable  description,  are  rarely  permitted  to  set  their  feet  on 
shore,  until  they  have  absolutely  formed  their  respective  engage- 
ments. As  soon  as  the  ship  is  stationed  in  her  berth,  planters, 
mechanics,  and  others,  repair  on  board  ;  the  adventurers  of  both 
sexes  are  exposed  to  view,  and  very  few  are  happy  enough  to  make 
their  own  stipulations,  some  very  extraordinaiy  qualifications  being 
absolutely  requisite  to  obtain  this  distinction  ;   and  even  when  this 


50  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

is  obtained,  the  advantages  are  by  no  means  equivalent  to  their 
sanguine  expectations.  The  residue,  stung  with  disappointment 
and  vexation,  meet  with  horror  the  moment  which  dooms  them, 
under  an  appearance  of  equity,  to  a  hmited  term  of  slavery.  Char- 
acter is  of  little  importance  ;  their  abilities  not  being  found  of  a 
superior  nature,  they  are  sold  as  soon  as  their  term  of  election  is 
expired,  apparel  and  provision  being  their  only  compensation  ;  till, 
on  the  expiration  of  five  tedious  laborious  years,  they  are  restored 
to  a  dearly  purchased  freedom. 

From  this  detail,  I  am  persuaded,  you  will  no  longer  imagine, 
that  the  servants  in  this  country  are  in  a  better  situation  than  those 
in  Britain.   . 

1  I  have  more  than  once  mentioned  the  high  price  of  labour : 
this  article  depends  on  the  circumstance  I  have  now  named  ;  where 
families  are  so  far  from  being  burthensome,  men  marry  very  young, 
and  where  land  is  in  such  plenty,  men  very  soon  become  farmers, 
however  low  they  set  out  in  life.  Where  this  is  the  case,  it  must 
at  once  be  evident  that  the  price  of  labour  must  be  verv'  dear ; 
nothing  but  a  high  price  will  induce  men  to  labour  at  all,  and  at 
the  same  time  it  presently  puts  a  conclusion  to  it  by  so  soon  en- 
abling them  to  take  a  piece  of  waste  land.  By  day  labourers,  which 
are  not  common  in  the  colonies,  one  shilling  will  do  as  much  in 
England  as  half  a  crown  in  New  England.  This  makes  it  neces- 
sary to  depend  principally  on  servants,  and  on  labourers  who  article 
themselves  to  serve  three,  five,  or  seven  years,  which  is  always  the 
case  with  new  comers  who  are  in  poverty.   .   .   . 

Pensylvania  is  not  without  negro  slaves  for  cultivation,  though 
the  number  bears  no  proportion  to  the  white  servants  ;  it  may  also 
be  proper  to  remark,  that  there  are  in  this  province,  and  it  is  the 
same  in  others,  a  difference  in  the  white  servants  ;  they  have, 
throughout  the  province,  the  same  sort  of  servants  that  perform 
work  in  England,  that  is  hired  by  the  year,  in  which  case,  they  are 
washed,  lodged,  and  boarded,  but  find  their  own  cl oaths  ;  an  able 
bodied  man,  in  husbandry,  will  get  from  lol.  to  i6  1.  a  year  ster- 
ling.   Maids  will  get  so  high  as  5  1.  to  7  1.    Another  sort  of  white 

^  American  Husbandry  ['7751'  !>  73'  169-170. 


TRADE  TO  WEST  INDIES  AND  MEDITERRANEAN 


51 


servants,  which  are  unknown  in  Britain,  arc  the  new  settlers  that 
are  poor.  Very  many  of  these  cannot  even  pay  their  jDassage  from 
Europe,  which  amounts  to  10  1.  sterhnjj^,  and  agree  therefore  with 
the  captain  of  the  ship,  that  he  shall  sell  them  for  a  certain  num- 
ber of  years  to  be  servants,  in  which  case  the  farmers  buy  them, 
that  is  pay  their  freight,  &c.  and  this  usually  puts  something  also 
in  the  captain's  pocket,  beyond  what  he  would  othenvise  have.  If 
the  passenger  has  some  money,  but  not  enough,  he  is  then  sold 
for  a  shorter  time  to  make  up  the  sum.  There  are  laws  in  the  prov- 
ince to  regulate  tliis  kind  of  ser\'itude,  which  seems  very  strange 
to  us  ;  the  master  is  bound  to  feed,  clothe,  and  use  the  servant  as 
well  as  others.  Others  that  have  money  enough  to  pay  for  their 
passage,  especially  Germans,  yet  will  not  pay,  but  choose  to  be  sold 
in  order  to  have  time  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  language  and  the 
manner  of  living  in  the  country.  I^oth  these  sorts  of  servants  are 
greatly  preferred  to  the  common  hiring  method  ;  for  the  wages  do 
not  amount  to  much  more  than  half  the  other,  and  at  the  same 
time  there  is  a  security  of  keeping  them,  which  with  common 
servants  is  not  the  case  ;  nor  are  these  near  so  industrious.  These 
distinctions  in  ser\'itude  are  met  with  in  our  other  colonies,  but 
they  do  not  occur  so  often,  because  for  one  new  comer  in  them, 
there  are  twenty  at  Philadelphia. 


IV.  THE  TRADE  TO  THE  WEST  INDIES  AND  THE 

MEDITERRANEAN 

^  The  Commerce  of  the  British  Northern  Colonies  in  America, 
is  so  peculiarly  circumstanced,  and  from  permanent  causes,  so  per- 
plexed and  embarrassed,  that  it  is  a  business  of  great  difficulty  to 
investigate  it,  and  put  it  in  any  tolerable  point  of  light,  so  that  it 
may  be  understood  ;  this  perhaps  may  be  the  cause  why  so  little 
hafK  been  attempted,  and  still  less  effected,  in  this  intricate  though 
very  interesting  inquir}^ 

That  which  most  particularly  and  unhappily  distinguishes  most 
of  these  Northern  British  Colonies,  from  all  others,  either  British, 

1  An  Essay  on  the  Trade  of  the  Northern  Colonics  of  Great  Hritain  in  North 
America  [1764],  pp.  2-3,  19-20. 


52  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

or  any  other  nation,  is,  that  the  soil  and  climate  of  them,  is  incapa- 
ble of  producing  almost  any  thing  which  will  serve  to  send  directly 
home  to  the  Mother  Country. 

Yet  notwithstanding  this  fatal  disadvantage,  their  situation  and 
circumstances  are  such,  as  to  be  obliged  to  take  off,  and  consume 
greater  quantities  of  British  Manufactures,  than  any  other  Colonies  ; 
their  long  cold  winters,  call  for  much  cloathing,  but  their  deep  and 
lasting  snows,  make  it  impossible  to  keep  sheep,  and  thereby  pro- 
cure wool  to  supply  that  demand.  Again,  the  same  long  winters, 
prevent  the  labour  of  slaves  being  of  any  advantage  in  these 
Colonies  ;  this,  together  with  the  almost  endless  countries  lying 
back,  yet  to  be  settled  and  filled  with  inhabitants,  makes  hands  so 
scarce,  and  labour  so  dear,  that  no  kind  of  manufactories  can  be 
set  up  and  supported  in  these  Colonies  :  And  thus  it  appears  on 
one  hand,  that  the  inhabitants  are  obliged  by  necessity  to  take  great 
quantities  of  goods  from  the  Mother  Countr}^ ;  so  on  the  other,  it 
is  no  less  evident,  that  nature  hath  denied  them  the  means  of  re- 
turning any  thing  directly  thither  to  pay  for  those  goods. 

When  these  singular  circumstances  are  fully  known,  and  duly 
considered,  it  will  easily  be  found  what  the  cause  is,  that  a  much 
greater  number  of  ships  and  smaller  vessels  are  employed  by  the 
people  of  these  Colonies,  than  of  any  others  in  the  world  :  Unable 
to  make  remittances  in  a  direct  way,  they  are  obliged  to  do  it  by  a 
circuity  of  commerce  unpractised  by  and  unnecessary  in  any  other 
Colony.  The  commodities  shipped  off  by  them  are  generally  of 
such  a  nature,  that  they  must  be  consumed  in  the  country  where 
first  sold,  and  will  not  bear  to  be  reshipped  from  thence  to  any 
other ;  from  hence  it  happens  that  no  one  market  will  take  off  any 
great  quantity  ;  this  obliges  these  people  to  look  out  for  markets 
in  every  part  of  the  world  within  their  reach,  where  they  can  sell 
their  goods  for  any  tolerable  price,  and  procure  such  things  in  re- 
turn, as  may  serve  immediately,  or  by  several  commercial  exchanges, 
to  make  a  remittance  home. 

Perhaps  it  may  not  be  disagreeable  to  examine  some  branches 
of  this  commerce  a  little  more  minutely.  We  will  begin  with  those 
Colonies  most  to  the  Northward,  whose  neighbouring  seas  being 
stored  with  fish,  the  inhabitants  turn  their  industry  to  catching  and 


TRADE  TO  WEST  INDIES  AND  MEDITERRANEAN      53 

curing  of  them  ;  and  when  they  are  beeome  fit  to  ship,  all  that  are 
called  merchantable  are  sent  directly  to  Spain,  ]\jrtugal,  and  Italy, 
and  there  sold  for  money  or  bills  of  exchange,  which  are  sent  di- 
rectly to  England,  except  a  very  small  part  returned  in  the  ships 
to  America,  in  Salt,  Raisins,  Lemons,  Pickles,  &c.  A  considerable 
part  of  the  fish  yet  remaining,  which  is  unfit  for  the  European  mar- 
kets, serves  for  feeding  the  slaves  in  the  West- Indies  ;  as  much  of 
this  is  sold  in  the  English  islands  as  they  will  purchase,  and  the 
residue  sold  in  the  French  and  Dutch  Colonies,  and  in  the  end  is 
turned  into  a  remittance  home. 

The  Colonies  next  to  the  Southward  of  those  we  have  been 
speaking  of,  export  lumber,  horses,  pork,  beef,  and  tobacco  (of  a 
poor  and  unmerchantable  kind  which  is  raised  in  them  ;)  of  these 
commodities  as  much  is  sold  in  all  the  English  West-Indies  as 
they  will  purchase,  the  remainder  is  sold  to  the  French  and  Dutch, 
for  molasses  ;  this  molasses  is  brought  intcj  these  Colonies,  and 
there  distilled  into  rum,  which  is  sent  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  and 
there  sold  for  gold,  i\-ory,  and  slaves  ;  the  two  first  of  these  are 
sent  directly  home  ;  the  slaves  are  carried  to  the  luiglish  West- 
Indies,  and  sold  for  money  or  bills  of  exchange,  which  are  also 
remitted  to  England. 

As  we  still  proceed  further  Southward  into  the  next  Colonies,  w^e 
shall  find  their  principal  produce  is  wheat ;  which  being  made  in 
flour,  is  exported,  and  brought  into  all  the  English  ports  in  America  : 
Yet  after  all  these  markets  are  supplied,  a  large  overplus  remains, 
w^hich  is  scjld  to  the  Spaniards,  French  and  Dutch,  as  much  as  is 
possible  for  silver  and  gold,  which  is  all  remitted  to  (ireat  Britain. 

The  most  Southern  Colonies  on  the  continent,  whose  produce 
is  chiefly  tobacco,  naval  stores,  and  rice,  find  a  market  for  their 
goods  in  the  Mother  Countr}',  and  thereby  make  their  remittances 
in  a  more  direct  w^ay,  and  consequently  are  less  concerned  in  that 
tedious  round  of  commerce  to  which  the  others  are  compelled  to 
effect  the  same  end.  .  .  . 

The  last  point  to  be  considered,  is  the  conseciuences  that  must 
foflow  upon  the  limitiition,  restriction,  or  absolute  prohibition  of 
this  Northern  commerce.  And  here,  if  we  consult  experience,  the 
surest  guide  to  right  reasoning  on  such  subjects,  we  shall  find,  that 


54 


COLONIAL  ECONOMY 


the  act  of  the  6th  of  George  the  Second,  commonly  called  the  Sugar 
Act,  laying  so  high  a  duty  on  all  foreign  Sugar,  Molasses,  and  Rum, 
imported  into  the  British  plantations,  amounts,  in  effect,  to  a  pro- 
hibition, hath  never  in  any  degree  increased  the  Ivoyal  Revenue, 
or  brought  any  other  real  advantage  to  the  Mother  Country : 
Neither  hath  it  been  at  all  more  beneficial  to  the  British  Sugar 
Colonies,  at  whose  instance  it  was  procured.  But  although  no 
salutary  consequences  have  any  where  followed  this  act,  yet,  many 
and  great  mischiefs  and  disadvantages,  as  well  as  corrupt  and 
scandalous  practices  have  flowed  from  it  in  all  the  English  Colo- 
nies :  The  merchants,  unwilling  to  quit  a  trade,  which  was  in  a 
great  measure  the  foundation  of  their  whole  circle  of  commerce, 
have  gone  into  many  illicit  methods  to  cover  them  in  still  carrying 
it  on  ;  while  the  Custom-House  Officers  have  made  a  very  lucrative 
jobb  of  shutting  their  eyes,  or  at  least  of  opening  them  no  farther 
than  their  own  private  interest  required.   .   .   . 

1  It  may,  I  think,  be  affirmed,  without  hazard  of  contradiction, 
that  if  ever  there  was  any  one  particular  branch  of  commerce  in 
the  world,  that  called  less  for  restraint  and  limitation  than  any 
other,  it  was  the  trade  which,  previous  to  the  year  1774,  was  car- 
ried on  between  the  planters  of  the  West  Indies  and  the  inhabitants 
of  North  America.  It  was  not  a  traffic  calculated  to  answer  the 
fantastic  calls  of  vanity,  or  to  administer  gratification  to  luxury  or 
vice  ;  but  to  procure  food  for  the  hungry,  and  to  furnish  materials 
(scarce  less  important  than  food)  for  supplying  the  planters  in  two 
capital  objects,  their  buildings,  and  packages  for  their  chief  staple 
productions,  sugar  and  rum.   ... 

For  the  supply  of  those  essential  articles,  lumber,  fish,  flour,  and 
grain,  America  seems  to  have  been  happily  fitted,  as  well  from 
internal  circumstances,  as  her  commodious  situation  ;  and  it  is  to 
a  neighbourly  intercourse  with  that  continent,  continued  during 
one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  that  our  sugar  plantations  in  a  great 
measure  owe  their  prosperity  ;  insomuch  that,  according  to  the 
opinion  of  a  very  competent  judge,  (Mr.  Long)  if  the  continent 

1  Edwards,  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West 
Indies  [1793],  II'  377-37^^  3^°-3^^- 


TRADE  TO  WKST  INDIES  AND  MEDITERRANEAN      55 

had  been  wholly  in  the  hands  of  a  foreign  power,  and  the  i^nglish 
precluded  from  all  commerce  or  intercourse  with  it,  it  is  a  very 
doubtful  point,  whether,  in  such  case,  we  should  at  this  hour  have 
possessed  a  single  acre  of  land  in  the  West  Indies.   .   .   . 

From  this  account  of  the  exports  from  the  British  West  Indies 
to  the  continental  colonies,  it  appears  that  America,  besides  afford- 
ing an  inexhaustible  source  of  supply,  was  also  a  sure  market  for 
the  disposal  of  the  planters  surplus  productions  ;  such,  I  mean, 
for  which  there  was  no  sufficient  vent  in  Europe,  especially  rum  ; 
the  whole  importation  of  that  article  into  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
having  been  little  more  than  half  the  quantity  consumed  in 
America.  On  whatever  side  therefore  this  trade  is  considered,  it 
will  be  found  that  Great  Britain  ultimately  received  the  chief  bene- 
fits resulting  from  it ;  for  the  sugar  planters,  by  being  cheapl}'  and 
regularly  supplied  with  horses,  provisions,  and  lumber,  were  enabled 
to  adopt  the  system  of  management  not  only  most  advantageous  to 
themselves,  but  also  to  the  mother  country.  Much  of  that  land 
which  otherwise  must  have  been  applied  to  the  cultivation  of  pro- 
visions, for  the  maintenance  of  their  negroes  and  the  raising  of 
cattle,  was  appropriated  to  the  cultivation  of  sugar.  By  this  means 
the.  quantity  of  sugar  and  rum  (the  most  profitable  of  their  staples) 
had  increased  to  a  surprising  degree,  and  the  British  re\'enues, 
navigation,  and  general  commerce,  were  proportionably  aug- 
mented, aggrandized,  and  extended.  Having  an  advantageous 
market  for  their  rum,  the  planters  were  enabled  to  deal  so  much 
the  more  largely  with  the  mother  country.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Americans,  being  annually  indebted  to  Great  Brifciin  for  manu- 
factures, in  a  larger  sum  than  their  returns  of  tobacco,  indigo,  rice, 
and  naval  stores  were  sufhcient  to  discharge,  made  up  the  deficiency, 
in  a  great  degree,  by  means  of  their  circuitous  trade  in  the  West 
Indies,  foreign  as  well  as  British  ;  and  were  thus  enabled  to  extend 
their  dealings  with  Great  Britain.  Thus  the  effect  was  just  as  ad- 
vantageous to  her,  as  if  the  sugar  planter  himself  had  been  the 
purchaser  to  the  same  amount,  instead  of  the  American.   .   .   . 


56  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

^  Renwnstrancc  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  to  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Plantations 

To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade  and 
Plantations  ;  humbly  show  : 

The  Governor  and  Company  of  the  English  colony  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  in  New  England,  in.  America, 
convened  at  South  Kingstown,  the  24th  day  of  January,  a.d., 
1 764,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  constituents,  the  merchants, 
planters  and  traders  in  said  colony  — 

That  the  act  passed  in  the  sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  His  late 
Majesty  George  H.,  commonly  called  the  sugar  act,  being  to  ex- 
pire at  the  end  of  the  present  session  of  Parliament ;  and  as  the 
same,  if  continued,  may  be  highly  injurious  and  detrimental  to  all 
His  Majesty's  North  American  colonies  in  general,  and  to  this 
colony  in  particular,  the  said  Governor  and  Company  presume  to 
offer  some  considerations  drawn  from  the  particular  state  and  cir- 
cumstances of  said  colony,  against  the  renewal  of  said  act. 

In  doing  this,  it  is  hoped  that  the  interest  and  advantage  of 
the  mother  country,  will  be  found  to  coincide  with  that  of  the 
colony,  in  the  extinction  of  a  law,  conceived  to  be  prejudicial  to 
both. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island  included  not  a  much  larger  extent 
of  territoiy  than  about  thirty  miles  square  ;  and  of  this,  a  great  part 
is  a  barren  soil,  not  worth  the  expense  of  cultivation  ;  the  number 
of  souls  in  it,  amount  to  forty-eight  thousand,  of  which  the  two 
seaport  towns  of  Newport  and  Providence,  contain  near  one-third. 
The  colony  hath  no  staple  commodity  for  exportation,  and  does 
not  raise  provisions  sufficient  for  its  own  consumption  ;  yet,  the 
goodness  of  its  harbors,  and  its  convenient  situation  for  trade, 
agreeing  with  the  spirit  and  industry  of  the  people,  hath  in  some 
measure  supplied  the  deficiency  of  its  natural  produce,  and  pro- 
vided the  means  of  subsistence  to  its  inhabitants. 

By  a  moderate  calculation,  the  quantity  of  British  manufactures 
and  other  goods  of  eveiy  kind  imported  from  Great  Britain,  and 

1  Records  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  in  New 
England,  VI,  378-383- 


TRADP:  to  west  indies  and  MIT)ITERRANEAN 


57 


annually  consumed  in  this  colony,  amount  at  least  to  ;^  120,000, 
sterling,  part  of  which  is  imported  directly  into  the  colony  ;  but  as 
remittances  are  more  easily  made  to  the  neighbouring  pro\ince 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  than  to 
Great  Britain,  a  considerable  part  is  purchased  from  them. 

This  sum  of  ;^  120,000,  sterling,  may  be  considered  as  a  debt 
due  from  the  colony,  the  payment  of  which  is  the  great  object  of 
every  branch  of  commerce,  carried  on  by  its  inhabitants,  and  exer- 
cises the  skill  and  invention  of  every  trader. 

The  only  articles  produced  in  the  colony,  suitable  for  a  remittance 
to  Europe,  consist  of  some  flax  seed  and  oil,  and  some  few  ships 
built  for  sale  ;  the  whole  amounting  to  about  .;^5,ooo,  sterling,  per 
annum.  The  other  articles  furnished  by  the  colony  for  exportation, 
are  some  lumber,  cheese  and  horses  ;  the  whole  amount  of  all  which 
together  bears  but  a  very  inconsiderable  proportion  to  the  debt  con- 
tracted for  British  goods.  It  can  therefore  be  nothing  but  commerce 
which  enables  us  to  pay  it. 

As  there  is  no  commodity  raised  in  the  colony  suitable  for  the 
European  market,  biit  the  few  articles  aforementioned  ;  and  as  the 
other  goods  raised  for  exportation,  will  answer  at  no  market  but  in 
the  West  Indies,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  trade  thither  must 
be  the  foundation  of  all  our  commerce  ;  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true, 
that  solely  from  the  prosecution  of  this  trade  with  the  other  branches 
that  are  pursued  in  consequence  of  it,  arises  the  ability  to  pay  for 
such  quantities  of  British  goods. 

It  appears  from  the  custom  house  books,  in  Newport,  that  from 
January,  1 763,  to  January,  1 764,  there  were  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  sail  of  vessels  bound  on  foreign  voyages  ;  that  is,  to  Europe, 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies  ;  and  three  hundred  and  fifty-two  sail 
of  vessels  employed  in  the  coasting  trade  ;  that  is,  between  Georgia 
and  Newfoundland,  inclusive  ;  which,  with  the  fishing  vessels,  are 
navigated  by  at  least  twenty-two  hundred  seamen. 

Of  these  foreign  vessels,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  are  annually 
eYnployed  in  the  West  India  trade,  which  import  into  this  colony 
about  fourteen  thousand  hogsheads  of  molasses  ;  whereof,  a  quantity, 
not  exceeding  twenty-five  hundred  hogsheads,  come  from  all  the 
English  islands  together. 


58  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

It  is  this  quantity  of  molasses  which  serves  as  an  engine  in  the 
hands  of  the  merchant  to  effect  the  great  purpose  of  paying  for 
l^ritish  manufactures  ;  for  part  of  it  is  exported  to  the  Massachusetts 
Bay,  to  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  to  pay  for  l^ritish  goods,  for 
provisions  and  for  many  articles  which  compose  our  West  India 
cargoes  ;  and  part  to  the  other  colonies,  southward  of  these  last 
mentioned,  for  such  commodities  as  serve  for  a  remittance  im- 
mediately to  Europe  ;  such  as  rice,  naval  stores,  &c.,  or  such  as 
are  necessary  to  enable  us  to  carry  on  our  commerce  ;  the  re- 
mainder (besides  what  is  consumed  by  the  inhabitants)  is  dis- 
tilled into  rum,  and  exported  to  the  coast  of  Africa  ;  nor  will  this 
trade  to  Africa  appear  to  be  of  little  consequence,  if  the  following 
account  of  it  be  considered. 

Formerly,  the  negroes  upon  the  coast  were  supplied  with  large 
quantities  of  French  brandies;  but  in  the  year  1723,  some  mer- 
chants in  this  colony  first  introduced  the  use  of  rum  there,  which, 
from  small  beginnings  soon  increased  to  the  consumption  of  several 
thousand  hogsheads  yearly ;  by  which  the  French  are  deprived  of 
the  sale  of  an  equal  quantity  of  brandy ;  and  as  the  demand  for 
rum  is  annually  increasing  upon  the  coast,  there  is  the  greatest 
reason  to  think,  that  in  a  few  years,  if  this  trade  be  not  discouraged, 
the  sale  of  French  brandies  there  will  be  entirely  destroyed.  This 
little  colony,  only,  for  more  than  thirty  years  past,  has  annually 
sent  about  eighteen  sail  of  vessels  to  the  coast,  which  have  carried 
about  eighteen  hundred  hogsheads  of  rum,  together  with  a  small 
quantity  of  provisions  and  some  other  articles,  which  have  been 
sold  for  slaves,  gold  dust,  elephants'  teeth,  camwood,  &c.  The 
slaves  have  been  sold  in  the  English  islands,  in  Carolina  and  Vir- 
ginia, for  bills  of  exchange,  and  the  other  articles  have  been  sent 
to  Europe  ;  and  by  this  trade  alone,  remittances  have  been  made 
from  this  colony  to  Great  Britain,  to  the  value  of  about  ^^40,000, 
yearly;  and  this  rum,  carried  to  the  coast,  is  so  far  from  prejudic- 
ing the  British  trade  thither,  that  it  may  be  said  rather  to  promote 
it ;  for  as  soon  as  our  rum  vessels  arrive,  they  exchange  away 
some  of  the  rum  with  the  traders  from  Britain,  for  a  qaantit}'  of 
diy  goods,  with  which  each  of  them  sort  their  cargoes  to  their 
mutual  advantage. 


TRADE  TO  WEST  INDIES  AND  M  Enri'ERRANEAN      59 

Besides  this  method  of  remittance  by  the  African  trade,  we  often 
get  bills  of  exchange  from  the  Dutch  colonies  of  Surinam,  Barbice, 
&c. ;  and  this  happens  when  the  sales  of  our  cargoes  amount  to 
more  than  a  sufficiency  to  load  with  molasses  ;  so  that,  in  this  par- 
ticular, a  considerable  benefit  arises  from  the  molasses  trade,  for 
these  bills  being  paid  in  Holland,  arc  the  means  of  drawing  from 
that  republic  so  much  casli  yearly,  into  Great  Britain,  as  these  bills 
amount  to. 

From  this  deduction  of  the  course  of  our  trade,  which  is  founded 
in  exact  truth,  it  appears  that  the  whole  trading  stock  of  this  col- 
ony, in  its  beginning,  progress  and  end  is  uniformly  directed  to 
the  payment  of  the  debt  contracted  by  the  importation  of  British 
goods  ;  and  it  also  clearly  appears,  that  without  this  trade,  it  would 
have  been  and  always  will  be,  utterl}^  impossible  for  the  inhabitants 
of  this  colony  to  subsist  themselves,  or  to  pay  for  any  considerable 
quantity  of  British  goods. 

It  hath  been  observed  before,  that  of  fourteen  thousand  hogs- 
heads of  molasses  annually  brought  into  this  colony,  not  more  than 
twenty-five  hundred  have  been  imported  from  the  English  islands ; 
and  it  may  be  further  added,  that  all  these  islands  together  do  not 
make  for  exportation,  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  quantity  of  mo- 
lasses annually  imported  into  this  colony  for  many  years  past.  Of 
consequence,  about  eleven  thousand  five  hundred  hogsheads  must 
have  been  brought  from  foreign  plantations. 

The  present  price  of  molasses  is  about  twelve  pence,  sterling, 
per  gallon  ;  at  which  rate,  only,  it  can  be  distilled  into  rum  for  ex- 
portation ;  wherefore,  if  a  duty  should  be  laid  on  this  article,  the 
enhanced  price  may  amount  to  a  prohibition  ;  and  it  ma}'  witli  truth 
be  said,  that  there  is  not  so  large  a  sum  of  silver  and  gold  circulat- 
ing in  the  colony,  as  the  duty  imposed  by  the  aforesaid  act  upon 
foreign  molasses,  would  amount  to  in  one  year,  which  makes  it 
absolutely  impossible  for  the  importers  to  pay  it. 

It  ought  further  to  be  considered,  that  the  produce  of  His  Maj- 
esty's northern  colonies,  especially  those  of  New  England,  is  near 
alike,  and  that  the  British  West  India  islands  are  not,  nor  in  the 
nature  of  things,  ever  can  be,  able  to  consume  the  produce  of  the 
said  colonies ;  and  therefore,  if  they  cannot  export  it,  (which  they 


6o  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

never  can,  unless  they  are  allowed  to  bring  molasses  home)  a  very 
great  part  of  the  produce  of  the  said  colonies  must  be  entirely 
lost. 

This  colony,  by  the  misfortunes  it  suffered  in  trade  during  the 
late  war,  but  abo\'e  all,  by  the  great  expenses  they  were  at  in  rais- 
ing, paying  and  clothing  a  number  of  men  who  served  against  His 
Majesty's  enemies,  (in  which  they  manifested  a  spirit  and  loyalty 
far  exceeding  their  ability,)  is  greatly  reduced  in  its  circumstances, 
and  now  actually  labors  under  a  debt,  contracted  solely  by  carrying 
on  the  war,  of  near  ^70,000,  sterling,  for  which  it  annually 
pays  a  large  interest ;  and  has  the  greatest  need  of  all  manner  of 
countenance  and  support,  to  enable  it  to  pay  this  vast  debt,  and 
to  retrieve  its  circumstances. 

But,  on  the  contrary,  should  the  aforesaid  act  be  revived  and 
carried  into  execution,  the  colony  will  be  reduced  to  the  most  de- 
plorable condition. 

There  are  upwards  of  thirty  distil  houses,  (erected  at  a  vast  ex- 
pense ;  the  principal  materials  of  which,  are  imported  from  Great 
Britain,)  constantly  employed  in  making  rum  from  molasses.  This 
distillery  is  the  main  hinge  upon  which  the  trade  of  the  colony 
turns,  and  many  hundreds  of  persons  depend  immediately  upon  it 
for  a  subsistence.  These  distil  houses  for  want  of  molasses,  must 
be  shut  up,  to  the  ruin  of  many  families,  and  of  our  trade  in  gen- 
eral ;  particularly,  of  that  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  where  the  French 
will  supply  the  natives  with  brandy,  as  they  formerly  did.  Two- 
thirds  of  our  vessels  will  become  useless,  and  perish  upon  our 
hands  ;  our  mechanics,  and  those  who  depend  upon  the  merchant 
for  employment,  must  seek  for  subsistence  elsewhere  ;  and  what 
must  very  sensibly  affect  the  present  and  future  naval  power  and 
commerce  of  Great  Britain,  a  nursery  of  seamen,  at  this  time  con- 
sisting of  twenty-two  hundred,  in  this  colony  only,  will  be  in  a 
manner  destroyed  ;  and  as  an  end  will  be  put  to  our  commerce, 
the  merchants  cannot  import  any  more  British  manufactures,  nor 
will  the  people  be  able  to  pay  for  those  they  have  already  received. 

It  having  been  shown  that  this  trade  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  this  colony ;  that  the  great  consumption  of  British  goods,  which 
is  continually  increasing  at  a  great  rate,  compels  us  to  prosecute 


TRADE  TO  WEST  INDIES  AND  MEDITERRANEAN      6 1 

this  trade,  as  ha\-ing  no  other  means  wherewith  to  pay  for  those 
goods  ;  and  the  same  arguments  hcjlding  pretty  generally  true  with 
respect  to  most  all  the  other  l^ritish  colonies  upon  the  continent  of 
North  America,  it  remains  only  to  show  that  this  trade  is  in  nowise 
disadvantageous  to  Great  Britain,  and  that  the  English  islands  are 
not  injured  by  it,  and  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  it. 

This  intercourse  between  the  northern  colonies  and  the  foreign 
plantations  in  the  West  Indies,  as  it  is  the  great  cause  of  the  con- 
sumption of  British  manufactures,  cannot  be  thought  to  prejudice 
the  interest  of  Great  Britain,  unless  it  be  made  to  appear  that  it 
encourages  and  promotes  the  growth  of  foreign  plantations,  esjje- 
cially  those  of  the  French,  of  whose  improvements  we  should 
undoubtedly  be  very  jealous. 

That  this  is  not  the  case,  will  appear,  if  it  be  considered  that 
the  cargoes  carried  from  hence  to  the  French  islands,  consist  of 
horses,  lumber  and  fish  ;  nor  will  the  French  permit  us  to  import 
any  other  articles  to  their  colonies,  save  some  trifles  not  worth 
mentioning ;  that  the  horses  we  send  them,  serve  rather  for  luxury 
than  any  real  use  in  the  plantation  service,  and  that  they  may  be, 
and  are,  supplied  with  mules  and  horses  from  the  Spanish  Main  ; 
that  the  fish  we  send  them,  is  of  an  inferior  quality,  and  will  not 
suit  the  European  market ;  and  that  if  they  are  not  suffered  to 
purchase  their  fish  from  us,  it  will  naturally  tend  to  increase  the 
shipping  and  seamen  of  France,  as  they  will  be  obliged  to  prose- 
cute the  fisheiy  themselves ;  that  if  we  do  not  supply  them 
with  lumber,  they  can  procure  it  from  the  Mississippi,  or  have  it 
brought  in  their  ships  from  France,  which  generally  come  out  not 
half  loaded  ;  and  that  the  sole  reason  of  the  French  purchasing 
any  of  the  above  articles  from  us,  is,  because  they  can  pay  for 
them  in  molasses,  a  commodity  at  present  of  but  little  value  to 
them,  although  of  the  greatest  consequence  to  us  ;  add  to  all  this, 
if  we  are  prevented  from  purchasing  their  molasses,  they  will  natu- 
rally increase  their  distillery,  and  make  it  into  rum,  and  export  it 
elsewhere  themselves,  especially  to  Mississippi ;  by  means  of  which 
river,  great  quantities  may,  and  will  be  vended  among  the  various 
tribes  of  Indians,  which  will  increase  their  shipping  and  seamen, 
and  greatly  interfere  with  the  interests  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  more 


62  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

especially,  as  by  means  of  the  trade  with  the  Indians,  they  may  gain 
such  an  influence  over  them,  as  may  be  attended  with  pernicious 
consequences  in  case  of  a  future  war. 

The  English  West  Indies,  so  far  from  receiving  any  prejudice 
by  the  trade  of  the  northern  colonies,  to  foreign  plantations,  have 
improved  greatly  in  their  circumstances  since  this  trade  has  been 
prosecuted.  If  the  prices  of  commodities  carried  to  the  islands 
from  hence,  and  of  their  produce  brought  back  in  exchange,  be 
examined  for  thirty  years  past,  it  will  evidently  appear  from  authen- 
tic accounts,  sales  and  invoices,  that  the  price  of  northern  commod- 
ities sent  them,  has  decreased  forty  or  fifty  per  cent.  ;  and  the 
price  of  their  produce  bought  by  us,  has  increased  in  the  same  or 
a  greater  proportion  ;  so  that,  notwithstanding  our  trade  with  for- 
eign plantations,  the  profit  of  the  West  India  planters  hath  been 
continually  increasing ;  while  ours  during  the  same  period,  hath 
been  gradually  sinking.  This  circumstance  alone  is  sufficient  to 
prove  that  the  British  sugar  islands  are  not  prejudiced  by  our  trade 
to  foreign  plantations. 

Jamaica  is  the  only  English  island  that  now  supplies  us  with 
molasses  {excepting  the  new  acquisition  of  the  Grenades,  which 
affords  a  small  quantity  of  an  inferior  quality)  ;  and  it  can  be 
proved  by  undoubted  testimony,  that  even  from  thence  our  vessels 
have  been  frequently  obliged  to  bring  back  money,  because  mo- 
lasses was  not  to  be  had  ;  and  this  has  happened  in  the  course  of 
a  few  years,  while  the  trade  from  the  northern  colonies  to  foreign 
plantations  was  at  the  highest. 

The  West  India  planters  cannot  with  justice  complain,  if  we 
purchase  from  others  what  they  cannot  supply  us  with ;  and  what 
ought  still  further  to  silence  their  complaints,  is,  that  in  the  article 
of  sugar,  which  is  their  first  and  most  material  staple,  they  can 
receive  no  prejudice  by  our  trade  to  foreign  plantations  ;  for  it  is 
well  know^n  that  the  policy  both  of  the  French  and  Dutch  has  con- 
fined the  trade  of  sugar  to  themselves ;  so  that  we  never  obtain 
any  of  that  commodity  from  them,  save  now  and  then  a  small 
quantity  of  an  ordinary  kind,  which  is  generally  procured  (not  with- 
out hazard)  by  the  assistance  and  address  of  those  merchants 
there  who  help  us  in  the  transaction  of  our  business. 


CURRENCY  63 

From  hence,  it  is  evident,  that  tlie  Hritisli  islands  will  remain  in 
possession  of  all  the  profit  and  ad\'antage  arisin<^  from  the  article 
of  sugar,  should  the  law  we  complain  of,  be  discontinued. 

From  the  facts  and  argimients  contained  in  the  aforegoing  rei^rc- 
sentation,  it  is  submitted  to  Your  Lordships,  whether  the  renewal 
of  the  said  law  may  not,  instead  of  answering  any  useful  purposes, 
be  highly  injurious  to  the  interest  both  of  Great  Britain  and  those 
northern  colonies.  ^ 

V.    CURRENCY 

1  From  the  first  commencement  of  the  North  American  settle- 
ments, as  they  were  always  in  debt  to  the  mother  countr)-,  there 
had  been  a  constant  tendency  in  such  coin  as  might  reach  them  to 
flow  towards  P^ngland.  Hence,  for  the  convenience  of  domestic 
trade,  it  had  been  found  necessaiy  to  establish  some  additional 
local  currency.  In  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  North  Carolina,  tobacco, 
•the  chief  exportable  product,  long  served  for  that  purpose ;  in  New 
England,  corn  and  cattle,  at  certain  rates,  fixed  from  time  to  time, 
were  the  established  medium  for  the  payment  of  taxes  and  the  dis- 
charge of  colonial  contracts.  The  first  innovation  upon  this  primi- 
tive system  was  made  in  Massachusetts  in  1690,  by  the  issue  of 
government  bills  or  treasury  notes,  receivable  in  payment  of  taxes  ; 
and  afterward,  to  give  them  a  greater  currency  and  value,  made  a 
legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts.  This  expedient  had  been  resorted 
to  at  first,  and  w^as  imitated  in  the  other  New  England  colonies,  in 
the  adjoining  province  of  New  York,  and  soon  after  in  the  Caro- 
linas,  not  with  any  design  to  furnish  a  currency,  but  as  a  con\-en- 
ient,  and,  indeed,  necessary  means  of  anticipating  the  taxes  during 
the  first  two  intercolonial  wars,  from  1689  to  17 14.  Such,  how- 
ever, was  found,  or  thought  to  be,  the  convenience  of  these  bills 
merely  as  a  medium  of  trade,  that  a  scheme  had  been  hit  upon  for 
continuing  their  issue  even  during  peace,  and  with  the  professed 
object  of  furnishing  at  once  a  currency  for  the  people,  a  revenue 
to  the  government,  and  a  source  whence  capital  might  be  borrowed 
by  the  enterprising.  This  scheme,  first  introduced  in  South  Caro- 
lina, but  speedily  imitated  in  Massachusetts,  had  consisted  in  the 
1  Hildreth,  History  of  the  United  States  of  America,  IV,  256-259. 


64  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

issue  of  colony  bills,  to  be  let  out  on  interest  to  such  as  could  give 
the  required  security,  the  interest  to  furnish  a  revenue  to  the  state, 
and  to  serve,  so  far,  as  a  relief  from  taxation.  This  loan-office  sys- 
tem, as  it  was  called,  had  been  subsequently  introduced  into  the 
other  New  England  states,  also  into  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
and  Maryland  ;  and  in  these  three  latter  states  had  continued  to  be 
kept  up  down  even  to  the  Revolution.  But  both  these  methods  of 
issue,  whether  by  way  of  loan  or  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  govern- 
ment, were  found  liable  to  great  abuses,  quite  fatal  to  the  paper  as 
a  measure  of  value.  There  was  a  constant  tendency  to  over-issue, 
whence  resulted  a  corresponding  depreciation.  Yet  this  very  fault 
of  the  system  was  what  chiefly  served  to  recommend  it  to  many  — 
a  profuse  issue  of  paper  operating,  in  fact,  as  a  general  insolvent 
law,  all  debtors  being  thereby  enabled  to  discharge  their  debts  at  a 
half,  a  third,  a  quarter,  sometimes  a  tenth  or  twelfth  part  of  the 
amount  actually  due. 

After  an  ample  experience  of  these  bills  of  credit  in  every  form 
of  issue  and  in  all  their  methods  of  operation,  Massachusetts,  on 
the  termination  of  the  third  intercolonial  war  in  1748,  had  con- 
cluded to  abandon  the  paper  system  altogether,  the  indemnity 
allowed  her  by  the  British  Parliament  for  her  expenses  in  the 
capture  of  Louisburg  furnishing  her  the  means  to  redeem  her 
outstanding  bills  at  the  current  rate  of  about  twelve  for  one.  To 
compel  the  other  New  Eingland  colonies  to  imitate  her  example, 
or,  at  least,  to  restrict  their  issues  within  narrow  limits,  the  pass- 
age of  an  act  of  Parliament  was  procured,  by  which  they  were 
prohibited  to  issue  any  bills,  except  from  year  to  year,  in  antici- 
pation of  taxes  previously  laid  ;  nor  could  even  these  be  made  a 
legal  tender. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  war,  which  resulted  in  the  conquest  of 
Canada,  and  the  heavy  expenses  which  all  the  colonies  were  obliged 
to  incur,  led  in  all  of  them,  Massachusetts  only  excepted,  to  new 
and  profuse  issues  of  bills  of  credit.  Virginia,  then  for  the  first 
time  involved  in  serious  expenses,  resorted  at  last  to  paper  money 
issues,  by  which  the  use  of  tobacco  as  a  currency  seems  soon  to 
have  been  in  a  great  measure  superseded,  as  it  already  had  been 
in   North  Carolina  and  Maiyland. 


CURRENCY  65 

The  colonial  paper  money  had  long  been  a  subject  of  complaint 
on  the  part  of  the  British  merchants  ;  and,  soon  after  the  Canadian 
war  had  been  brought  to  a  conclusion,  they  had  obtained  an  act  of 
Parliament,  by  which  the  provisions  of  the  New  England  Restrain- 
ing Act  were  extended  to  all  the  colonies. 

1  The  British  American  colonies  have  not,  within  themselves, 
the  means  of  making  money  or  coin.  They  cannot  ac(]uire  it  from 
Great  Britain,  the  balance  of  trade  being  against  them.  The  returns 
of  those  branches  of  commerce,  in  which  they  are  jjcrmitted  to  trade 
to  any  other  part  of  Europe,  are  but  barely  sufficient  to  pa\-  this 
balance.  By  the  present  act  of  navigation,  they  are  prohibited 
from  trading  with  the  colonies  of  any  other  nations,  so  that  there 
remains  nothing  but  a  small  branch  of  African  trade,  and  the 
scrambling  profits  of  an  undescribed  traffic,  to  supply  them  with 
silver.  However,  the  fact  is,  and  matters  have  been  so  managed, 
that  the  general  currency  of  the  colonies  used  to  be  in  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  coin.  This  supplied  the  internal  circulation  of 
their  home  business,  and  always  finally  came  to  England  in  pay- 
ments for  what  the  colonists  exported  from  thence.  If  the  act  of 
navigation  should  be  carried  into  such  rigorous  execution  as  to  cut 
off  this  supply  of  a  silver  currency  to  the  colonies,  the  thoughts  of 
administration  should  be  turned  to  the  devising  some  means  of 
supplying  the  colonies  with  money  of  some  sort  or  other.  .   .  . 

The  safest  and  wisest  measure  which  government  can  take,  is 
not  to  discourage  or  obstruct  that  channel  through  which  silver 
flows  into  the  colonies,  nor  to  interfere  with  that  value  which  it 
acquires  there;  but  only  so  to  regulate  the  colon)-  trade,  that 
silver  shall  finally  come  to,  and  center  in  Great  Britain,  whither  it 
will  most  certainly  come  in  its  true  value  ;  but  if  through  any 
fatality  in  things  or  measures,  a  medium  of  trade,  a  currency  of 
money,  should  grow  defective  in  the  colonies,  the  wisdom  of  gov- 
ernment will  then  interpose,  either  to  remedy  the  cause  which 
occasions  such  defect,  or  to  contrive  the  means  of  suppl\-ing  the 
deficiency.  The  remedy  lies  in  a  certain  address  in  carrying  into 
execution  the  act  of  navigation  ;  but  if  that  remedy  is  neglected, 

1  Pownall,  The  Administration  of  the  Colonies  [1764].  PP-  102-103,  106-107, 
109-113. 


66         •  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

the  next  recourse  must  lie  in  some  means  of  maintaining  a  currency 
specially  appropriated  to  the  colonies,  and  must  be  partly  such  as 
will  keep  a  certain  quantity  of  silver  coin  in  circulation  there, — 
and  partly  such  as  shall  establish  a  paper  cnn-oicj,  holding  a  value 
nearly  equal  to  silver.   .  .   . 

I  will  venture  to  say,  that  there  never  was  a  wiser  or  a  better 
measure,  never  one  better  calculated  to  serve  the  uses  of  an  en- 
creasing  country,  that  there  never  was  a  measure  more  steadily 
pursued,  or  more  faithfully  executed,  for  forty  years  together,  than 
the  loan-office  in  Pensylvania,  formed  and  administered  by  the 
Assembly  of  that  province. 

;  An  encreasing  countiy  of  settlers  and  traders  must  always  have 
the  balance  of  trade  against  them,  for  this  very  reason,  because 
they  are  encreasing  and  improving,  because  they  must  be  con- 
tinually wanting  further  supplies  which  their  present  circumstances 
will  neither  furnish  nor  pay  for  :  —  And  for  this  very  reason  also, 
they  must  alway  labour  under  a  decreasing  silver  currency,  though 
their  circumstances  require  an  encreasing  one.  In  the  common 
cursory  view  of  things,  our  politicians,  both  theorists  and  practi- 
tioners, are  apt  to  think,  that  a  countiy  which  has  the  balance  of 
trade  against  it,  and  is  continually  drained  of  its  silver  currency, 
must  be  in  a  declining  state  ;  but  here  we  may  see  that  the  pro- 
gressive improvements  of  a  commercial  country  of  settlers,  must 
necessarily  have  the  balance  of  trade  against  them,  and  a  decreasing 
silver  currency  ;  that  their  continual  want  of  money  and  other  ma- 
terials to  carry  on  their  trade  and  business  must  engage  them  in 
debt  —  But  that  those  very  things  applied  to  their  improvements, 
will  in  return  not  only  pay  those  debts,  but  create  also  a  surplus  to 
be  still  carried  forward  to  further  and  further  improvements.  In  a 
country  under  such  circumstances,  money  lent  upon  interest  to  set- 
tlers, creates  money.  Paper  money  thus  lent  upon  interest  will  create 
gold  and  silver  in  principal,  zvhile  the  interest  becomes  a  revenue 
that  pays  the  charges  of  government .  This  currency  is  the  true 
Pactolian  stream  which  converts  all  into  gold  that  is  washed  by  it. 
It  is  on  this  principle  that  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  the  assembly 
of  Pensylvania  established,  under  the  sanction  of  government,  an 
office  for  the  emission  of  paper  money  by  loan.  .  .  .    This  paper 


CURRENCY  67 

monc}-  consists  of  promissory  notes,  issued  by  the  authority  of  the 
legislature  of  each  province,  deriving"  its  value  from  being  payable 
at  a  certain  period,  by  monies  arising  from  a  tax  proportioned  to 
that  payment  at  the  time  fixed.  I'hese  notes  pass  as  lawful  money, 
and  have  been  hitherto  a  legal  tender  in  eacli  i-espective  province 
where  they  are  issued. 

As  any  limitation  of  the  uses  of  these  notes  as  a  currency,  must 
proportionably  decrease  its  value  ;  as  any  insecurity,  insufihciency, 
or  uncertainty  in  the  fund,  which  is  to  pay  off  these  notes,  must 
decrease  their  value  ;  as  any  quantity  emitted  more  than  the  necessi- 
ties of  such  province  calls  for  as  a  medium,  must  also  decrease  its 
value  ;  it  is  a  direct  and  palpable  injustice,  that  that  medium  or 
currency  which  has  depreciated  by  any  of  these  means  from  its 
real  value,  should  continue  a  legal  tender  at  its  uoniinal  value. 

The  outrageous  abuses  practised  by  some  Of  those  legislatures 
who  have  dealt  in  the  manufacture  of  this  depreciating  currency, 
and  the  great  injury  which  the  merchant  and  fair  dealer  have  suf- 
fered by  this  fraudulent  medium,  occasioned  the  interposition  of 
parliament  to  become  necessary  :  —  Parliament  veiy  properly  inter- 
posed, by  applying  the  only  adequate  and  efficient  remedy,  namely, 
by  prohibiting  these  colony  legislatures  from  being  able  to  make 
the  paper  currency  a  legal  tender.  And  government  has  lately  for 
the  same  prudent  reasons  made  this  prohibition  general  to  the  whole 
of  the  colonies.  For,  zvhen  this  paper-money  cannot  be  forced  in 
payment  as  a  legal  tender,  this  very  circumstance  will  oblige  that 
legislature  which  creates  it,  to  form  it  of  such  internal  right  consti- 
tution, as  shall  force  its  own  \va\'  b\'  its  own  intrinsic  w^orth  on  a 
level  nearly  equal  to  silver.  The  legislature  must  so  frame  and 
regulate  it  as  to  give  it  a  real  value. 

These  regulations  all  turn  upon  tJie  sufficiency  and  certainty  of 
tJic  fund,  the  extent  of  the  uses,  and  the  proportioning  the  quantity 
to  the  actual  and  real  necessities  which  require  such  a  medium. 

1  Perhaps  no  mode  could  be  devised  more  ad\antageous  to  the 
public,  or  to  individuals,  than  our  method  of  emitting  bills  in  this 

1  Dickinson,  The  Late  Regulations  Kespcctini;  the  British  Colonies,  C'onsidered 
[1765],  in  Political  Writings,  I,  56-58. 


68  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

province  for  our  own  use.  They  are  lent  out  upon  good  security, 
chiefly  real,  at  the  interest  of  five  per  eetit.  The  borrowers  are  al- 
lowed a  long  term  for  payment,  and  the  sums  borrowed  being  divided 
into  equal  portions,  they  are  obliged  to  pay  one  of  these  with  the 
interest  of  the  whole,  every  year  during  the  term.  This  renders 
the  payments  veiy  easy  ;  and  as  no  person  is  permitted  to  borrow 
a  large  sum,  a  great  number  are  accommodated.  The  consequences 
of  such  regulations  are  obvious.  These  bills  represent  money  in 
the  same  manner  that  money  represents  other  things.  As  long 
therefore  as  the  quantity  is  proportioned  to  the  uses,  these  emis- 
sions have  the  same  effects,  that  the  gradual  introduction  of  addi- 
tional sums  of  money  would  have.  People  of  very  small  fortunes 
are  enabled  to  purchase  and  cultivate  land,  which  is  of  so  much 
consequence  in  settling  new  countries,  or  to  carr}'  on  some  busi- 
ness, that  without  such  assistance  they  would  be  incapable  of 
managing :  for  no  private  person,  would  lend  money  on  such 
favourable  terms.  L^rom  the  borrowers  the  currency  passes  into 
other  hands,  increases  consumption,  raises  the  prices  of  commodi- 
ties, quickens  circulation,  and  after  communicating  a  vigour  to  all 
kinds  of  industry,  returns  in  its  course  into  the  possession  of  the 
borrowers,  to  repay  them  for  that  labour  which  it  may  properly  be 
said  to  have  produced.  They  deliver  it,  according  to  the  original 
contracts,  into  the  treasury,  where  the  interest  raises  a  fund  with- 
out the  imposition  of  taxes,  for  the  public  use. 

While  emissions  are  thus  conducted  with  prudence,  they  may  be 
compared  to  springs  whose  water  an  industrious  and  knowing  farmer 
spreads  in  many  meandering  rivulets  through  his  gardens  and  mead- 
ows, and  after  it  has  refreshed  all  the  vegetable  tribes  it  meets  with, 
and  has  set  them  a  growing,  leads  it  into  a  reservoir,  where  it 
answers  some  new  purpose. 

If  it  could  be  possible  to  establish  a  currency  throughout  the 
colonies,  on  some  foundation  of  this  kind,  perhaps  greater  benefits 
might  be  derived  from  it,  than  would  be  generally  believed  without 
the  trial. 


MISCELLANEOUS  FEATURES  OF  ECONOMIC  LIFE      69 

VI.   MISCELLANEOUS   FEATURES   OF  ECONOMIC   LIFE 

1  New  F2nglancl  being  the  oldest  of  our  American  colonies,  ihe 
best  parts  of  it  may  be  supposed  to  be  granted  away  or  purchased, 
which  is  the  case  ;  but  it  is  not  thence  to  be  apprehended  that  the 
greatest  part  of  this  large  province  is  cultivated  :  in  the  southern 
divisions  the  country  is  well  settled,  so  as  for  many  miles  together 
to  have  some  resemblance  of  old  England,  but  even  in  these  there 
are  very  large  tracts  of  forest  left,  which  are  private  property,  and 
consequently  cannot  now  be  patented.  The  richest  parts  remaining 
to  be  granted,  are  on  the  northern  branches  of  the  Connecticut 
river,  towards  Crown  Point,  where  are  great  districts  of  fertile  soil 
still  unsettled.  The  north  part  of  New  Hampshire,  the  province 
of  Main,  and  the  territory  of  Sagadahock  ;  have  but  few  settle- 
ments in  them  compared  with  the  tracts  yet  unsettled  ;  and  they 
have  the  advantage  of  many  excellent  ports,  long  navigable  rivers, 
with  all  the  natural  advantages  that  are  found  in  other  parts  of  this 
province.  I  should  further  observe,  that  these  tracts  have,  since 
the  peace,  been  settling  pretty  fast :  farms  on  the  river  Connecticut 
are  every  day  extending  beyond  the  old  fort  Dummer,  for  near 
thirty  miles  ;  and  will  in  a  few  years  reach  to  Kohasser,  which  is 
near  two  hundred  miles  ;  not  that  such  an  extent  will  be  one  tenth 
settled,  but  the  new  comers  do  not  fix  near  their  neighbours,  and 
go  on  regularly,  but  take  spots  that  please  them  best,  though 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  beyond  any  others.  This  to  people  of  a 
sociable  disposition  in  Europe  would  appear  very  strange,  but  the 
Americans  do  not  regard  the  near  neighbourhood  of  other  farmers  ; 
twenty,  or  thirty  miles  by  water  they  esteem  no  distance  in  matters 
of  this  sort ;  besides,  in  a  country  that  promises  well  the  inter- 
mediate space  is  not  long  in  filling  up.  Between  Connecticut 
river,  and  Lake  Champlain,  upon  Otter  Creek,  and  all  along  Lake 
Sacrament,  and  the  rivers  that  fall  into  it,  and  the  whole  length  of 
Wood  Creek,  are  numerous  settlements  made  since  the  peace,  by 
the  Acadians,  Canadians,  and  others  from  different  parts  of  New 
England.    This  whole  neighbourhood  is  a  beautiful  country,  and 

1  American  Husbandry  [1775],  L  47-50,  1.S9-191,  122-124,  166-167,  80-Si,  66, 
103.  391.  393-395- 


70  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

possesses  as  rich  a  soil  as  most  in  New  England.  Let  me  also  remark 
here,  that  the  new  settlers  in  these  parts  have  cultivated  common 
wheat  with  good  success,  so  that  they  have  more  fields  of  it  than 
of  maize,  which  is  not  the  case  in  the  southern  parts  of  New  Eng- 
land ;  to  what  this  difference  is  owing  I  have  not  been  informed. 

In  the  province  of  Main,  particularly  on  the  rivers  which  fall 
into  the  sea  near  l^runswic,  there  are  many  settlements  made 
by  Germans  who  have  come  over  since  the  war ;  they  are  in 
general  in  a  thriving  condition,  as  most  of  the  settlers  are  in 
North  America  that  are  well  situated  for  an  immediate  commu- 
nication with  the  sea ;  ships  come  very  regularly  to  all  the  ports 
on  this  coast  to  take  in  loadings  of  corn,  salted  provisions,  and 
lumber  for  the  West  Indies  ;  by  which  means  the  farmers  (who 
also  are  engaged  pretty  deeply  in  the  fishery  on  these  coasts)  have 
a  ready  opportunity  of  conveying  all  their  surplus  products  to  a 
regular  market,  the  great  thing  wanted  in  Canada.  But  still  these 
northern  coasts  of  Main  and  Sagadahock,  are  under  the  fatal  in- 
fluence of  that  freezing  climate,  which  is  bad  enough  in  the  south 
parts  of  New  England,  but  here  approaches  to  the  severity  of 
Nova  Scotia,   though  not  so  much  involved  in  fogs.   .   .   . 

The  new  settlers  upon  the  uncultivated  parts  of  the  province, 
are  either  such  as  go  backward  to  the  waste  country,  and  take  up 
what  land  they  please,  paying  the  fixed  fees  to  the  proprietors  ;  or 
such  as  buy  uncultivated  spots  of  other  planters,  who  have  more 
than  they  want,  or  chuse  to  sell  :  in  this  case,  they  make  as  good 
a  bargain  as  they  can  ;  but  the  land  is  dearer  than  that  which  is 
had  of  the  proprietors.  It  is  remarkable  to  see  the  small  tracts  that 
men  will  buy  with  a  view  to  support  a  whole  family. 

The  progress  of  their  work  is  this  ;  they  fix  upon  the  spot 
where  they  intend  to  build  the  house,  and  before  they  begin  it, 
get  ready  a  field  for  an  orchard,  planting  it  immediately  with 
apples  chiefly,  and  some  pears,  cherries  and  peaches.  This  they 
secure  by  an  enclosure,  then  they  plant  a  piece  for  a  garden  ; 
and  as  soon  as  these  works  are  done,  they  begin  their  house  : 
some  are  built  by  the  countrymen  without  any  assistance,  but 
these  are  generally  very  bad  hovels ;  the  common  way  is  to  agree 


MISCELLANEOUS  FEATURES  OF  ECONOMIC  LI  IT-.      71 

with  a  carpenter  and  mason  for  so  many  days  work,  and  the 
countryman  to  serve  them  as  a  labourer,  which,  with  a  few  irons 
and  other  articles  he  cannot  make,  is  the  whole  expcnce  :  many  a 
house  is  built  for  less  than  twenty  pounds.  As  soon  as  this  work 
is  over,  which  may  be  in  a  month  or  six  weeks,  he  falls  to  wcjrk 
on  a  field  of  corn,  doing  all  the  hand  labour  of  it,  and,  from  not 
yet  being  able  to  buy  horses,  pays  a  neighbour  for  ploughing  it ; 
perhaps  he  may  be  worth  only  a  calf  or  two  and  a  couple  of  young 
colts,  bought  for  cheapness  ;  and  he  struggles  with  difficulties  till 
these  are  grown  ;  but  when  he  has  horses  to  work,  and  cows  that 
give  milk  and  calves,  he  is  then  made  and  in  the  road  to  plenty. 
It  is  surprising  w'ith  how  small  a  sum  of  money  they  will  venture 
upon  this  course  of  settling  ;  and  it  proves  at  the  first  mention  how 
population  must  increase  in  a  country  where  there  are  such  means 
of  a  poor  man's  supporting  his  family  :  and  in  wliich,  the  larger 
the  family,  the  easier  is  his  underUiking.   .   .   . 

In  general,  the  settlers  come  with  a  small  sum  of  mone\",  ver}- 
many  of  them  with  none  at  all,  depending  on  their  labour  for 
three,  five,  or  seven  years  to  gain  them  a  sum  sufficient  for  taking 
a  plantation,  which  is  the  common  case  of  the  foreign  emigrants 
of  all  sorts.  It  is  common  to  see  men  demand,  and  ha\'e  grants 
of  land,  who  have  no  substance  to  fix  themselves  further  than  cash 
for  the  fees  of  taking  up  the  land  ;  a  gim,  some  powder  and  shot, 
'a  few  tools,  and  a  plough  ;  they  maintain  themseh'es  the  first 
year,  like  the  Indians,  with  their  guns,  and  nets  ;  and  afterwards 
by  the  same  means  with  the  assistance  of  their  lands  ;  the  labour 
of  their  farms,  they  perform  themselves,  even  to  being  their  own 
carpenters  and  smiths  :  by  this  means,  people  who  may  be  said  to 
have  no  fortunes,  are  enabled  to  live,  and  in  a  few  years  to  main- 
tain themselves  and  families  comfortably.  But  such  people  are 
not  to  be  supposed  to  make  a  profit  in  cash  of  (for)  many  )-ears, 
nor  do  thev  want,  or  think  of  it.  And  as  to  the  planters  who 
begin  their  undertakings  with  small  sums  of  money  ;  though  they 
do  better,  and  even  make  a  considerable  profit  by  their  business, 
yet  they  are  very  far  from  equalling  what  I  have  now  described  ; 
this  is  from  want  of  money,  for  I  might  add,  that  not  one  new 
settler  in  a  thousand  is  possessed  of  a  clear  three  thousand  pounds. 


72  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

The  conclusion  which  I  deduce  from  these  particulars  is,  that 
new  settlements  in  New  York  are  undertaken  to  good  advantage, 
profit  in  money  considered,  only  by  those  who  have  a  good  sum 
of  money  ready  to  expend  ;  and  by  this  term,  I  mean  particularly 
men  who  have  from  two  to  five  thousand  pounds  clear ;  in  Britain 
such  people  cannot  from  the  amount  of  their  fortune  get  into  any 
valuable  trade  or  manufacture,  unless  it  is  by  mere  interest,  or 
being  related  to  persons  already  in  trade.  But  it  is  evident,  that 
in  New  York,  they  may,  with  such  a  sum  of  money,  take,  clear, 
stock,  and  plant  a  tract  of  land  that  shall  not  only  amply  support 
them  in  all  the  necessaries  of  life,  but  at  the  same  time  yield  a 
neat  profit  sufficient  for  the  acquisition  of  a  comfortable  fortune.  .  .  . 

Many  of  the  planters,  especially  in  the  back  parts  of  the  prov- 
ince, where  the  wild  tracts  are  adjoining,  keep  great  flocks  of 
cattle  :  some  of  them  have  from  forty  to  sixty  horses  ;  and  four 
or  five  hundred  head  of  horned  cattle,  oxen,  cows,  bulls,  calves 
and  young  cattle  ;  they  let  them  run  through  the  woods  not  only 
in  summer,  but  also  in  winter ;  which  is  a  circumstance  that 
makes  them  very  inattentive  to  the  providing  winter  food  :  sheep 
also  they  have  in  great  numbers,  and  tho'  the  wool  does  not  equal 
the  best  in  England  or  Spain,  yet  it  is  much  better  than  is  pro- 
duced in  many  of  our  counties,  and  makes  cloth  that  answers 
exceedingly  well  for  the  general  wear  of  the  province,  fine  as  welh 
as  coarse  cloths  ;  and  accordingly,  almost  all  the  farmers,  and 
their  servants,  with  the  lower  classes  of  other  sorts,  are  clad  in  it ; 
they  have  no  lands  in  the  whole  province  but  what  do  excellently 
for  feeding  sheep,  even  the  very  worst  tracts  maintain  great  num- 
bers. Sheep  are  kept  in  such  numbers,  that  wool  might  be  a 
valuable  article  of  exportation  unwrought,  and  by  a  proper  policy 
in  the  mother  country,  wool  might  become  as  good  an  import  from 
the  colonies  as  any  other.   .  .   . 

And  this  mention  of  cattle  leads  me  to  observe,  that  most  of 
the  farmers  in  this  country  are,  in  whatever  concerns  cattle,  the 
most  negligent  ignorant  set  of  men  in  the  world.  Nor  do  I  know 
any  country  in  which  animals  are  worse  treated.  Horses  are  in 
general,   even  valuable    ones,   worked   hard,   and    starved :    they 


MISCELLANEOUS  FEATURES  OF  ECONOMIC  LIl'K      73 

plough,  cart,  and  ride  them  to  death,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
give  very  httlc  heed  to  their  food  ;  after  the  hardest  day's  works, 
all  the  nourishment  they  are  like  to  have  is  to  be  turned  into  a 
wood,  where  the  shoots  and  weeds  form  the  chief  of  the  pasture  ; 
unless  it  be  after  the  hay  is  in,  when  they  get  a  share  of  the  after- 
grass. A  New  Englander  (and  it  is  the  same  quite  to  Pensylvania) 
will  ride  his  horse  full  speed  twenty  or  thirty  miles,  tye  him  to  a 
tree,  while  he  does  his  business,  then  re-mount,  and  gallop  back 
again.  This  bad  treatment  extends  to  draft  oxen  ;  to  their  cows, 
sheep,  and  swine  ;  only  in  a  different  manner,  as  may  be  supposed. 
There  is  scarce  any  branch  of  rural  economy  which  more  demands 
attention  and  judgement  than  the  management  of  cattle ;  or  one 
which,  under  a  judicious  treatment,  is  attended  with  more  profit  to 
the  farmer  in  all  countries  ;  but  the  New  England  farmers  ha\e  in 
all  this  matter  the  worst  notions  imaginable.  .  .  . 

Some  modern  writers,  very  well  informed  in  the  affairs  of  our 
American  colonies,  have  been  particularly  attentive  to  the  circum- 
stance of  the  mortgages  which  the  merchants  and  others  of 
London  have  on  their  estates.  This  wants  an  explanation  :  the 
country  gentlemen  of  New  England  are  as  free  from  this  as  any 
men  in  the  world  :  it  concerns  only  those  who  have  dealings  with 
London,  these  are  the  tobacco  and  rice  planters  ;  but  as  to  the 
people  of  property  in  New  England  it  is  not  the  case  with.  I  may 
say,  any  man  in  the  province  that  is  not  engaged  in  trade.   .   .   . 

Every  planter  and  even  the  smallest  farmers  have  all  an 
orchard  near  their  house  of  some  acres,  by  means  of  which  they 
command  a  great  quantity  of  cyder,  and  export  apples  by  ship 
loads  to  the  West  Indies.  Nor  is  this  an  improper  place  to 
observe  that  the  rivers  in  this  province  and  the  sea  upon  the 
coast  are  richly  furnished  with  excellent  fish  ;  oysters  and  lobsters 
are  no  where  in  greater  plenty  than  in  New  York.  I  am  of  opin- 
ion they  are  more  plentiful  than  at  any  other  place  on  the  globe  ; 
for  ver)'  many  poor  families  ha\"e  no  other  subsistence  than 
oysters  and  bread.  Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  of  the  natural 
plenty   that   distinguishes   this    country :    the    woods   are   full    of 


74 


COLONIAL  ECONOMY 


game,   and  wild  turkies  are  very  plentiful ;    in  these  particulars 
New  York  much  exceeds  New  England. 

Rice  is  yet  the  grand  staple  production  of  South  Carolina,  and 
that  for  which  the  planters  neglect  the  healthy,  pleasant  back 
country  in  order  to  live  in  the  Dismals  on  the  coast,  for  so  the 
Americans  justly  call  the  swamps  :  rice  can  only  be  cultivated  in 
land  which  lies  so  low  as  to  admit  of  floating  at  pleasure,  and  all 
such  lands  in  Carolina  are  necessarily  swamps.   .  .   . 

The  reader  must  observe  upon  this  account  that  the  cultivation 
of  it  is  dreadful :  for  if  a  work  could  be  imagined  peculiarly 
unwholesome,  and  even  fatal  to  health,  it  must  be  that  of  stand- 
ing, like  the  negross,  (negroes)  ancle,  and  even  mid-leg  deep  in 
water,  which  floats  an  ouzy  mud  ;  and  exposed  all  the  while  to  a 
burning  sun,  which  makes  the  ver)'  air  they  breathe  hotter  than 
the  human  blood  ;  these  poor  wretches  are  then  in  a  furnace  of 
stinking  putrid  efiiuvia  :  a  more  horrible  employment  can  hardly 
be  imagined,  not  far  short  of  digging  in  Potosi.  We  are  told 
indeed  that  South  Carolina  breeds  more  negroes  than  she  de- 
stroys, which  is  certainly  a  fact,  as  appears  by  the  annual  exporta- 
tion of  a  few  ;  but  then  let  it  not  be  imagined  that  it  is  in  these 
properly  denominated  dismals  :  we  are  to  remember  that  the  pro- 
portion between  the  domestic  and  other  negroes  and  planting 
ones,  is  as  30,000  to  40,000,  when  the  total  is  70,000  ;  and  we 
are  further  to  remember,  that  many  are  employed  on  indigo  where 
there  are  no  rice  swamps,  and  also  in  other  branches  of  culture  ; 
all  these  with  the  30,000,  may  certainly  increase  greatly ;  but  it 
does  not  from  hence  follow  that  those  employed  on  rice  do  not 
decrease  considerably,  which  is  a  certain  fact,  and  it  would  be 
miraculous  were  it  otherwise.  It  will  therefore  be  no  impropriety 
to  determine  that  there  must  be  a  considerable  expence  in  recruit- 
ing those  negroes  that  are  employed  on  rice,  and  more  consider- 
able far  than  what  attends  others  employed  on  tobacco,  indigo,  or 
indeed  any  plant  not  cultivated  in  a  swamp.  .  .  . 


MISCELLANEOUS   FEATURES  OF  ECONOMIC  LIFE      75 

1  Europe  is  generally  full  settled  with  husbandnien,  manufac- 
turers, &c.,  and  therefore  cannot  now  much  increase  in  pecjple. 
America  is  chiefly  occupied  by  Indians,  who  subsist  mostly  by 
hunting.  But  as  the  hunter,  of  all  men,  requires  the  greatest 
quantity  of  land  from  whence  to  draw  his  subsistence,  (the  hus- 
bandman subsisting  on  much  less,  the  gardener  on  still  less,  and 
the  manufacturer  requiring  least  of  all,)  the  l'AU'()j:)eans  found 
America  as  fully  settled  as  it  well  could  be  by  hunters  ;  yet  these, 
having  large  tracts,  were  easily  prevailed  on  to  part  with  portions 
of  territory  to  the  new'  comers,  who  did  not  much  interfere  with 
the  natives  in  hunting,  and  furnished  them  with  many  things 
they  wanted. 

Land  being  thus  plenty  in  America,  and  so  cheap  as  that  a 
laboring  man,  that  understands  husbandry,  can  in  a  short  time 
save  money  enough  to  purchase  a  piece  of  new^  land  sufificient  for 
a  plantation,  w'hereon  he  may  subsist  a  family,  such  are  not  afraid 
to  marry ;  for,  if  they  even  look  far  enough  forward  to  consider 
how  their  children,  when  grown  up,  are  to  be  provided  for,  they 
see  that  more  land  is  to  be  had  at  rates  equally  easy,  all  circum- 
stances considered. 

Hence  marriages  in  America  are  more  general,  and  more 
generally  early  than  in  Europe.  And  if  it  is  reckoned  there, 
that  there  is  but  one  marriage  per  annum  among  one  hundred 
persons,  perhaps  we  may  here  reckon  two ;  and  if  in  Europe  they 
have  but  four  births  to  a  marriage  (many  of  their  marriages  being 
late),  we  may  here  reckon  eight,  of  which,  if  one  half  grow  up. 
and  our  marriages  are  made,  reckoning  one  with  another,  at 
twenty  years  of  age,  our  people  must  at  least  be  doubled  every 
twenty  years. 

But  notwithstanding  this  increase,  so  vast  is  the  territory  of 
North  America,  that  it  will  require  many  ages  to  settle  it  fully  ; 
and,  till  it  is  fully  settled,  labor  will  never  be  cheap  here,  where 
no  man  continues  long  a  laborer  for  others,  but  gets  a  plantation  of 
his  own,  no  man  continues  long  a  journeyman  to  a  trade,  but  goes 
among  those  new  setders,  and  sets  up  for  himself,   &c.     Hence 

1  Franklin,  Observations  concerning  the  Increase  of  Mankind  and  the  Peopling 
of  Countries  [1755],  in  Works,  II,  312-314. 


76  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

labor  is  no  cheaper  now  in  Pennsylvania,  than  it  was  thirty  years 
ago,  though  so  many  thousand  laboring  people  have  been  imported. 

The  danger  therefore  of  these  colonies  interfering  with  their 
mother  country  in  trades  that  depend  on  labor,  manufactures,  &c., 
is  too  remote  to  require  the  attention  of  Great  Britain, 

But  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  the  colonies,  a  vast  demand 
is  growing  for  British  manufactures,  a  glorious  market  wholly  in 
the  power  of  Britain,  in  which  foreigners  cannot  interfere,  which 
will  increase  in  a  short  time  even  beyond  her  power  of  supplying, 
though  her  whole  trade  should  be  to  her  colonies ;  therefore 
Britain  should  not  too  much  restrain  manufactures  in  her  colonies. 
A  wise  and  good  mother  will  not  do  it.  To  distress  is  to  weaken, 
and  weakening  the  children  weakens  the  whole  family. 

Besides,  if  the  manufactures  of  Britain  (by  reason  of  the  Ameri- 
can demands)  should  rise  too  high  in  price,  foreigners  who  can 
sell  cheaper  will  drive  her  merchants  out  of  foreign  markets ; 
foreign  manufactures  will  therefore  be  encouraged  and  increased, 
and  consequently  foreign  nations,  perhaps  her  rivals  in  power, 
grow  more  populous  and  more  powerful ;  while  her  own  colonies, 
kept  too  low,  are  unable  to  assist  her,  or  add  to  her  strength. 

1  It  does  not  seem  difficult  to  find  out  the  reasons,  why  the 
people  multiply  more  here  than  in  Europe.  As  soon  as  a  person 
is  old  enough,  he  may  marry  in  these  provinces,  without  any  fear 
of  poverty ;  for  there  is  such  a  tract  of  good  ground  yet  unculti- 
vated, that  a  new-married  man  can,  without  difficulty,  get  a  spot  of 
ground,  where  he  may  sufficiently  subsist  with  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. The  taxes  are  very  low,  and  he  need  not  be  under  any  con- 
cern on  their  account.  The  liberties  he  enjoys  are  so  great,  that 
he  considers  himself  as  a  prince  in  his  possessions.  I  shall  here 
demonstrate  by  some  plain  examples,  what  effect  such  a  constitu- 
tion is  capable  of. 

Maons  Keen,  one  of  the  Swedes  in  Raccoon,  was  now  near 
seventy  years  old  :  he  had  many  children,  grandchildren,  and  great- 
grandchildren ;  so  that,  of  those  who  were  yet  alive,  he  could  mus- 
ter up  forty-five  persons.    Besides  them,  several  of  his  children 

1  Kalm,  Travels  into  North  America  [1749I,  II,  3-6. 


MISCFXLANEOUS  FEATURES  OF  ECONOMIC  LIFE      'j'^ 

and  grandchildren  died  young,  and  some  in  a  mature  age.  lie  was, 
therefore,  uncommonly  blessed.  Yet  his  happiness  is  not  compa- 
rable to  that  which  is  to  be  seen  in  the  following  examples,  and 
which  I  have  extracted  from  the  Philadelphia  gazette. 

In  the  year  1732,  January  the  24th,  died  at  Ipswich,  in  New 
England,  Mrs.  Sarah  Tuthil,  a  widow,  aged  eighty-six  years.  She 
had  brought  sixteen  children  into  the  world  ;  and  from  seven  of 
them  only,  she  had  seen  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  grand- 
children and  great-grandchildren. 

In  the  year  1739,  May  the  30th,  the  children,  grand  and  great- 
grandchildren, of  Mr.  Richard  Buttington,  in  the  parish  of  Chester, 
in  Pensylvania,  were  assembled  in  his  house  ;  and  they  made  to- 
gether one  hundred  and  fifteen  persons.  The  parent  of  these 
children,  Richard  Buttington,  who  was  born  in  England,  was  then 
entering  into  his  eighty-fifth  year  :  and  was  at  that  time  quite  fresh, 
active,  and  sensible.  His  eldest  son,  then  sixty  years  old,  was  the 
first  Englishman  born  in  Pensylvania. 

In  the  year  1742,  on  the  8th  of  January,  died  at  Trenton,  in 
New  Jersey,  Mrs.  Sarah  Furman,  a  widow,  aged  ninety-seven  years. 
She  was  born  in  New  England  ;  and  left  five  children,  sixty-one 
grandchildren,  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  great-grandchildren, 
and  twelve  great-great-grandchildren,  who  were  all  alive  when 
she  died. 

In  the  year  1739,  on  the  28th  of  January,  died  at  South  Kings- 
ton, in  New  England,  Mrs.  Maria  Hazard,  a  widow,  in  the  hun- 
dredth year  of  her  age.  She  was  born  in  Rhode  Island,  and  was 
the  grandmother  of  the  then  vice-governor  of  that  island,  Mr. 
George  Hazard.  She  could  count  altogether  five  hundred  children, 
grandchildren,  great-grandchildren,  and  great-great-grandchildren. 
When  she  died,  two  hundred  and  five  persons  of  them  were  alive ; 
a  gi-and-daughter  of  hers  had  already  been  grand-mother  near 
fifteen  years. 

In  this  manner,  the  usual  wish  or  blessing  in  our  liturg}^  that 
the  new-married  couple  may  see  their  grandchildren,  till  the 
third  and  fourth  generation,  has  been  literally  fulfilled  in  regard 
to  some  of  these  persons. 


yS  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

VII.    IMPORTANCE   OF  WEST   INDIAN   COLONIES  TO 
EUROPEAN   NATIONS 

1  The  history  of  the  great  American  Archipelago  cannot  be 
better  concluded,  than  by  a  recapitulation  of  the  advantages  it  pro- 
cures to  those  powers  which  have  successively  invaded  it.  It  is 
only  by  the  impulse  which  the  immense  productions  of  this  Archi- 
pelago have  given  to  trade,  that  it  must  ever  hold  a  distinguished 
place  in  the  annals  of  nations  ;  since,  in  fact,  riches  are  the  spring 
of  all  the  great  revolutions  that  disturb  the  globe.   .  .   . 

The  islands  of  the  other  hemisphere  yield  annually  fifteen  mil- 
lions of  livres  to  Spain  ;  eight  millions  to  Denmark  ;  thirty  millions 
to  Holland  ;  eighty-two  millions  to  England  ;  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  millions  to  France.  The  productions  therefore  gathered 
in  fields  that  were  totally  uncultivated  within  these  three  centuries, 
are  sold  in  our  continent  for  about  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  mil- 
lions of  livres. 

This  is  not  a  gift  that  the  New  World  makes  to  the  Old.  The 
people  who  receive  this  important  fruit  of  the  labour  of  their 
subjects  settled  in  America,  give  in  exchange,  though  with  evident 
advantage  to  themselves,  the  produce  of  their  soil  and  of  their 
manufactures.  Some  consume  the  whole  of  what  they  draw  from 
these  distant  possessions  ;  others,  make  the  overplus  the  basis  of  a 
prosperous  trade  with  their  neighbours.  Thus  every  nation  that  is 
possessed  of  property  in  the  New  World,  if  it  be  truly  industrious, 
gains  still  less  by  the  number  of  men  it  maintains  abroad  without 
any  expence,  than  by  the  population  which  those  procure  it  zt 
home.  To  subsist  a  colony  in  America,  it  is  necessary  to  cultivate 
a  province  in  Europe  ;  and  this  additional  labour  increases  the  in- 
ward strength  and  real  wealth  of  the  nation.  The  whole  globe  is 
sensible  of  this  purpose. 

The  labours  of  the  people  settled  in  those  islands,  are  the  sole 
basis  of  the  African  trade :  they  extend  the  fisheries  and  the  cul- 
tures of  North  America,  afford  a  good  market  for  the  manufactures 
of  Asia,  and   double,  perhaps  treble,  the  activity  of  all    Europe. 

^  Rayna],  A  Philosophical  and  Political  History  of  the  Settlements  and  Trade 
of  the  Europeans  in  the  East  and  West  Indies  [17S3],  VI,  412,  413-414. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  WEST   INDIES  'lO   EUROPE 


79 


They  may  be  considered  as  the  principal  cause  of  the  rapid  motion 
which  now  agitates  the  universe.  This  ferment  must  increase,  in 
proportion  as  cultures,  that  are  so  capable  of  being  extended,  shall 
approach  nearer  to  their  highest  degree  of  perfection. 

1  A  full  enumeration  of  the  various  articles  which  furnish  the 
ships  bound  to  the  West  Indies  with  an  outward  freight,  would 
indeed  comprise  a  considerable  proportion  of  almost  all  the  pro- 
ductions and  manufactures  of  this  kingdom,  as  well  as  of  many 
of  the  commodities  imported  into  Great  Britain  from  the  rest  of 
Europe  and  the  East  Indies.  The  inhabitants  of  the  sugar  islands 
are  wholly  dependant  on  the  mother  countiy  and  Ireland,  not  only 
for  the  comforts  and  elegancies,  but  also  for  the  common  neces- 
saries of  life.  In  most  other  states  and  kingdoms,  the  first  object 
of  agriculture  is  to  raise  food  for  the  support  of  the  inhabitants  ; 
but  many  of  the  rich  productions  of  the  West  Indies  yield  a  profit 
so  much  beyond  what  can  be  obtained  from  grain,  that  in  several 
of  the  sugar  islands,  it  is  true  economy  in  the  planter,  rather  to 
buy  provisions  from  others,  than  to  raise  them  by  his  own  labour. 
The  produce  of  a  single  acre  of  his  cane  fields,  will  purchase  more 
Indian  corn  than  can  be  raised  in  five  times  that  extent  of  land, 
and  pay  besides  the  freight  from  other  countries.  Thus  not  only 
their  household  furniture,  their  implements  of  husbandr\-,  their 
clothing,  but  even  a  great  part  of  their  daily  sustenance,  are  regu- 
larly sent  to  them  from  America  or  Europe.  On  the  first  head 
therefore,  it  may  generally  be  observed,  that  the  manufacturers  of 
Birmingham  and  Manchester,  the  clothiers  of  Yorkshire,  Glouces- 
tershire, and  Wilts,  the  potters  of  Staffordshire,  the  proprietors  of 
all  the  lead,  copper,  and  iron  works,  together  with  the  farmers, 
victuallers,  and  brewers,  throughout  the  kingdom,  have  a  greater 
vent  in  the  British  West  Indies,  for  their  respective  commodities, 
than  perhaps  they  themselves  conceive  to  be  possible.  W^iO' would 
believe  that  woollens  constitute  an  article  of  great  consumption  in 
the  torrid  zone  ?  Such  however,  is  the  fact.  Of  the  coarser  kinds 
especially,  for  the  use  of  the  negroes,  the  export  is  prodigious. 

1  Edwards,  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  ihe  British  Colonies  in  the  West 
Indies  [1793],  II.  361-362,  373-375- 


8o  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

Even  sugar  itself,  the  great  staple  of  the  West  Indies,  is  frequently 
returned  to  them  in  a  refined  state ;  so  entirely  do  these  colonies 
depend  on  the  mother  country  ;  centering  in  her  bosom  all  their 
wealth,  wishes,  and  affections.  .   .   . 

On  a  retrospect  of  the  whole,  it  may  be  truly  affirmed,  that  the 
British  sugar  islands  in  the  West  Indies,  (different  in  all  respects 
from  colonies  in  northern  latitudes)  answer  in  every  point  of  view, 
and  if  I  mistake  not,  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  is  commonly 
imagined,  all  the  purposes  and  expectations  for  which  colonies 
have  been  at  any  time  established.  They  furnish  (as  we  have  seen) 
a  sure  and  exclusive  market  for  the  merchandize  and  manufactures 
of  the  mother  country  and  her  dependencies,  to  the  yearly  amount 
of  very  near  four  millions  of  pounds  sterling.  They  produce  to  an 
immense  value,  and  in  quantities  not  only  sufficient  for  her  own 
consumption,  but  also  for  a  great  export  to  foreign  markets,  many 
valuable  and  most  necessary  commodities,  none  of  which  interfere 
in  any  respect  with  her  own  productions  ;  and  most  of  which,  as  I 
shall  demonstrate  hereafter,  she  cannot  obtain  on  equal  terms  else- 
where :  —  accompanied  too  with  this  peculiar  benefit,  that  in  the 
transfer  of  these  articles  from  one  part  of  her  subjects  to  another 
part,  not  one  shilling  is  taken  from  the  general  circulating  wealth 
of  the  kingdom.  Lastly,  they  give  such  employment  to  her  ships 
and  seamen,  as  while  it  supports  and  increases  her  navigation  in 
time  of  peace,  tends  not  in  the  smallest  degree  to  obstruct,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  contributes  veiy  eminently  to  aid  and  invigorate,  her 
operations  in  war.  It  is  evident  therefore,  that  in  estimating  the 
value  and  importance  of  such  a  system,  no  just  conclusions  can  be 
drawn,  but  by  surveying  it  comprcJicnsivcly,  and  in  all  its  parts, 
considering  its  several  branches  as  connected  with,  and  dependant 
on  each  other,  and  even  then,  the  sum  of  its  advantages  will  ex- 
ceed calculation.  We  are  told  indeed,  among  other  objections 
which  I  shall  consider  more  at  large  in  the  concluding  chapter  of 
my  work,  that  all  the  products  of  the  British  West  Indies  may  be 
purchased  cheaper  in  the  colonies  of  foreign  nations.  If  the  fact 
were  true,  as  it  certainly  is  not,  it  would  furnish  no  arginnent 
against  the  propriety  and  necessity  of  settling  colonies  of  our  own  ; 
because  it  must  be  remembered,  that  foreign  nations  will  allow 


IMPORTANCE  OF  WEST  INDIES  TO   El  ROlT:         8l 

few  or  none  of  our  manufactures  to  be  received  in  their  colonies 
in  payment :  that  their  colonists  contribute  in  no  degree,  by  the 
investment  and  expenditure  of  their  profits,  to  augment  the  na- 
tional wealth,  nor,  finally,  do  they  give  employment  exclusively  to 
Ikitish  shipping.  To  what  extent  the  naval  power  of  Great  Britain 
is  dependant  on  her  colonial  commerce,  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain. 
If  this  trade  be  considered  in  all  its  channels,  collateral  and  direct, 
connected  as  it  is  with  our  fisheries,  &c.  perhaps  it  is  not  too  much 
to  affirm,  that  it  maintains  a  merchant  navy  on  which  the  maritime 
strength  of  the  kingdom  so  greatly  depends,  that  we  should  cease 
to  be  a  nation  without  it. 

1  l^ut  it  is  recjuisite  farther  to  observe,  in  order  to  set  the  impor- 
tance of  these  islands  in  a  full  light,  that,  exclusive  of  the  benefits 
flowing  from  their  direct  trade  with  us,  they  will  bring  us  likewise 
very  considerable  advantages,  by  the  encouragement  they  will  afford 
to  other  branches  of  our  commerce.  The  African  trade,  more  es- 
pecially at  the  beginning,  will  receive  a  new  spring  from  their  de- 
mands, since  all  that  they  can  do  either  at  present  or  in  future, 
must  arise  from  the  labour  of  their  Negroes.  The  supplying  them 
with  slaves  therefore,  will  be  both  an  instantaneous  and  a  continual 
source  of  wealth,  to  such  as  are  employed  in  that  lucrative  trade, 
more  especially  to  those  who  have  the  largest  share  of  it,  the  mer- 
chants of  London,  Bristol,  and  Liverpool. 

We  have  therefore  shewn,  how  this  trade  comes  to  be  of  such 
importance  to  Great  Britain,  as  it  is  carried  on  principally  with 
our  own  manufactures,  and  more  especially  with  woollen  goods  of 
different  kinds,  to  a  very  large  amount,  and  that  all  the  incidental 
profits,  exclusive  of  what  is  produced  by  slaves,  which  arise  from 
our  correspondence  with  Afriea,  whether  obtained  by  tiie  purchase 
of  elephants  teeth  and  gold-dust,  upon  the  coasts  of  that  country, 
or  from  the  sale  of  commodities  to  foreigners  in  the  West  Indies, 
finds  its  way  hither.  On  the  winding  up  of  the  account  there- 
fore, as  the  sale  of  the  Negroes  centers  in  the  West  Itidies,  the 
profit  arising  upon  them,  and  every  other  accession  of  gain,  from 

1  Campbell,  Considerations  on  the  Nature  of  the  Sugar  Trade  [1763],  pp. 
217-220. 


82  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

whatever  article  produced,  centers  ultimately  here,  and  becomes 
the  property  of  the  inhabitants  of  Britain. 

This  will  appear  with  the  greater  degree  of  evidence,  when  we 
reflect,  that  more  than  the  moiety  of  that  part  of  the  cargo  for  the 
African  trade,  which  is  not  made  up  of  our  own  goods,  consists 
of  the  manufactures  of  the  East-Indies.  It  has  been  before  ob- 
served, that  besides  the  quantity  of  hidia  goods  employed  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  ;  there  is  likewise  no  small  demand  for  the  same 
commodities  in  our  old  sugar  colonies  ;  and  of  course  there  will 
be  the  like  demand  in  the  new.  We  see  from  hence,  how  the 
comprehensive  chain  of  commerce  is  united,  and  how  the  different 
products  of  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world,  are  carried  to  and 
brought  from  these  distant  countries  in  British  shipping ;  and  that 
all  the  emoluments  arising  from  this  extensive  navigation,  is  in  the 
end  the  reward  of  the  consummate  skill,  the  indefatigable  industry, 
and  the  perpetual  application,  of  the  traders  in  this  happy  isle,  and 
how  it  is  to  be  augmented  and  supported  by  this  new  accession 
of  territory. 

The  prodigious  compass  of  this  commercial  circulation,  would 
be  after  all  very  defectively  represented,  if  we  should  omit  the 
mentioning  the  constant  correspondence  that  subsists  between  the 
sngar  islands  and  the  nortJicrn  colonies.  A  correspondence  equally 
necessary,  and  reciprocally  advantageous  to  those  of  our  countiy- 
men  who  are  settled  in  both  ;  and  a  correspondence  therefore,  which 
will  be  always  maintained,  and  by  which  the  numerous  subjects  of 
Britain  who  are  seated  on  the  continent  of  America,  and  those 
settled  in  the  West  India  islands,  in  pursuing  their  own  immediate 
interests  contribute,  and  contribute  effectually  to  each  other's  sup- 
port. This  is  a  circumstance,  that  must  fill  the  breast  of  every 
well-meaning  man  with  the  highest  and  most  rational  pleasure,  and 
engage  him  to  contemplate  this  subject,  with  a  satisfaction,  words 
would  but  faintly  express,  that  kind  of  satisfaction,  which  warms 
the  heart  of  a  parent,  when  he  sees  his  children  assiduous  in  their 
application  to  those  methods  of  providing  for  their  welfare,  which 
have  a  tendency  to  promoting  their  common  interests,  by  which 
their  harmony  doubles  the  effects  of  their  industry.   .   .   . 


IMPORTANCE  OF  WEST  INDIES  TO  EUROPE         83 

1  If,  upon  the  whole,  we  revolve  in  our  minds,  what  an  amazing 
variet}'  of  trades  receive  their  daily  support,  as  many  of  them  did 
originally  their  being,  from  the  calls  of  the  African  and  West  India 
markets  ;  if  we  reflect  on  the  numerous  families  of  those  mechanics 
and  artisans  which  are  thus  maintained,  and  contemplate  that  ease 
and  plenty,  which  is  the  constant  as  well  as  just  reward  of  their  in- 
cessant labours  ;  if  we  combine  with  these  the  several  tribes  of  active 
and  busy  people,  who  are  continually  employed  in  the  building,  re- 
pairing, rigging,  victualling,  and  equipping,  the  multitudes  of  sea- 
men who  earn  their  wages  by  navigating,  and  the  prodigious  crowds 
who  likewise  obtain  their  bread  by  loading,  unloading,  and  other 
necessary  attendances  upon  ships  ;  if  we  remember,  that  the  sub- 
sistance  of  all  these  ranks  and  degrees  of  men,  thus  usefully  em- 
ployed, constitutes  a  new  fund  of  support  to  the  landed  and  trading 
interests  of  this  country  ;  that  their  various  consumptions  contrib- 
ute to  raise  the  value  of  land,  to  cause  a  regular  and  constant 
demand  for  immense  quantities  of  our  native  commodities,  as  well 
as  to  procure  a  vent  for  our  numberless  manufactures ;  and  that 
all  this  is  equally  regular,  permanent,  and  certain  ;  we  may  from 
thence  form  a  competent  idea  of  the  prodigious  value  of  our  sugar 
colonies,  and  a  just  conception  of  their  immense  importance  to  the 
grandeur  and  prosperity  of  their  mother  country,  to  whom,  from 
the  circumstance  of  this  relation,  they  pay  without  repining  such 
vast  and  multifarious  tributes. 

'^  Great  merit  is  assumed  for  the  gentlemen  of  the  West  Indies, 
on  the  score  of  their  residing  and  spending  their  money  in  Eng- 
land. I  would  not  depreciate  that  merit ;  it  is  considerable  ;  for 
they  might,  if  they  pleased,  spend  their  money  in  h'rance  ;  but  the 
difference  between  their  spending  it  here  and  at  home  is  not  so 
great.  What  do  they  spend  it  in  v^Iien  they  are  here,  but  the 
produce  and  manufactures  of  this  countr}-  ?  and  would  they  not  do 
the  same  if  they  were  at  home  ?  Is  it  of  any  great  importance  to 
the  English  farmer,  whether  the  West  India  gentleman  comes  to 
London  and  eats  his  beef,  pork,  and  tongues,  fresh  ;  or  has  them 

1  I.ong,  The  History  of  Jamaica  [1774],  I.  493-494. 

2  Franklin,  Canadian  Pamphlet  [1760],  in  Works,  IV,  35-36. 


84  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

brought  to  him  in  the  West  Indies,  salted  ?  Whether  he  eats  his 
Enghsh  cheese  and  butter,  or  drinks  his  Enghsh  ale,  at  London 
or  in  the  Barbadoes  ?  Is  the  clothier's,  or  the  mercer's,  or  the 
cutler's,  or  the  toyman's,  profit  less,  for  their  goods  being  worn 
and  consumed  by  the  same  persons  residing  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean  ?  Would  not  the  profits  of  the  merchant  and  mariner 
be  rather  greater,  and  some  addition  made  to  our  navigation,  ships, 
and  seamen  ?  If  the  North  American  gentleman  stays  in  his  own 
country,  and  lives  there  in  that  degree  of  luxury  and  expense,  with 
regard  to  the  use  of  British  manufactures,  that  his  fortune  enables 
him  to  do,  may  not  his  example,  from  the  imitation  of  superiors 
so  natural  to  mankind,  spread  the  use  of  those  manufactures 
among  hundreds  of  families  around  him,  and  occasion  a  much 
greater  demand  for  them,  than  it  would  do  if  he  should  remove 
and  live  in  London  ? 

However  this  may  be,  if,  in  our  views  of  immediate  advantage, 
it  seems  preferable,  that  the  gentlemen  of' large  fortunes  in  North 
America  should  reside  much  in  England,  it  is  what  may  surely  be 
expected,  as  fast  as  such  fortunes  are  acquired  there.  Their  hav- 
ing "colleges  of  their  own  for  the  education  of  their  youth,"  will 
not  prevent  it.  A  little  knowledge  and  learning  acquired  increases 
the  appetite  for  more,  and  will  make  the  conversation  of  the 
learned  on  this  side  the  water  more  strongly  desired.  Ireland  has 
its  university  likewise  ;  yet  this  does  not  prevent  the  immense  pe- 
cuniary benefit  we  receive  from  that  kingdom.  And  there  will  al- 
ways be,  in  the  conveniences  of  life,  the  politeness,  the  pleasures, 
the  magnificence  of  the  reigning  country,  many  other  attractions 
besides  those  of  learning,  to  draw  men  of  substance  there,  where 
they  can,  apparently  at  least,  have  the  best  bargain  of  happiness 
for  their  money. 


CHAPTER   III 
COLONIAL  POLICY 

INTRODUCTION 

Like  all  European  countries  in  the  eighteenth  century  England  regarded 
colonies  as  an  important  economic  resource,  and  aimed  to  make  them  contribute 
as  much  as  possible  to  national  power  and  wealth.  Her  colonial  policy  was, 
therefore,  chiefly  economic.  It  was  the  regulation  of  trade  and  industry,  rather 
than  the  exercise  of  political  control,  that  received  attention.  These  regulations 
may  be  divided  into  four  groups.  The  first  refers  to  navigation  ;  the  second  to 
the  exports  of  the  colonies  ;  the  third  to  their  imports ;  and  the  last  to  certain 
industries  carried  on  in  the  colonies.  The  Navigation  Act  of  1660  prohibited 
the  carriage  of  any  goods  to  or  from  the  colonies  in  other  than  English  built 
ships,  owned  by  Englishmen  and  operated  by  a  crew  three  fourths  English. 
Furthermore  no  colonial  produce  from  any  part  of  the  world  could  be  imported 
into  England  except  in  such  ships.  This  provided  for  a  complete  monopoly  of 
both  branches  of  the  shipping  industry,  viz.,  the  carrying-trade  and  ship-building. 
But  the  term  "English"  included  the  colonists,  who  were  thus  able  to  share  in 
such  benefits  as  this  monopoly  secured ;  and  both  ship-building  and  commerce 
flourished  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York  and  New  England.  The  second  group 
provided  for  the  "  enumeration  "  of  certain  colonial  products  which  were  re- 
quired to  be  shipped  only  to  England.  By  the  Act  of  1660  there  were  included 
in  this  list  sugar,  tobacco,  cotton-wool,  indigo,  ginger,  fustic  and  other  dye- 
woods.  In  the  reign  of  Anne  molasses,  rice  and  naval  stores  were  added  and 
in  1722  copper  and  furs.  Rice  and  sugar,  however,  were  soon  after  allowed  to 
be  shipped  to  any  place  south  of  Cape  Finesterre,  and  this,  so  far  as  rice  was 
concerned,  amounted  to  a  practical  removal  from  the  enumerated  list,  since  its 
chief  market  was  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  only  important  products  of  the 
continental  colonies  affected  by  these  restrictions  were  tobacco  and  naval  stores. 
The  others  were  either  insignificant  in  amount,  or  were  produced  in  the  West 
Indies.  With  the  exception  of  tobacco,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine,  masts  and  yards 
the  colonists  could  carry  their  important  products  to  any  part  of  the  world  in 
their  own  vessels. 

Regarding  colonial  imports  there  were  two  restrictions.  First,  all  commodities 
"of  the  Growth,  Production  or  Manufacture  of  Europe"  were  required  to  be 
laden  and  shipped  in  England.  This  was  intended  to  afford  a  "  Vent  of  Eng- 
lish Woolen  and  other  Manufactures  and  Commodities  .  .  .  and  making  this 
Kingdom  a  Staple,   not  only  of  the   Commodities  of  those  plantations,   but 

■^5 


86  COLONIAL  POLICY 

also  of  the  commodities  of  other  Countries  and  Places  for  the  Supplying  of 
them.  ..."  There  were  a  few  exceptions  to  this  law,  such  as  salt  for  the 
fisheries  and  wines  from  Madeira  and  the  Azores,  as  well  as  provisions,  horses 
and  servants  from  Ireland  and  Scotland,  and  linen  from  Ireland.  This  require- 
ment that  all  imports  from  other  countries  must  come  through  England  was 
evidently  expected  to  put  the  export  trade  of  the  colonies  to  foreign  countries 
into  the  hands  of  English  merchants  ;( since  a  return  cargo  could  not  legally 
be  secured  without  going  to  an  English  port.]  The  second  restriction  on 
imports  was  the  levying  of  a  prohibitory  duty  on  molasses  from  the  West 
India  colonies  of  other  nations.  This  was  an  attempt  to  assist  the  British 
sugar  colonies  in  their  competition  with  the  French,  who  were  supposed  to  be 
greatly  benefited  in  their  industry  by  securing  their  supplies  from  the  northern 
colonies  in  return  for  a  by-product  which  could  not  be  sold  in  France.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  resort  of  the  colonial  traders  to  the  French  islands  diminished 
the  demand  for  the  molasses  of  the  English  planters  and  made  the  supplies 
from  the  northern  colonies  scarce  and  expensive.  The  real  effect  of  both  these 
restrictions  on  colonial  imports  cannot  be  inferred  from  the  laws ;  for  neither 
of  them  were  strictly  enforced,  and  where  as  in  the  second  case  the  restriction 
was  a  serious  burden,  the  law  became  practically  a  dead  letter. 

The  regulations  regarding  colonial  industries  were  of  two  kinds.  Certain 
manufactures  were  restricted  or  prohibited  altogether.  Other  industries,  thought 
to  be  especially  beneficial  to  the  mother-country,  were  encouraged  and  assisted. 
Thus  as  early  as  1 699  it  was  enacted  that  no  woolen  manufacture  could  be  ex- 
ported from  the  colonies,  transported  from  one  colony  to  another,  or  one  place 
to  another  in  the  same  colony.  In  1732  it  was  enacted  that  no  hats  could  be 
put  on  board  ship  for  exportation  to  Europe  or  to  England,  or  on  a  cart  for 
transportation  from  one  colony  to  another.  These  laws  were  undoubtedly  in- 
tended to  prevent  the  colonial  woolen  and  hat  manufactures  from  competing 
with  those  of  the  mother-country.  The  law  regarding  the  manufacture  of  iron 
had  a  double  purpose  and  was  only  partially  repressive.  It  aimed,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  stimulate  the  production  of  crude  iron,  pig  and  bar,  so  as  to  reduce 
the  dependence  of  England  upon  the  Baltic  countries  for  that  product,  and  on 
the  other,  to  prevent  the  production  in  the  colonies  of  iron  wares  of  various 
kinds.  Accordingly  it  removed  all  duties  in  England  on  the  imports  of  crude 
iron  from  the  colonies  and  prohibited  the  erection  in  the  colonies  of  "  all  mills 
or  other  engines  for  rolling  or  slitting  iron,  plating  forges  to  work  with  the 
tilt-hammer  and  furnaces  for  making  steel."  It  was  expected  to  benefit  both 
the  colonies  and  the  mother-country. 

Efforts  were  made  to  stimulate  various  industries  in  the  colonies  either 
directly  by  the  payment  of  bounties,  or  indirectly  by  preferential  duties  in 
England  on  imports  from  the  colonies.  Bounties  were  paid  on  tar,  pitch,  tur- 
pentine and  rosin,  hemp,  masts  and  indigo.  There  were  bounties  also  for  the 
whale  fisheries,  but  these  were  levied  for  the  benefit  of  the  industry  of  the 
mother-country,  and  the  colonies  were  only  allowed  to  participate  in  them.    As 


INTRODUCTION  87 

a  general  rule  colonial  products  imported  into  ICngland  paid  the  same  duties  as 
corresponding  products  frotn  foreign  countries,  but  preferential  treatment  was 
accorded  to  the  colonies  in  the  case  of  tobacco,  pig  and  bar  iron,  hemp,  lumber, 
molasses,  indigo,  whalefins  and  train  oil,  pot  and  pearl  ashes  and  raw  silk.  In 
this  connection  it  should  be  noted  also  thaAhe  production  of  tobacco  in  England 
was  absolutely  prohibitedTi 

This  whole  policy  of  regulating  colonial  industries  was  designed  to  produce 
several  results,  among  which  the  welfare  of  the  colonies  was  included.  It  was 
to  free  the  nation  from  dependence  on  foreign  countries  for  naval  supplies,  to 
prevent  the  export  of  specie  to  pay  for  certain  imports,  and  to  increase  the 
demand  in  the  colonies  for  English  manufactures.  It  was  well  recognized,  how- 
ever, that  the  colonies  could  not  buy  English  manufactures,  unless  they  could 
export  their  own  produce  to  pay  for  them,  and  the  policy  of  encouragement  to 
colonial  industries  was  closely  connected  with  that  of  discouragement  to  colonial 
manufactures.  Nor  was  the  colonial  consumer  entirely  disregarded  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  favors.  Export  duties  were  lower  to  the  colonies  than  to  foreign 
countries  on  coal  and  tar.  On  foreign  commodities  exported  to  foreign  coun- 
tries large  drawbacks  of  import  duties  had  to  be  given  in  order  to  preserve  the 
carrying-trade.  The  colonies  were  allowed  to  enjoy  these  also,  and  were  thus 
able  to  secure  many  different  foreign  goods  more  cheaply  than  the  inhaJMtants 
of  the  mother-country. 

It  is  evident  from  this  review  that  the  task  of  determining  just  the  influence 
of  the  old  colonial  system  upon  the  economic  development  of  the  colonies  is  a 
very  difficult  one.  No  detailed  discussion  of  the  effect  of  the  different  regula- 
tions can  be  attempted  here.^  A  few  observations  concerning  the  effect  of  the 
policy  as  a  whole  may,  however,  be  added.  In  the  first  place  it  is  clear  that  in 
neither  motive  nor  actual  effect  was  the  welfare  of  the  colonies  disregarded  and 
their  interests  systematically  sacrificed  to  those  of  the  mother-country.  Even 
as  hostile  a  critic  as  Adam  Smith  was  constrained  to  admit  that  "  though  the 
policy  of  Great  Britain  with  regard  to  the  trade  of  her  colonies  has  been  dictated 
by  the  same  mercantile  spirit  as  that  of  other  nations,  it  has,  however,  upon 
the  whole,  been  less  illiberal  and  oppressive  than  any  of  them."  Not  only  does 
the  s_£iriJL_a£.  recrprodty  a^gear  in  the  regulations  themselves,  but  also  in  the 
lar^e  freedom  from  restrictions^which  were  allowed.  The  colonies  were  a  part 
of  the  empire  and,  as  such,  enjoyed  its  most  valuable  privileges.  They  shared 
in  the  maritime  supremacy  which  followed,  if  it  did  not  result  from,  the  Navi- 
gation Acts.  They  enjoyed  almost  complete  freedom  of  inter-colonial  trade, 
and  a  large  measure  of  freedom  in  trade  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Such  active 
commercial  centers  as  Boston,  Philadelphia  and  New  York  could  hardly  have 
developed  under  conditions  of  severe  restraint.  Nor  were  the  privileges  en- 
joyed by  the  colonies  entirely  economic.    They  were  protected  by  Great  Britain 

1  For  this  the  reader  is  referred  to  Ashley's  Surveys  Historic  and  Economic, 
pp.  309-356,  and  to  Beer's  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American 
Colonies. 


88  COLONIAL  POLICY 

with  small  expense  to  themselves,  both  from  territorial  invasion,  and  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  commerce  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Moreover,  they  were 
given  complete  political  freedom.  As  Adam  Smith  remarked,  "  In  everything 
except  their  foreign  trade,  the  liberty  of  the  English  colonies  to  manage  their 
own  affairs  in  their  own  way  is  complete.  It  is  in  every  respect  equal  to  that  of 
their  fellow-citizens  at  home,  and  is  secured  in  the  same  manner,  by  an  assembly 
of  the  representatives  of  the  people  who  claim  the  sole  right  of  imposing  taxes 
for  the  support  of  the  colonial  government." 

To  form  a  judgment  of  the  influence  of  the  policy  as  a  whole,  three  facts 
must  be  constantly  kept  in  view.  First  of  all,  the  steady  growth  of  the  colo- 
nies in  wealth  and  population,  as  compared  with  the  colonies  of  other  nations, 
under  it.  Second,  the  acquiescence  without  serious  complaint  of  the  colonists 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years  in  such  burdens  as  it  imposed.  Burdens  there 
no  doubt  were  and  they  were  recognized,  but  there  were  also  compensations 
equally  well  recognized.  And  finally,  the  fact  that  after  separation  from  Great 
Britain  took  place  with  the  exception  of  the  tobacco  trade,  which  was  carried 
on  directly  with  the  continent,  commerce  returned,  so  far  as  it  was  permitted, 
to  the  position  it  occupied  in  colonial  times.  England  continued  to  be  the  best 
place  to  buy  manufactures  as  well  as  the  products  of  other  countries,  because 
of  the  credit  her  merchants  were  willing  to  give  us,  and  the  chief  complaint  of 
the  time  was  that  we  were  not  permitted  by  England  to  enjoy  those  privileges 
of  trade  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  sale  of  our  ships  and  fishery  products  in 
England  which  would  provide  us  with  a  remittance  to  pay  for  imports. 


I.    THE   INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TRADE  LAWS 

1  The  old  English  colonial  system  —  by  which  is  generally 
meant  the  various  provisions  regulating  the  trade  of  the  Empire 
—  was  one  of  great  complexity  and  intricacy.  It  was  embodied  in 
an  unwieldy  series  of  parliamentary  statutes,  about  one  hundred 
in  all.  Extensive  governmental  control  over  commerce  and  in- 
dustry was  the  current  practice,  and  was  based  on  the  theory  that 
the  economic  activity  of  the  individual  should  be  wholly  subordi- 
nated to  the  welfare  of  the  community.  The  primary  object  of 
the  colonial  system  was  to  develop  the  w^ealth  and  power  of  the 
Empire.  It  was  considered  that  this  could  best  be  accomplished 
by  making  it  a  self-sufficient  economic  unit,  independent  as  far  as 
was  possible  of  competing  national  groups.  As  Pownall  expressed 
it,  the  aim  was  to  create  "  one  great  commercial  dominion."    In 

1  Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765,  pp.  193-205,  209-210.  Reprinted  by 
permission  of  the  author  and  publishers,  The  Macmillan  Company. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TRADE  LAWS  89 

this  commercial  L^mpire,  mother  country  and  dependency  were  to 
be  mutually  complementary,  one  sul^p]\■inf^^  as  far  as  was  possible, 
the  manufactured  products  consumed  in  the  colony,  and  the  other 
the  tropical  products  and  the  raw  materials  not  produced  by  Great 
Britain,  All  trade  within  the  ICmpire  was  to  be  carried  on  exclu- 
sively in  British  and  colonial  shipping,  with  the  object  of  increas- 
ing the  Empire's  naval  strength.  Great  stress  was  laid  on  this 
side  of  the  system,  for  the  statesmen  of  the  day  recognized  to  its 
fullest  extent  the  importance  of  "  sea  power." 

In  accordance  with  this  system,  a  large  number  of  colonial  prod- 
ucts received  especial  advantages  in  the  l^ritish  market  by  a 
system  of  preferential  duties,  by  direct  bounties,  or  by  a  combina- 
tion of  both,  with  the  result  that  in  a  number  of  instances  they 
acquired  a  monopoly  thereof  at  the  expense  of  foreign  goods, 
with  which  under  normal  conditions  they  could  not  compete.  On 
the  other  hand  European  and  Asiatic  products  could  be  imported 
into  the  colonies  only  from  Great  Britain.  There  were  important 
exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  and  in  addition  the  British  fiscal 
system  was  so  arranged  that  on  the  payment  of  slight  duties, 
foreign  products  could  be,  and  in  fact  were,  reexported  in  large 
quantities  from  Great  Britain  to  the  colonies.  In  the  case  of  some 
foreign  products,  however,  such  as  manufactured  iron  and  steel, 
cordage,  sail-cloth,  and  paper,  no  part  of  the  British  duties  was 
paid  back  on  their  reexportation,  and  consequently  in  the  case  of 
these  exceptional  instances  the  system  tended  to  give  British 
manufactures  a  monopoly  of  the  colonial  market.  In  this  con- 
nection, however,  it  should  be  noted  that  Great  l^rifcun  paid 
bounties  on  a  number  of  manufactures  when  exported  to  the 
colonies,  thus  decreasing  their  cost  to  the  colonial  consumer. 
The  system  as  a  whole  was  thus  based  on  the  idea  of  the  mutual 
reciprocity  of  the  economic  interests  of  mother  country  and  colony. 
Its  predominant  characteristic  is  well  emphasized  in  the  Erench 
term  describing  it,  —  "  Ic  pactc  colonial ^ 

The  complex  system  erected  on  this  basis  naturally  benefited 
some  interests  at  the  expense  of  others.  This  is  inevitable  when- 
ever the  government  seeks  to  control  the  course  of  economic 
development  and  restrains  the  free  play  of  competition.     Some 


90 


COLONIAL  POLICY 


of  the  interests  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  the  lunpire  were  British, 
some  colonial.  Thus  the  Navigation  Act  proper,  which  gave 
British  and  colonial  shipping  a  monopoly  of  the  carrying-trade  of 
the  Empire,  while  unquestionably  protecting  the  ship-building  and 
carrying  trades  of  both  old  and  New  England,  and  also  of  some 
of  the  other  colonies,  was  equally  unquestionably  at  the  outset 
burdensome  to  the  plantation  colonies,  such  as  Barbados  and 
Virginia.  Then  in  so  far  as  British  legislation  and  policy  dis- 
couraged manufacturing  in  the  colonies,  the  manufacturer  in  the 
mother  countiy  benefited. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  British  consumer  was  prevented  from 
obtaining  foreign  products  and  was  forced  to  smoke  colonial 
tobacco,  to  eat  colonial  sugar,  and  to  use  colonial  tar,  all  of  which 
enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  home  market.  Furthermore,  in  the 
interest  of  the  colonial  planter,  though  also  partly  for  the  sake 
of  revenue,  the  British  and  the  Irish  farmers  were  prohibited 
from  growing  tobacco.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  prohibition, 
which  in  England  met  with  violent  and  protracted  opposition 
throughout  a  period  of  over  fifty  years,  entailed  far  greater  sacri- 
fice than  did  the  British  restrictions  on  colonial  manufacturing. 
These  restrictions  were  to  a  great  extent  superfluous,  as  under 
existing  conditions,  with  land  cheap  and  plentiful,  the  colonies 
had  no  inducement  to  manufacture  extensively  on  a  commercial 
scale.  From  the  economic  standpoint,  this  phase  of  British  policy 
in  itself  aroused  little  or  no  opposition  in  the  colonies,  not  only 
because  it  did  not  in  general  run  counter  to  their  interests,  but  also 
because  the  laws  were  to  a  great  extent  necessarily  ignored,  as  the 
imperial  authorities  had  no  adequate  machinery  to  enforce  them. 

As  far  as  there  was  any  opposition  at  all,  it  centred  on  the 
Iron  Act  of  1750.  The  main  object  and  primary'  purpose  of  this 
law  was  to  encourage  the  production  of  bar  and  pig  iron  in  the 
colonies,  by  removing  the  British  customs  duties  thereon,  thus 
enabling  them  to  compete  with  Swedish  iron  on  which  these 
duties  were  retained.  There  was  great  opposition  to  this  measure 
on  the  part  of  influential  interests  in  England,  and  it  was  seem- 
ingly in  order  to  overcome  this  opposition  and  at  the  same  time 
to  give  the  mother  country  some  compensation  for  the  loss  in 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TRADE  LAWS 


91 


revenue  involved  in  this  i:Kilicy,  llial  the  IuhIkt  c-xtfnsion  in  the 
colonies  of  the  iron  and  steel  inanulaeture  in  certain  of  its  more 
highly  developed  grades  was  forbidden.  IMius  this  act  had  a 
tendency  to  beneiit  some  colonies  and  to  restrict  industry  in 
others.  In  neither  phase  was  it  very  effective  ;  but  if  the  benefits 
and  disadvantages  did  not  balance  one  another,  it  was  certainly 
not  due  to  the  greater  weight  of  the  latter. 

In  addition,  some  colonial  products  could  be  shipped  only  to 
Great  Britain  or  to  some  other  British  colony.  Such  commodi- 
ties were  those  not  produced  in  tlie  mother  country,  and  which 
either  v/ere  needed  for  consumption  there  or  which,  when  reex- 
ported from  Great  Britain  to  other  TAU-opean  countries,  served  to 
rectify  a  possible  adverse  balance  of  trade.  This  policy,  technic- 
ally known  as  that  of  "  enumeration,"  in  the  ease  of  some  com- 
modities, probably  resulted  in  a  lowering  of  the  price  to  the 
colonial  producer.  But  tlie  corollaiy  to  this  policy  \\'as  pv^i- 
erential  treatment  to  the  enumerated  product  in  the  British 
markets.  The  system  of  indirect  bounties  by  preferential  duties 
in  conjunction  with  the  direct  bounties  paid  on  colonial  products 
probably  more  than  offset  the  restrictions  of  the  enumeration 
policy.  In  the  case  of  naval  stores,  these  bounties  alone  enabled 
colonial  pitch  and  tar  to  hold  the  British  markets,  and  amounted 
to  large  sums,  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  the  day. 

The  imperial  character  of  the  system  was  strongly  emphasized. 
It  followed,  however,  from  the  very  fact  that  Great  Britain  was 
the  heart  of  the  Empire,  on  whose  well-being  the  prosperity  of 
the  whole  primarily  depended, — because  upon  the  mother  coun'tr)' 
fell  virtually  the  entire  heavy  burden  of  imperial  defence,  —  that 
any  industrial  development  in  the  colonies  which  tended  to  weaken 
the  mother  country  was  discouraged.  Hence  the  economic  life  of 
the  colonies  was  subordinated  to  that  of  the  mother  country,  and 
was  directed  into  channels  that  did  not  run  counter  to  the  welfare 
of  Great  Britain.  Any  other  policy  would  have  been  deemed 
suicidal.  Such  subordination  did  not,  however,  imply  a  sacrifice 
of  the  colonies,  for  their  economic  development  was  in  general 
not  deflected  from  its  normal  course.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did 
it  mean  absolute  predominance  of  British  interests.    As  has  been 


92 


COLONIAL  POLICY 


pointed  out,  these  had  been  obliged,  in  a  number  of  instances,  to 
yield  to  the  welfare  of  the  Empire.  It  is  significant  that  Great 
Britain  denied  the  insistent  requests  of  English  ship-builders  for 
protection  against  the  colonial  industry,  because  such  a  measure 
would  have  interfered  with  the  expansion  of  British  sea-power  as 
a  whole.  In  fact,  it  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  whether  colony 
or  metropolis  was  called  upon  to  bear  a  greater  proportion  of  the 
sacrifice  denianded  by  the  prevailing  ideal  of  a  self-sufficient  com- 
mercial Empire. 

History,  however,  is  to  a  great  extent  based  on  social  psycholog}^, 
and  in  studying  the  dynamic  effects  of  any  policy  on  the  relations 
of  two  social  groups,  it  is  frequently  far  more  important  to  know 
what  people  at  the  time  thought  were  the  results,  rather  than  what 
these  actually  were.  Naturally,  those  interests,  whether  British  or 
colonial,  that  were  called  upon  to  bear  the  sacrifices  inevitably 
involved  in  so  complex  a  system  of  commercial  regulation  felt 
aggrieved.  A  prominent  British  complaint  was  that  nearly  all  the 
duties  on  foreign  products  shipped  from  Great  Britain  to  the 
colonies  were  repaid,  and  that  consequently  the  colonial  consumer 
obtained  these  commodities  at  a  lower  price  than  did  his  fellow- 
subject  in  Great  Britain,  on  whom  fell  the  chief  burden  of  imperial 
defence.  Then,  the  British  consumer  opposed  the  monopoly  ac- 
corded to  many  colonial  products.  Similarly,  there  was  some 
objection  to  the  colonial  planter  receiving  bounties,  while  the 
British  farmer  was  not  entitled  to  them  though  he  paid  the  taxes 
that  they  necessitated.  Joseph  Massie,  one  of  the  best  informed 
of  contemporary  publicists,  claimed  that  the  British  West  Indies 
had  robbed  the  nation  of  ten  million  pounds  sterling  through  the 
exorbitant  price  of  sugar.  This  price  was  a  direct  result  of  the 
preferential  duties.  On  the  other  hand,  the  colonies  recognized 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  system,  they  paid  more  for  some 
European  manufactures  and  likewise  that  they  received  for  some 
of  their  products  less  than  would  have  been  the  case  under  unre- 
stricted conditions. 

Thus  there  were  complaints  from  both  interests  affected  ;  in  the 
main,  however,  it  was  considered  that  the  system  favored  the 
mother  country.    In  the  first  place,  by  virtue  of  it  Great  Britain 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TRADE  EAW'S      93 

enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  colonial  trade,  foreigners  being  entirely 
excluded  therefrom.  This  was  of  course  not  an  absolute  monopoly, 
but  one  in  which  the  colonial  traders,  especially  those  of  New  iMig- 
land,  participated.  Then,  while  the  mother  country  levied  import 
duties  on  colonial  products,  the  colonies  were  forbidden  to  imjDose 
similar  taxes  on  commodities  brought  from  Great  liritain.  At  the 
time  there  prevailed  only  vague  and  indefinite  ideas  as  to  the  real 
incidence  of  such  taxes,  and  many  in  the  colonies  thought  that 
they,  and  not  the  ]5ritish  consumer,  paid  the  J^ritish  customs  du- 
ties. On  the  other  hand,  the  inability  to  impose  duties  on  imports 
from  the  mother  country  limited  the  colony's  complete  freedom  of 
action.  It  was  in  this  respect  that  the  system  was  least  satisfacton' 
to  men  of  marked  individualism,  such  as  were  the  colonists.  With 
their  keen  desire  for  complete  self-government,  they  naturally  to 
some  extent  objected  to  a  system  by  which  their  foreign  trade,  and 
in  a  few  instances  even  industry  within  the  colonics  themselves, 
was  regulated  by  a  legislative  body  over  which  they  had  no  con- 
trol, and  whose  power  was  unlimited. 

Thus  neither  British  nor  colonial  interests  were  fully  satisfied 
with  the  system,  and  on  the  whole  it  was  considered  more  favor- 
able to  the  metropolis  than  to  the  colony.  This  system,  however, 
did  not  stand  by  itself,  but  was  integrally  connected  with  that  of 
imperial  defence.  What  Patrick  Henry  called  the  "  original  com- 
pact between  King  and  people,  stipulating  protection  on  the  one 
hand  and  obedience  on  the  other,"  was  not  a  mere  empty  formula. 
The  right  of  the  mother  country  to  regulate  imperial  trade,  and 
the  general  manner  in  which  this  right  was  exercised,  were  justi- 
fied in  the  eyes  of  nearly  all,  whether  British  or  colonial,  by  the 
fact  that  through  her  naxy  Great  Britain  protected  the  colonies 
in  peace  and  in  war.   .   .   . 

...  As  has  been  pointed  out,  British  policy  had  never  been 
consistently  directed  toward  creating  a  closely  knit  political  empire. 
The  aim  was  rather  to  create  a  self-sufficient  economic  empire, 
and,  in  the  main,  this  result  had  been  attained.  The  West  Indian 
colonies  were  absolutely  dependent  on  the  monopoly  of  the  British 
markets  that  had  been  accorded  to  them.  Similarly,  the  prosperity 
of  the  continental  colonies  depended,  in  varying  degrees,  on  the 


94  COLONIAL  POLICY 

one  hand  on  the  British  markets,  or  on  the  other  hand  on  British 
colonial  markets.  The  least  dependent  colonies  were  those  produc- 
ing tobacco  ;  for  through  the  long  period  during  which  it  had  en- 
joyed a  monopoly,  American  tobacco  had  gained  a  firm  hold  on 
the  British  consumer.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  at 
this  time  there  was  some  objection  in  Virginia  to  the  "  enumer- 
ation "  of  its  staple  crop.  South  Carolina,  though  absolutely  inde- 
pendent in  so  far  as  rice  was  concerned,  relied  upon  the  British 
bounties  on  naval  stores  and  indigo.  North  Carolina  was  similarly 
affected  by  the  premiums  on  tar  and  pitch.  The  middle  colonies 
and  those  of  New  England  were  especially  dependent  on  those 
other  British  colonies  that  in  the  event  of  political  independence 
would  probably  not  throw  in  their  lot  with  North  America.  The 
fisheries,  the  lumber  industry,  the  provision  trade,  demanded  free 
access  to  the  British  West  Indies  as  well  as  to  those  of  foreign 
nations.  Then,  only  because  they  were  British  colonies,  was  the 
large  trade  to  Newfoundland  open  to  them.  To  some  degree  also 
these  colonies  relied  on  the  naval-store  bounties.  In  addition,  the 
prosperity  of  their  ship-building  industry  depended  to  a  great  ex- 
tent on  the  sale  of  vessels  to  Great  Britain,  and  on  the  large  carry- 
ing-trade between  various  parts  of  the  Empire.  Once  politically 
separated,  the  Navigation  Acts  would  automatically  shut  off  the 
sale  of  these  ships  and  also  a  considerable,  portion  of  the  carrying- 
trade.  Thus,  while  on  the  one  hand  political  separation  meant 
some  economic  advantages,  on  the  other  it  meant  both  the  assump- 
tion of  the  burden  of  naval  defence,  hitherto  borne  by  the  mother 
country,  as  well  as  the  entire  cost  of  purely  military  defence,  — 
and  also  important  and  concrete  economic  disadvantages.  To  those 
in  the  colonies  contemplating  such  a  contingency,  the  risks  must 
have  appeared  sufficiently  formidable  "  to  give  them  pause."  Hence, 
as  far  as  this  was  realized,  the  system  tended  in  the  direction  of 
greater  imperial  cohesion,  and  ran  counter  to  the  strongly  marked 
tendency  toward  political  disintegration. 


I 

J 


CONTKMI*()K.\l<\     \  IKWS  95 

II.    CONTEMPORARY   X'lKWS 
A.  Thk  Mkkcantii.k  Vikw 

^  The  great  increase  of  the  po])ulati()n  of  the  norlliern  colonies 
is  not  near  of  such  advantage  to  (jrreat  Britain  as  that  of  the  south- 
ern ones,  which  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  population  has  a 
corresponding  increase  in  the  production  of  true  staple  commod- 
ities, the  circumstance  on  which  the  interest  of  Britain  depends ; 
those  colonies  which  have  not  staples,  we  have  found  from  long 
experience,  can  afford  to  purchase  but  a  small  part  of  their  manu- 
factures and  other  necessaries  from  the  mother-country  ;  common 
agriculture  will  not  effect  it ;  accordingly  we  see,  that  in  the  north- 
ern settlements,  that  is,  tlie  settlements  to  the  north  of  Maryland, 
they  are  forced  to  make  up  their  deficiency  of  staples  by  fisheries 
and  commerce,  in  both  of  which  articles  they  interfere  considerably 
with  Britain  ;  so  that  their  import  of  manufactures  is  by  no  means 
of  the  value  of  that  of  the  southern  settlements,  as  they  get  the 
money  to  make  their  purchases,  by  rivalling  the  fisheries  and  com- 
merce of  Britain.  Hence  therefore  appears  the  constant  expediency 
of  watching  anxiously  the  increase  of  population  in  the  southern 
parts  of  America,  and  taking  every  measure  to  increase  it.  Nor 
can  any  conduct  in  the  administration  of  our  government  be  of 
such  great  importance,  as  inducing  the  people  settled  in  the  north- 
ern colonies  to  quit  them  in  favour  of  the  southern  ones.   .   .   . 

As  to  the  northern  colonies,  all  to  the  north  of  the  tobacco  ones 
may  with  propriety  be  classed  together,  since  neither  Pens)'l\-ania, 
New  Jersey,  New  England,  Nova  Scotia,  nor  Canada,  have  any 
staple  product  of  agriculture  ;  the  consequence  of  which  is  their 
flying  to  all  other  employments  ;  the  culture  of  the  soil  is  common 
husbandry,  like  that  of  Britain  herself ;  the  employment  of  their 
towns,  which  are  numerous  and  large,  is  manufactures,  commerce, 
and  fisheries.  It  is  impossible  they  should  be  so  employed,  and  at 
the  same  time  be  the  occasion  of  Britain's  prosperity,  like  the  col- 
onies to  the  south.   .   .   . 

The  more  this  subject  is  enquired  into,  the  more  evidently  and 
clearly  will  it  appear,  that  the  production  of  staple  commodities  is 

1  American  Husbandry  [1775],  I,  ^34-435  I  II.  -35'  240-242,  245,  246-247. 


96  COLONIAL  POLICY 

the  only  business  proper  for  colonies  :  whatever  else  they  go  upon, 
it  is  absolutely  impossible  that  they  should  by  any  employment 
whatever  make  up  for  the  want  of  the  one  really  necessary.  For 
the  want  of  this  capital  foundation  of  a  colony,  our  northern  settle- 
ments, we  have  found,  are  full  of  farmers,  manufacturers,  mer- 
chants, fishermen,  seamen  ;  —  but  no  planters.  This  is  precisely 
the  case  with  Britain  herself ;  consequently  a  rivalry  between  them 
must  inevitiibly  take  place.  This  in  the  article  of  the  fisheries  we 
find  fully  taken  place  ;  for  the  northern  colonies  have  nearly  beaten 
us  out  of  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  that  great  nurseiy  of  sea- 
men !  insomuch  that  the  share  of  New  England  alone  exceeds  that 
of  Britain.  Can  any  one  think  from  hence,  that  the  trade  and 
navigation  of  our  colonies  are  worth  one  groat  to  this  nation  } 

There  is  not  one  branch  of  commerce  carried  on  by  these  trad- 
ing settlements  but  might  just  as  well  be  in  the  hands  of  the  in- 
habitants of  this  kingdom,  the  supplying  the  sugar  islands  with 
lumber  alone  excepted,  and  that  we  have  already  seen  is  a  trifle. 
Thus  the  trading  part  of  the  colonies  rob  this  nation  of  the  invalu- 
able treasure  of  30,000  seamen,  and  all  the  profits  of  their  employ- 
ment ;  or  in  other  words,  the  northern  colonies,  who  contribute 
nothing  either  to  our  riches  or  our  power,  deprive  us  of  more  than 
twice  the  amount  of  all  the  navigation  we  enjoy  in  consequence 
of  the  sugar  islands,  the  southern,  continental,  and  tobacco  settle- 
ments !  The  freight  of  the  staples  of  those  setts  of  colonies  bring 
us  in  upwards  of  a  million  sterling ;  that  is,  the  navigation  of 
12,000  seamen:  according  to  which  proportion  we  lose  by  the 
rivalry  of  the  northern  colonies  in  this  single  article  TWO  MIL- 
LIONS AND  AN  HALF  sterling!   .   .   . 

That  fisheries  and  navigation  are  improper  employments  for 
colonies,  and  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  mother-country, 
appears  clearly  enough  from  hence ;  and  I  may  add  to  these 
reasons,  that  the  practice  of  the  French,  whose  fishery  employs 
20,000  seamen,  while  ours  maintains  only  4000,  proves  strongly 
that  planted  settlements  are  by  no  means  necessary  for  success  in 
fishing.   .   .   . 

The  second  article  which  I  was  to  consider,  is  that  of  corn  and 
provisions,  which  are  exported  from  all  these  northern  colonies  to 


CONTEMPORARV  VIEWS  97 

the  West  Indies  and  to  luirope.  How  far  these  arc  to  be  consid- 
ered as  staples,  a  short  enquiry  will  shew.  As  to  all  that  are  sent 
to  Europe,  we  may  safely  determine  it  to  be  as  pernicious  a  trade 
as  any  the  colonies  can  go  into,  since  it  is  directly  rivalling,  and 
even  destroying  one  of  the  most  advantageous  branches  of  the 
exports  of  Britain.  American  corn  cannot  come  to  an  European 
market  without  doing  mischief  to  the  corn  trade  of  England.  This 
trade  is  not  like  that  of  most  other  commodities,  which  are  usually 
exported  in  certain  quantities,  and  to  certain  markets  :  on  the  con- 
trar\%  it  is  extremely  uncertain  in  its  destination,  the  quantity  in 
demand  depends  on  the  accidents  of  crops,  sometimes  it  is  to  one 
countiy,  sometimes  to  another,  and  the  circulation  of  the  trade 
greatly  depending  on  the  surplus  quantity  which  certain  countries 
possess.  Poland,  England  and  liarbary  may  be  called  the  export- 
ing countries  ;  the  latter  from  the  uncertainty  of  its  governments 
rarely  makes  the  most  of  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  proving  but  a 
weak  rival  to  England  :  this  leaves  all  the  south  of  Europe  open 
to  the  export  of  that  country,  and  very  advantageous  the  circum- 
stance has  been,  as  we  have  more  than  once  experienced,  both  to 
Portugal,  Spain,  the  south  of  P>ance,  and  Naples.  Let  therefore 
any  person  judge  of  the  propriety  of  introducing  another  rival  into 
this  trade,  which  is  far  more  likely  to  drive  us  out  of  it,  than  all 
the  others  we  can  have  in  Europe. 

1  Though  this  commerce  [of  the  continental  colonies]  is  so  very 
considerable  ;  yet  the  whole  advantage  thereof  does  not  center  in 
England.  But  if  the  commerce  of  these  colonies  was  directed  in 
the  right  channel,  it  might  prove  of  far  higher  concernment  to  the 
nation  than  it  has  ever  yet  been  ;  it  would  promote  the  consump- 
tion of  much  greater  quantities  of  British  and  Irish  manufactures, 
than  our  traffic  to  any  other  part  of  the  world  :  and  would  not  the 
landed  interest  be  more  advantaged  by  this  than  any  other  of  our 
branches  of  trade,  as  there  is  a  great  distinction  between  a  com- 
merce carried  on  by  a  barter  of  foreign  commodities,  and  that  aris- 
ing from  the  manufactures  of  this  kingdom  ;  the  one  employing 
the  poor  in  general,  and  improving  the  landed  interest,  while  the 

1  Postlethvvayt,  Britain's  Commercial  Interest  [1757].  I.  482-492. 


98  COLONIAL  POLICY 

other  may  only  enrich  the  merchant,  and  not  much  encrease  the 
national  stock.  Is  not  this  manifest  from  the  State  of  Spain  ? 
Although  the  merchant  and  the  public  may  be  enriched  by  this 
trade  in  foreign  merchandizes,  yet  the  landed  interest  reaps  little 
benefit  by  it.  Is  not  the  like  apparent  with  relation  to  the  united 
provinces  of  the  Netherlands  ? 

Whatever  practices  amongst  the  British  traders  have  any  tend- 
ency to  promote  and  advance  the  prosperity  of  our  foreign  Amer- 
ican rivals  in  trade,  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to.  The  British  northern 
colonies  in  America  carrying  on  a  commerce  with  the  French  and 
the  Dutch  islands  there,  have  proved  very  detrimental  to  the  king- 
dom. —  This  has  been  the  charge  of  our  West-India  merchants 
against  those  of  the  northern  colonies  ;  and  this  charge  may  be 
supported  with  no  little  weight  of  reason  and  argument.   .   .   . 

But  soon  after  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  a  pernicious  commerce  be- 
gan to  shew  itself,  between  the  British  northern  colonies  and  the 
French  sugar  colonies,  which  began  with  bartering  the  lumber  of 
the  former  for  P'rench  sugar  and  melasses.  The  French,  w^ho  be- 
fore that  time  had  no  vent  for  their  melasses,  and  could  make  no 
better  use  of  it  than  to  give  it  to  their  hogs  and  horses,  soon  found 
the  way  (after  they  became  acquainted  with  our  northern  traders)  of 
distilling  it  into  rum,  which  their  new  correspondents  were  as  ready 
to  take  off  their  hands,  as  they  had  been  before  to  take  their  sugar 
and  melasses  ;  and  from  hence  our  enemies  the  French  have  de- 
rived a  new  wvic  of  profit,  unknown  to  them  before,  and  trans- 
ferred to  themselves  the  benefit  of  a  trade,  which  it  was  the  design 
of  those  laws  to  preserve  to  England. 

This  being  made  appear  to  our  parliament,  a  further  provision 
was  made  for  putting  a  stop  to  this  manifest  subversion  of  the  fun- 
damental maxims  of  the  British  policy,  for  preserving  her  commer- 
cial interests,  by  an  act  in  the  sixth  year  of  his  present  majesty's 
reign  ;  entitled,  An  act  for  the  better  securing  and  encouraging  the 
trade  of  his  majesty's  sugar  colonies  in  America,  whereby  such 
high  duties  were  laid  on  all  foreign  sugars,  rum,  and  melasses,  to 
be  imported  into  any  of  his  majesty's  colonies  in  America,  as  it 
was  thought  were  equal  to,  and  would  answer  all  the  ends  of  a 
prohibition. 


CON'l'EM l'( JRA R \'    \'  1 1'AVS  99 

l^ut  experience  has  shewn,  that  all  these  laws  arc  too  weak  to 
answer  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  designed,  and  that  some 
more  effectual  remedies  should  be  found  to  keep  the  liritish  traders 
in  North-America  within  bc^unds,  if  (ireat  Britain  resoh'cs  to  pre- 
serve her  rights  of  controuling  the  trade  of  her  own  subjects  in 
that  part  of  the  world,  and  turning  the  same  into  such  channels 
only  as  her  wisdom  shall  direct,  and  think  most  conducive  to  the 
interests  of  the  whole  community.   .   .   . 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  as  an  undoubted  truth,  that,  as  the 
enlarging  the  vent  of  any  commodity  is  one  of  the  best  means  that 
can  be  used  to  encourage  its  growth,  so  the  lessening  of  it  is  the 
certain  way  to  discourage  it ;  whence  it  necessarily  follows,  that,  as 
w-e  may  have  rivals  in  this  commerce,  nothing  could  be  more  detri- 
mental to  the  British  sugar  colonies,  than  to  suffer  foreign  sugars 
to  be  consumed  in  any  of  its  dominions ;  it  being  obvious,  that  this 
must  check  the  growth  of  sugar  in  our  own  islands,  and  increase 
it  in  those  of  France  ;  and,  therefcjre,  has  manifestly  tended  to 
strengthen  the  colonies  of  our  ancient  enemies,  and  to  weaken 
our  own. 

This  trade,  as  it  has  long  been  carried  on  has  raised  the  price 
of  lumber  to  the  British  planters  ;  and,  as  the  northern  traders 
often  refuse  to  take  anything  from  them  but  ready  money,  this  has 
drained  so  much  of  their  gold  and  silver,  that  they  have  been  often 
in  distress  for  want  of  specie. 

A  great  part  of  the  money,  which  our  northern  colony  traders 
have  received  from  our  British  planters,  has  been  carried  to  the 
foreign  sugar-colonies,  and  there  laid  out  either  in  the  purchase  of 
foreign  sugars,  rum,  melasses,  or  of  foreign  luu-oj^ean  and  East- 
India  commodities;  which  are  carried  to  the  British  northern  col- 
onies, and  there  have  supplied  the  place  of  British  manufactures, 
and  British  sugars,  rum,  and  melasses  ;  and  consequentl)'  have 
robbed  this  nation,  not  only  of  the  consumption  of  so  much  of  its 
own  commodities,  but  of  so  much  gold  and  silver  too  :  whereas,  if 
the  foreign  colonies  (who  cannot  be  supplied  with  lumber  but  from 
the  English)  had  been  constrained  to  have  purchased  the  same 
with  ready  money  only,  and  had  never  been  allowed  to  giye  their 
sugars,  rum,  and   melasses,  -in  exchange  for  it,  this  would   have 


lOO  COLONIAL  POLICY 

turned  the  tables  upon  them,  and  have  made  the  balance  of  the 
lumber-trade  as  much  in  our  favour  as  it  has  been  many  years 
against  us. 

It  is  well  known  to  all  concerned  in  the  sugar  trade,  that  the 
profits  of  the  planter  depend  upon  the  vent  which  he  finds  for 
his  rum  and  melasses  ;  for,  if  sugar  only,  and  no  rum  and  melasses, 
could  be  produced  from  the  sugar  cane,  it  would  not  pay  the  ex- 
pense of  culture,  and  making ;  consequently,  in  proportion  as  the 
vent  of  rum  and  melasses  is  prevented  or  encreased,  the  sugar- 
colonies  (whether  English  or  foreign)  must  respectively  thrive,  or 
decline.  And,  as  rum  is  not  allowed  to  be  imported  into  Old 
France,  or  any  of  its  colonies  (because  it  interferes  with  brandy, 
which  is  the  product  of  the  mother-country)  this  evidently  shews 
how  much  it  has  been  in  the  power  of  Great  Britain  to  have 
checked  the  progress  of  the  French  sugar-islands,  and  advanced 
that  of  her  own  :  for,  if  the  bringing  French  rum  and  melasses 
into  any  of  the  British  dominions  had  been  effectually  hindered, 
all  the  profits  made  by  rum  and  melasses,  in  the  French  sugar- 
colonies,  would  have  been  lost  to  them,  and  they  would  have  found 
no  vent  for  them  in  any  other  part  of  the  world.  This  point,  there- 
fore, had  it  been  strictly  attended,  and  invariably  adhered  to,  would 
have  inevitably  damped  the  prosperity  of  the  French  sugar-colonies, 
and  encreased  that  of  our  own  ;  and  might,  very  probably,  have  long 
before  now,  proved  the  means  of  enabling  the  English  to  have  beat 
the  French  out  of  all  the  foreign  markets  in  Europe  for  sugar,  and 
have  confined  them  solely  to  their  own  consumption.  But,  have 
we  not,  to  our  eternal  ignominy,  acted  a  contrary  part .''  Have  we 
not  studied  to  enrich  the  French  in  America,  and  strengthen  their 
power  at  the  expense  of  our  own,  and  do  we  not  now  experience 
the  fatal  effects  of  such  a  system  of  policy  .'' 

B.  Colonial  Governors 

1  Trade  is  a  science,  which  I  have  had  little  opportunity  to 
study,  and  therefore  it  would  be  a  presumption  in  me  to  dictate 
upon  it.    However,  as  I  have  caught  a  few  flying  notions  of  it,  I 

1  Uernard,  Select  LeUers  on  the  Trade  and  Government  of  America  [1764], 
pp.  20-22. 


CON^'EM  PORA  R  \'   W  FAVS  I  o  I 

will  venture  to  state  some  principles  which  have  occurred  to  me, 
with  the  consequences  which  follow  them.  The  two  ^reat  objects 
of  Great  Britain,  in  regard  to  the  American  trade,  must  be.  To 
oblige  her  American  subjects  to  take  from  Great  Britain  only,  all 
the  manufactures  and  Enropean  goods  which  she  can  supply  them 
with  :  2.  To  regulate  the  foreign  trade  of  the  Americans,  so  that 
the  profits  thereof  may  finally  center  in  Great  Britain,  or  be 
applied  to  the  improvement  of  her  Empire.  Whenever  these  two 
purposes  militate  against  each  other,  that  which  is  most  advan- 
tageous to  Great  Britain  ought  to  be  preferred.  If  the  first  of 
these  purposes  is  well  secured,  the  second  will  follow  of  course. 
The  only  means  of  employing  extraordinary  profits  of  trade  in 
America,  are  either  by  luxury  at  home,  or  by  settling  and  improv- 
ing lands.  American  luxury  sends  the  money  to  Great  Britain, 
either  mediately  from  the  hands  of  the  first  expender,  or  imme- 
diately through  the  hands  of  the  tradesmen,  husbandmen,  &c. 
with  whom  he  deals.  Settling  and  improving  lands,  is  the  means 
of  raising  and  enabling  other  persons  to  deal  with  G?rat  Britain, 
and  therefore  it  only  postpones  the  remittances,  hereafter  to  be 
made  with  interest.  Therefore,  if  due  care  be  taken  to  confine 
the  sale  of  manufactures  and  European  goods  (except  what  shall 
be  permitted)  to  Great  Britain  only,  all  the  profits  of  the  American 
Foreign  trade  will  necessarily  center  in  Great  Britain.  And  there- 
fore, if  the  first  purpose  is  well  secured,  the  Foreign  Aniei-ican 
trade  is  the  trade  of  Great  Britain:  the  augmentation  and  dimi- 
nution, the  extension  and  restriction,  the  profit  and  loss  of  it,  all 
finally  come  home  to  the  mother  country. 

It  has  been  long  ago  admitted,  that  the  American  trade  with 
the  Spanish  West  Indies  ought  to  be  encouraged  by  all  means  : 
and  why  not  also  with  the  ErcncJi  ?  It  is  said,  tliat  the  Erench 
will  not  admit  any  trade  which  is  not  advantageous  to  them.  But 
how  come  they  to  have  the  power  of  picking  and  chusing  their 
trade  as  they  please  .''  must  not  they  submit  to  wants  and  necessi- 
ties as  well  as  the  Spajiiards  ?  will  not  present  convenience  and 
private  profit  get  the  better  of  national  considerations  among  the 
one  as  well  as  the  other.?  It  has  done  heretofore;  and  will  do 
again,  if  F>ritish  prohibitions  do  not  prevent  it.    I  have  been  t(jld. 


I02  COLONIAL  POLICY 

that  in  the  former  Spanish  war,  the  Admiral,  stationed  ixt  Jamaica, 
had  orders  to  encourage  and  protect  the  English  trade  witli  tlie 
Spanish  Main.  And  yet,  in  strict  law,  a  private  correspondence 
with  enemies  is  treason.  In  the  last  war  there  was  a  considerable 
trade  carried  on  from  some  of  the  British  Colonies  to  French 
Hispaniola,  by  means  of  letters  of  truce.  This  trade  (except  such 
part  of  it  as  was  carried  on  with  provisions)  was  generally  allowed 
to  be  veiy  advantageous  to  Great  Britain :  and  it  has  been  sup- 
posed that  it  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  means  of  carrying  on 
the  war  both  in  America  and  Europe.  It  is  pleasant,  at  this  time, 
to  observe  the  complaints  of  the  Jamaicans  upon  their  being 
obstructed  in  carrying  on  their  trade  with  the  Spanish  West 
Indies  ;  and  yet  they  are  for  stopping  and  totally  prohibiting  the 
trade  of  the  North  Americans  to  the  Erench  West  Indies.  They 
can  see  plainly  the  loss  to  Great  Britain,  from  their  own  trade 
being  obstructed  ;  but  they  cannot  discover  the  loss  which  accrues 
from  the  obstruction  of  that  of  Nojih  America.  In  truth,  it  is  the 
interest  of  Great  Britain  that  both  the  one  and  the  other  should 
be  encouraged  as  much  as  may  well  be.  And  the  West  Indians 
should  be  taught  that  equitable  maxim  of  trade,  "Live,  and  let  live." 

^The  principles  on  which  the  act  of  navigation  is  founded  are 
just,  and  of  sound  policy,  but  the  application  of  them,  by  the 
modes  prescribed,  as  the  laws  now  stand,  to  the  present  •  state 
of  the  colony  trade,  is  neither  founded  in  justice  or  prudence. 
Any  spirit  that  would  force  this  application,  would  injure  the 
principles  themselves,  and  prove  injurious  to  that  commercial 
interest,  which  those  very  acts  of  trade  mean  to  secure  to  Great- 
Britain  :  whereas,  upon  a  due  revision  of  those  laws,  it  would 
appear  that  there  are  means  of  producing  this  same  end  consistent 
with  the  particular  interest  of  the  colonies,  and  what  would  carry 
the  general  commercial  interest  of  the  mother  country  to  the 
utmost  extent  that  it   is  capable  of.    .   .   . 

The  general  principle  of  the  laws  of  trade  regulating  the  colony 
trade,  is,  that  the  colonies  shall  not,  on  one  hand,  be  supplied  with 

1  Pownall,  The  Administration  of  the  Colonies  [1764];  pp.  181-1S2,  183-185, 
188-190,  192-195,  198-202. 


CONTEMPORARY  VIFAVS  1 03 

anythin^^  but  from  a  Ih-itish  market,  nor  export  tlu-ir  j)roducc  any 
where  but  to  a  British  market.  In  tlie  applieation  of  this  princi- 
ple, the  i:)resent  laws  direct,  except  in  some  special  particulars, 
that  the  colonies  shall  inijjort  all  their  supplies y'rc-'///  Ih'itain,  and 
carry  all  their  produce  to  Ih-itain. 

If  now,  instead  of  confining  this  market  for  the  colonies  to 
Britain  only,  which  is  a  partial  and  defective  application  of  the 
general  principle  whereon  the  act  of  Navigation  is  founded  ;  this 
colony  trade  was  made,  amidst  other  courses  of  trade,  an  occasion 
of  establishing  British  markets  even  in  other  eountries,  the  true 
use  would  be  derived  to  the  general  interest  from  these  advan- 
tageous circumstances,  while  in  particular  the  colonies  and  the 
mother  country  would  be  mutually  accomodated.  In  the  first  case, 
the  general  interest,  perverted  to  partial  purposes,  becomes  so  far 
forth  obstructed  ;  in  the  second,  it  would  be  carried  by  the  genuine 
spirit  of  it  to  its  utmost  extent.  —  If,  under  certain  restrictions, 
securing  also  those  duties  which  the  produce  of  the  colonies, 
carried  to  market,  ought  to  pay  to  the  mother  country,  the 
colonies  were  permitted  to  export  their  produce  (such  as  are  the 
basis  or  materials  of  any  British  manufacture  excepted)  directly 
to  foreign  countries,  if  so  be  they  sold  it  to  any  British  Jiouse 
established  in  such  place,  and  were  also  permitted,  if  they  bought 
their  supplies  from  a  British  Jionsc  established  in  those  parts,  to 
supply  themselves  with  the  natural  fruits  and  produce  of  that 
country  (all  manufactures  that  any  way  interfere  with  the  British 
manufactories  excepted)  paying  there  to  some  British  officer,  or 
upon  their  arrival  in  the  colonies,  the  same  duties  as  they  would 
have  paid  by  purchasing  the  same  commodities  in  I^Lngland,  ever)' 
end  proposed  by  the  principle  of  the  act  of  Navigation  would  be 
answered  ;  the  exports  of  the  colonies  would  be  encouraged  ;  and 
the  British  market  greatly  extended.   .   .   . 

Under  the  administration  of  such  measures,  there  does  not 
appear  any  reason  why  all  the  produce  of  the  l^ritish  colonies, 
which  are  not  the  basis  of,  and  do  not  interfere  with  the  l^ritish 
manufactures,  might  not  be  carried  directly  to  a  British  market  at 
a  foreign  port,  —  and  why  the  carr\-ing  of  rice  to  foreign  ports 
might  not  be  extended,  under  these  laws,  to  all  such  f(  )reign  jjoits 


I04 


COLONIAL  POLICY 


whereat  a  British  factory  is  established.  —  Nor  under  this  mode 
of  commerce  can  any  sufficient  reason  upon  earth  subsist,  why  the 
colony  traders  should  not  be  permitted  to  load  at  these  ports,  the 
fruits,  wine,  oil,  pickles,  the  produce  of  that  country,  and  also  such 
raw  unmanufactured  produce,  as  would  not  interfere  with  the 
manufacture  of  Great  Britain,  instead  of  being  obliged  to  come  to 
Britain  to  buy  or  reload  here,  after  the  expence  of  an  unnecessary 
voyage,  those  very  commodities  which  they  might  have  bought  in 
a  British  via7'kct,  at  the  port  which  they  left.  Why  not  any  of 
these  as  well  as  salt,  as  well  as  wines  from  the  Madeiras  and 
western  isles  .-'  In  the  same  manner,  by  the  same  law,  why  may 
not  our  colony  traders  be  permitted  to  carry  sugar,  ginger,  tobacco, 
rice,  &c.  to  such  ports  in  the  rivers  Weser  and  Elbe,  in  the  Sound 
and  in  Russia,  whereat  a  British  factory  is,  or  may  be  established } 
It  can  never  be  right  policy  to  suffer  labour  in  vain  in  a  com- 
munity :  it  is  just  so  much  lost  to  the  community  :  and  yet  this 
coming  round  by  England  is  labour  in  vain  :  If  the  subordinacy 
of  the  colony-trade,  and  the  duties  arising  thereon,  can  be  by  any 
other  means  secured,  it  is  so  much  labour  lost.  The  two  points  of 
a  British  market,  and  the  revenue  of  the  duties  being  secured, 
why  may  not  these  traders  be  permitted  to  load  at  these  ports 
directly  for  the  colonies,  hemp,  yarn,  and  such  coarse  linens, 
as  do  no  way  interfere  with  the  British  manufactories }  These 
measures  taken,  which  would  prove  to  be  the  true  means  of 
encouraging  the  colony-trade,  the  best  method  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  contraband  trade  carried  on  in  this  branch  of  business,  and  the 
true  grounds  whereon  to  establish  the  general  commercial  interest 
of  Great  Britain,  Government  could  not  be  too  strict  in  enforc- 
ing the  execution  of  the  laws  of  trade,  nor  too  severe  in  punish- 
ing the  breach  of  them.  —  Wherever  they  found  these  traders 
endeavouring  to  carry  from  these  ports  to  the  colonies  raw  silk, 
silks,  velvets,  foreign  cloths,  laces,  iron,  steel,  arms,  ammunition, 
sails  or  rigging,  or  any  manufactures  whatever,  that  interfere 
with  the  manufacture  of  Great  Britain  :  whenever  they  found 
these  traders  endeavouring  to  carry  from  the  colonies  to  those 
ports,  any  dying-wood  whatever,  indigo,  cotton,  silk,  bees  or 
myrtle-wax,   flax-seed,   naval   stores,   furs,   skins  or  peltry,   hides, 


CONTEMPORARY  V I  FA\'S 


105 


provision,  grain,  flour,  bread  or  biscuit ;  whale-oil,  blubber,  bone, 
or  any  other  fish-oil,  or  tallow,  or  candles,  with  an  exception  per- 
haps to  myrtle  and  spermaceti  candles,  Government  could  not  be 
too  strict  and  watchful  to  restrain  them.  Under  proper  regula- 
tions, the  rum  of  the  northern  colonies  should  be  carried  to 
Africa,  and  the  sale  of  it  to  the  French  on  the  banks  of  Newfound- 
land encouraged,  if  such  vent  could  be  procured,  as  we  should 
thereby  reap  at  least  some  share  even  of  the  French  Fishery.  .  .  . 
In  the  same  manner,  some  revision  of  the  state  of  the  trade  of 
the  colonies  of  the  several  maritime  powers  amongst  each  other 
will  be  necessary.  —  The  laws  and  ordonnances  of  these  do  in 
general  prohibit  all  trade  of  foreign  colonies  with  their  own  ;  — 
and  yet,  without  some  such  trade  as  supplies  the  Spanish  prov- 
inces with  British  goods  and  provisions,  as  supplies  the  British 
colonies  with  Spanish  silver,  as  supplies  the  French  islands  with 
British  lumber,  fish,  provisions,  horses,  and  live  stock,  as  supplies 
the  British  colonies  with  French  mellosses,  the  trade  and  culture 
of  these  colonies  would  be  greatly  obstructed  and  impaired  ;  and 
yet  notwithstanding  this  fact,  our  laws  of  trade,  by  an  impracticable 
duty,  extend  to  the  prohibiting  the  importation  of  French  mellosses 
into  our  colonies.  If  the  government,  under  this  law,  could  ]:)re- 
vent  effectually  this  importation,  not  only  into  the  northern  colonies, 
but  into  the  British  isles  also,  the  reward  of  that  pains  would  be 
the  destruction  of  a  beneficial  branch  of  trade,  perhaps  of  driving 
the  British  American  distillery  into  the  French,  Dutch,  or  Danish 
isles,  or  of  forcing  the  French,  contrary  to  their  own  false  policy, 
into  a  profitable  manufacture  of  that  produce  which  they  now  sell 
as  refuse  materials.  I  need  not  point  out  here  the  very  essential 
change  that  this  would  make  in  the  colony  trade.  —  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  the  duty  of  government  to  permit,  nay  even  to  encour- 
age, under  proper  regulations,  these  branches  of  trade  ;  in  the 
first  place,  in  order  to  extract  out  of  the  foreign  colonies,  to  the 
benefit  of  the  British  commerce,  as.  much  as  possible  the  profits 
of  these  colonies,  and  which  is  more  material,  in  order  to  create  a 
necessary  dependance  in  the  trade  and  culture  of  those  colonies 
for  their  supplies  on  the  British  commerce. — When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  the  law,  which  lays  a  duty  equal  to  a  prohibition,  on 


lo6  COLONIAL  POLICY 

the  importation  of  French  mellosses  in  the  British  colonies,  was 
obtained  at  the  sohcitation  of  the  British  isles,  it  will  be  seen,  that 
the  obtaining  this  law  is  not  so  much  meant  to  prohibit  totally  the 
introduction  of  French  mellosses  into  the  British  trade,  as  to 
determine  a  struggle  between  the  West  India  and  North  Ameri- 
can traders,  who  should  have  the  profits  of  it.  And  thus,  from 
the  predominant  interest  of  these  partial  views,  has  government 
been  led  to  embarrass  the  general  courses  of  its  trade.  —  But  as 
the  West  India  traders  see  that  this  law  has  not,  never  had,  and 
never  will  have  the  effect  proposed,  they  will  be  better  reconciled 
to  its  ceasing ;  and  as  government  must  now,  after  the  experi- 
ment, see  the  false  policy  of  it,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  it  will 
cease,  -so  far  as  to  reduce  the  duty  to  a  moderate  and  practicable 
charge,  such  as  will  be  paid,  and  such  as  will  raise  to  the  crown  a 
very  considerable  revenue  thus  paid. 

I  speak  not  this  by  guess ;  but,  from  a  comparison  of  the 
quantity  of  sugars,  and  mellosses  brought  to  account  in  the 
custom-house  books  of  the  King's  revenue,  with  the  quantity  of 
the  same  article,  in  the  same  ports,  brought  to  account  in  the 
impost-books  of  the  colony  revenue,  for  six  years  together,  could, 
with  some  precision,  mark  the  extent  of  it.  I  own  I  did  always 
apprehend  that  two-pence  per  gallon  on  foreign  mellosses  imported 
into  any  British  plantation,  and  so  in  proportion  of  sugars,  was 
the  best  rate  at  which  to  fix  this  duty  ;  that  being  thus  moderate, 
it  might  be  easier  and  with  less  alarm  and  opposition  collected, 
and  might  therefore  the  sooner  introduce  the  practice  of  fair 
trade,  and  the  sooner  become  an  ejfective  revenue:  But  when  I 
see  a  groundless  clamour  raised,  which  represents  the  rate  fixed 
by  the  late  revenue-act^  as  destructive  of  the  American  distillery, 
as  ruinous  to  the  American  fishery,  as  a  prohibition  of  the  returns 
made  from  the  foreign  islands  for  the  North  American  fish  ;  I 
must  own  that  I  have  never  seen  any  fact  stated,  or  calculation 
fairly  made  on  which  such  assertions  found  themselves.   .   .   . 

Were  some  such  arrangements  taken  for  a  revision  and  further 
establishment  of  the  laws  of  trade,  upon  the  principle  of  extending 
the  British  general  .commerce,  by  encouraging  the  trade  of  the 

1  The  sugar  act  of  1764  which  levied  a  duty  of  three  pence  per  gallon. 


CONTKMPORAR\^  VIFAVS  I07 

colonies,  in  subordination  to,  and  in  coincidence  therewith,  tlie 
trade  of  the  colonies  would  be  administered  by  that  true  spirit 
from  whence  it  rose,  and  by  which  it  acts  ;  and  the  true  applica- 
tion of  the  benefits  which  arise  to  a  mother  country  from  its  colo- 
nies would  be  made.  Under  this  spirit  of  administration,  tlie 
government,  as  I  said  above,  could  not  be  too  watcliful  to  carry 
its  laws  of  trade  into  effectual  execution,  —  But  under  the  present 
state  of  those  laws,  and  that  trade,  there  is  great  danger  that  any 
severity  of  execution,  which  should  prove  effectual  in  the  cases  of 
the  importation  into  the  colonies  of  foreign  European  and  East- 
India  goods,  might  force  the  Americans  to  trade  for  their  imports, 
upon  terms,  on  which  the  trade  could  not  support  itself,  and  there- 
fore become  in  the  event  a  means  to  bring  on  the  necessity  of  these 
Americans  manufacturing  for  themselves.  Nothing  does  at  present, 
with  that  active  and  acute  people,  prevent  their  going  into  manu- 
factures, except  the  proportionate  dearness  of  labour,  as  referred 
to  the  terms  on  which  they  can  import ;  but  encrease  the  price  of 
their  imports  to  a  certain  degree,  let  the  extent  of  their  settlements, 
either  by  policy  from  home  or  invasion  of  Indians  abroad,  be  con- 
fined, and  let  their  foreign  trade  and  navigation  be,  in  some  meas- 
ure, suppressed  ;  —  their  paper-currency  limitted  within  too  narrow 
bounds  and  the  exclusion  of  that  trade  which  hath  usually  supplied 
them  with  silver-money  too  severely  insisted  upon  ;  —  this  propor- 
tion of  the  price  of  labour  will  much  sooner  cease  to  be  an  object  of 
objection  to  manufacturing  there,  than  is  commonly  apprehended. 
The  winters  in  that  climate  are  long  and  severe ;  during  wliich  season 
no  labour  can  be  done  without  doors.  That  application  tlierefore  of 
their  servants  labour,  to  manufactures  for  home  consum])ti()n,  which 
under  any  other  circumstances  would  be  too  dear  for  the  jDroduct 
created  by  it,  becomes,  under  these  circumstances,  all  clear  gains. 
And  if  the  colonists  cannot  on  one  hand  purchase  foreign  manu- 
factures at  any  reasonable  price,  or  have  not  money  to  purchase 
with,  and  there  are,  on  the  other,  many  hands  idle  which  used  to 
be  employed  in  navigation,  and  all  these,  as  well  as  the  husband- 
men, want  employment ;  these  circumstances  will  soon  overbalance 
the  difference  of  the  rate  of  labour  in  Europe  and  in  America. 
And  if  the  colonies,  under  any  future  state  of  administration,  which 


Io8  COLONIAL  POLICY 

they  see  unequal  to  the  management  of  their  affairs,  once  come  to 
feel  their  own  strength  in  this  way,  their  independence  on  govern- 
ment, at  least  on  the  administration  of  government,  will  not  be  an 
event  so  remote  as  our  leaders  may  think,  which  yet  nothing  but 
such  false  policy  can  bring  on.  For,  on  the  contrary,  put  their 
governments  and  laws  on  a  true  and  constitutional  basis,  regulate 
their  money,  their  revenue,  and  their  trade,  and  do  not  check  their 
settlements,  they  must  ever  depend  on  the  trade  of  the  mother 
country  for  their  supplies,  they  will  never  establish  manufactures, 
their  hands  being  elsewhere  employed,  and  the  merchants  being 
always  able  to  import  such  on  terms  that  must  ruin  the  manufacturer. 
Unable  to  subsist  without,  or  to  unite  against  the  mother  country 
they  must  always  remain  subordinate  to  it,  in  all  the  transactions 
of  their  commerce,  in  all  the  operation  of  their  laws,  in  every  act  of 
their  government :  —  The  several  colonies,  no  longer  considered  as 
demesnes  of  the  crown,  mere  appendages  to  the  realm,  will  thus 
become  united  therein,  members  and  parts  of  the  realm,  as  essential 
parts  of  one  organized  whole,  tJic  commercial  dommio)i  of  Gj'cat 
Britain.    The  taking  leading  measures  to  the  forming  of 

WHICH,  ought,  at  this  JUNCTURE,  TO  BE  THE  GREAT  OBJECT  OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

C.  The  Radical  View 

1  To  found  a  great  empire  for  the  sole  purpose  of  raising  up  a 
people  of  customers,  may  at  first  sight  appear  a  project  fit  only  for 
a  nation  of  shopkeepers.  It  is,  however,  a  project  altogether  unfit 
for  a  nation  of  shopkeepers,  but  extremely  fit  for  a  nation  whose 
government  is  influenced  by  shopkeepers.  Such  statesmen,  and 
such  statesmen  only,  are  capable  of  fancying  that  they  will  find 
some  advantage  in  employing  the  blood  and  treasure  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  to  found  and  maintain  such  an  empire.  Say  to  a  shop- 
keeper, Buy  me  a  good  estate,  and  I  shall  always  buy  my  clothes 
at  your  shop,  even  though  I  should  pay  somewhat  dearer  than  what 
I  can  have  them  for  at  other  shops  ;  and  you  will  not  find  him  very 
forward  to  embrace  your  proposal.  But  should  any  other  person 
buy  you  such  an  estate,  the  shopkeeper  will  be  much  obliged  to 

1  Smith,  The  Wealth  of  Nations  [1776],  Bk.  IV,  ch.  vii,  part  iii. 


CON^rKMPORARV  VIEWS 


109 


your  benefactor  if  he  would  enjoin  you  to  ijuy  all  your  clothes  at 
his  shop.  England  purchased  from  some  of  her  subjects,  who  found 
themselves  uneasy  at  home,  a  great  estate  in  a  distant  country.  The 
price,  indeed,  was  very  small,  and  instead  of  thirty  years'  purchase, 
the  ordinary  price  of  land  in  the  present  times,  it  amounted  to  little 
more  than  the  expence  of  the  different  equipments  which  made  the 
first  discovery,  reconnoitred  the  coast,  and  took  a  fictitious  p(jsses- 
sion  of  the  country.  The  land  was  good  and  of  great  extent,  and 
the  cultivators  having  plenty  of  good  ground  to  work  upon,  and 
being  for  some  time  at  liberty  to  sell  their  produce  where  thc\' 
pleased,  became  in  the  course  of  little  more  than  thirty  or  forty 
years  (between  1620  and  1660)  so  numerous  and  thriving  a  people, 
that  the  shopkeepers  and  other  traders  of  England  wished  to  se- 
cure to  themselves  the  monopoly  of  their  custom.  Without  j^re- 
tending,  therefore,  that  they  had  paid  any  part,  either  of  the  original 
purchase-money,  or  of  the  subsequent  expence  of  improvement,  they 
petitioned  the  parliament  that  the  cultivators  of  America  might  for 
the  future  be  confined  to  their  shop  ;  first,  for  buying  all  the  goods 
which  they  wanted  from  Europe  ;  and,  secondly,  for  selling  all  such 
parts  of  their  own  produce  as  those  traders  might  find  it  convenient 
to  buy.  For  they  did  not  find  it  convenient  to  buy  every  part  of  it. 
Some  parts  of  it  imported  into  England  might  have  interfered  with 
some  of  the  trades  which  they  themselves  carried  on  at  home. 
Those  particular  parts  of  it,  therefore,  they  were  willing  that  the 
colonists  should  sell  where  they  could  ;  the  farther  off  the  better ; 
and  upon  that  account  proposed  that  their  market  should  be  con- 
fined to  the  countries  south  of  Cape  Finisterre.  A  clause  in  the 
famous  act  of  navigation  established  this  truly  shopkeeper  proposal 
into  a  law. 

The  maintenance  of  this  monopoly  has  hitherto  been  the  principal, 
or  more  properly  perhaps  the  sole  end  and  purpose  of  the  dominion 
which  Great  Britain  assumes  over  her  colonies.  In  the  exclusive 
trade,  it  is  supposed,  consists  the  great  advantage  of  provinces, 
which  have  never  yet  afforded  either  revenue  or  military  force  for 
the  support  of  the  civil  government,  or  the  defence  of  the  mother 
country.  The  monopoly  is  the  principal  badge  of  their  depend- 
ency, and  it  is  the  sole  fruit  which  has  hitherto  been  gathered  from 


no  COLONIAL  POLICY 

that  dependency.  Whatever  expence  Great  Britain  has  hitherto 
laid  out  in  maintaining  this  dependency,  has  really  been  laid  out 
in  order  to  support  this  monopoly.  The  expence  of  the  ordinary 
peace  establishment  of  the  colonies  amounted,  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  present  disturbances,  to  the  pay  of  twenty 
regiments  of  foot ;  to  the  expence  of  the  artillery  stores,  and  ex- 
traordinary provisions  with  which  it  was  necessary  to  supply  them  ; 
and  to  the  expence  of  a  very  considerable  naval  force  which  was  con- 
stantly kept  up,  in  order  to  guard  from  the  smuggling  vessels  of 
other  nations,  the  immense  coast  of  North  America,  and  that  of  our 
West  Indian  islands.  The  whole  expence  of  this  peace  establish- 
ment was  a  charge  upon  the  revenue  of  Great  Britain,  and  was,  at 
the  same  time,  the  smallest  part  of  what  the  dominion  of  the  colonies 
has  cost  the  mother  country.  If  we  would  know  the  amount  of  the 
whole,  we  must  add  to  the  annual  expence  of  this  peace  establish- 
ment the  interest  of  the  sums  which,  in  consequence  of  her  con- 
sidering her  colonies  as  provinces  subject  to  her  dominion,  Great 
Britain  has  upon  different  occasions  laid  out  upon  their  defence. 
We  must  add  to  it,  in  particular,  the  whole  expence  of  the  late 
war,  and  a  great  part  of  that  of  the  war  which  preceded  it.  The 
late  war  (the  Seven  Years'  War)  was  altogether  a  colony  quarrel,  and 
the  whole  expence  of  it,  in  whatever  part  of  the  world  it  may  have 
been  laid  out,  whether  in  Germany  or  the  East  Indies,  ought  justly 
to  be  stated  to  the  account  of  the  colonies.  It  amounted  to  more 
than  ninety  millions  sterling,  including  not  only  the  new  debt 
which  was  contracted,  but  the  two  shillings  in  the  pound  addi- 
tional land  tax,  and  the  sums  which  were  every  year  borrowed 
from  the  sinking  fund.  The  Spanish  war  which  began  in  1739, 
was  principally  a  colony  quarrel.  Its  principal  object  was  to  pre- 
vent the  search  of  the  colony  ships  which  carried  on  a  contraband 
trade  with  the  Spanish  main.  This  whole  expence  is,  in  reality,  a 
bounty  which  has  been  given  in  order  to  support  a  monopoly.  The 
pretended  purpose  of  it  was  to  encourage  the  manufactures,  and 
to  increase  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain.  But  its  real  effect  has 
been  to  raise  the  rate  of  mercantile  profit,  and  to  enable  our  mer- 
chants to  turn  into  a  branch  of  trade,  of  which  the  returns  are  more 
slow  and  distant  than  those  of  the  greater  parts  of  other  trades,  a 


CONTEMPORARY   VIEWS  III 

greater  proportion  of  their  eapital  than  they  otherwise  would  have 
done  ;  two  events  whieh  if  a  bount)-  could  ha\e  prevented,  it  might 
perhaps  have  been  very  well  worth  while  to  give  such  a  bounty. 

Under  the  present  sx'stem  of  management,  therefore.  Great 
l^ritain  derives  nothing  but  loss  from  the  dominion  which  she 
assumes  over  her  colonies. 

To  propose  that  Great  I^ritain  should  voluntarily  give  up  all 
authority  over  her  colonies,  and  leave  them  to  elect  their  own 
magistrates,  to  enact  their  own  laws,  and  to  make  peace  and  war 
as  they  might  think  proper,  would  be  to  propose  such  a  measure 
as  never  was,  and  never  will  be  adopted  by  any  nation  in  the 
world.  No  nation  ever  voluntarily  gave  up  the  dominion  of  any 
province,  how  troublesome  soever  it  might  be  to  govern  it,  and 
how  small  soever  the  revenue  which  it  afforded  might  be  in  pro- 
■  portion  to  the  expence  which  it  occasioned.  Such  sacrifices, 
though  they  might  frequently  be  agreeable  to  the  interest,  are 
always  mortifying  to  the  pride  of  every  nation,  and,  what  is  per- 
haps of  still  greater  consequence,  they  are  always  contrary  to  the 
private  interest  of  the  governing  part  of  it,  who  would  thereby  be 
deprived  of  the  disposal  of  many  places  of  trust  and  profit,  of 
many  opportunities  of  acquiring  wealth  and  distinction,  which  the 
possession  of  the  most  turbulent,  and,  to  the  great  body  of  the 
people  the  most  unprofitable  province  seldom  fails  to  afford. 
The  most  visionary  enthusiasts  would  scarce  be  capable  of  propos- 
ing such  a  measure,  with  any  serious  hopes  at  least  of  its  ever 
being  adopted.  If  it  was  adopted,  however,  Great  Britain  would 
not  only  be  immediately  freed  from  the  whole  annual  expence  of 
the  peace  establishment  of  the  colonies,  but  might  settle  with  them 
such  a  treaty  of  commerce  as  would  effectually  secure  to  her  a  free 
trade,  more  advantageous  to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  though 
less  so  to  the  merchants,  than  the  monopoly  which  she  at  present 
enjoys.  By  thus  parting  good  friends,  the  natural  affection  of  the 
colonies  to  the  mother  country  which,  perhaps,  our  late  dissensions 
have  well  nigh  extinguished,  would  cjuickly  revive.  It  might  dis- 
pose them  not  only  to  respect,  fcjr  whole  centuries  together,  thai 
treaty  of  commerce  which  they  had  concluded  with  us  at  parting, 
but  to  favour  us  in  war  as  well  as  in  trade,  and,  instead  of  turbulent 


112  '  COLONIAL  POLICY 

and  factious  subjects,  to  become  our  most  faithful,  affectionate,  and 
generous  allies  ;  and  the  same  sort  of  parental  affection  on  the  one 
side,  and  filial  respect  on  the  other,  might  revive  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies,  which  used  to  subsist  between  those  of 
ancient  Greece  and  the  mother  city  from  which  they  descended. 

In  order  to  render  any  province  advantageous  to  the  empire  to 
which  it  belongs,  it  ought  to  afford,  in  time  of  peace,  a  revenue  to 
the  public  sufficient  not  only  for  defraying  the  whole  expence  of 
its  own  peace  establishment,  but  for  contributing  its  proportion 
to  the  support  of  the  general  government  of  the  empire.  Every 
province  necessarily  contributes,  more  or*  less,  to  increase  the  ex- 
pence  of  that  general  government.  If  any  particular  province, 
therefore,  does  not  contribute  its  share  towards  defraying  this  ex- 
pence,  an  unequal  burden  must  be  thrown  upon  some  other  part 
of  the  empire.  The  extraordinary  revenue  too  which  every  province 
affords  to  the  public  in  time  of  war,  ought,  from  parity  of  reason, 
to  bear  the  same  proportion  to  the  extraordinary  revenue  of  the 
whole  empire  which  its  ordinary  revenue  does  in  time  of  peace. 
That  neither  the  ordinary  nor  extraordinary  revenue  which  Great 
Britain  derives  from  her  colonies,  bears  this  proportion  to  the  whole 
revenue  of  the  British  empire,  will  readily  be  allowed.  The  monop- 
oly, it  has  been  supposed,  indeed,  by  increasing  the  private  revenue 
of  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  and  thereby  enabling  them  to  pay 
greater  taxes,  compensates  the  deficiency  of  the  public  revenue  of 
the  colonies.  But  this  monopoly,  I  have  endeavoured  to  show, 
though  a  very  grievous  tax  upon  the  colonies,  and  though  it  may 
increase  the  revenue  of  a  particular  order  of  men  in  Great  Britain, 
diminishes  instead  of  increasing  that  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  ; 
and  consequently  diminishes  instead  of  increasing  the  ability  of 
the  great  body  of  the  people  to  pay  taxes.  The  men  too  whose 
revenue  the  monopoly  increases,  constitute  a  particular  order,  which 
it  is  both  absolutely  impossible  to  tax  beyond  the  proportion  of  other 
orders,  and  extremely  impolitic  even  to  attempt  to  tax  beyond  that 
proportion,  as  I  shall  endeavour  to  shew  in  the  following  book. 
No  particular  resource,  therefore,  can  be  drawn  from  this  particular 
order.  ' 


MODERN   YIKWS  I  i 


III.    MODERN    MEWS 


1  It  is  the  custom  to  describe  the  old  colonies  as  sacriliced  to 
the  mother-country.  We  must  be  careful  not  to  admit  that  state- 
ment without  qualification.  It  is  supposed  for  instance  that  the 
revolt  of  our  own  American  colonies  was  provoked  by  the  selfish 
treatment  of  our  mother-country,  which  shackled  their  trade  with- 
out rendering  them  any  benefit  in  return  for  these  restraints.  This 
is  far  from  being  true.  Between  England  and  the  American  col- 
onies there  was  a  real  interchange  of  services.  England  gave 
defence  in  return  for  trade-privileges.  In  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  at  the  time  when  the  American  quarrel  began,  it  was  per- 
haps rather  the  colonies  than  the  mother-country  that  had  fallen 
into  arrear.  We  had  been  involved  in  two  great  wars  mainly  by 
our  colonies,  and  the  final  breach  was  provoked  not  so  much  by 
the  pressure  of  England  upon  the  colonies  as  by  that  of  the  col- 
onies upon  England.  If  we  imposed  taxes  upon  them,  it  was  to 
meet  the  debt  which  we  had  incurred  in  their  behalf,  and  we  saw 
with  no  unnatural  bitterness  that  we  had  ourselves  enabled  our 
colonies  to  do  without  us,  by  destroying  for  their  interest  the 
French  power  in  North  America. 

Still  it  was  true  of  the  old  colonial  system  in  general  that  it 
placed  the  colony  in  the  position,  not  so  much  of  a  state  in  feder- 
ation, as  of  a  conquered  state.  Some  theory  of  the  kind  is  evi- 
dently implied  in  the  language  which*  is  commonly  used.  We 
speak  of  the  colonial  possrssiojis  of  England  or  of  Spain.  Now  in 
what  sense  can  one  population  be  spoken  of  as  the  possession  of 
another  population  >  The  expression  almost  seems  to  imply  slav- 
ery, and  at  any  rate  it  is  utterly  inappropriate,  if  it  merely  means 
that  the  one  population  is  subject  to  the  same  Government  as  the 
other.  At  the  bottom  of  it  certainly  was  the  idea  that  the  colony 
was  an  estate  which  was  to  be  worked  for  the  benefit  of  the 
mother-country. 

The  relation  of  Spain  to  its  colonies  had  become  a  type  which 
other  states  kept  before  their  eyes.  A  native  population  reduced 
to  serfdom,  in  some  parts  driven  to  compulsory  labour  by  caciques 

1  Seeley,  Expansion  of  England,  Course  I,  Lecture  iv. 


114  COLONIAL  POLICY 

turned  into  state-officials,  in  other  parts  exterminated  by  overwork 
and  then  replaced  by  negroes  ;  an  imperious  mother-country  draw- 
ing from  the  colony  a  steady  revenue,  and  ruling  it  through  an 
artful  mechanism  of  division,  by  which  the  settlers  were  held  in 
check  by  the  priesthood  and  by  a  serf-population  treated  paternally 
that  it  might  be  available  for  that  purpose  ;  such  was  the  typical 
colonial  system.  It  was  wholly  unfit  to  be  a  model  to  such  a  col- 
ony as  New  England,  which  paid  no  revenue,  where  there  were 
neither  subject  Indians  nor  mines  of  gold  and  silver.  Nevertheless 
governments  could  not  afford  to  forget  the  precedent  of  profitable 
colonies,  and  I  find  Charles  II.  appealing  to  it  in  1663.  It  became 
an  established  principle  that  a  colony  was  a  possession. 

Now  it  is  essentially  barbaric  that  one  community  should  be 
treated  as  the  property  of  another  and  the  fruits  of  its  industry' 
confiscated,  not  in  return  for  benefits  conferred,  but  by  some  ab- 
solute right  whether  of  conquest  or  otherwise.  Even  where  such 
a  relation  rests  avowedly  upon  concjuest  it  is  too  immoral  to  last 
long  except  in  a  barbarous  state  of  manners.  Thus  for  example 
we  may  have  acquired  India  by  conquest,  but  we  cannot  and  do 
not  hold  it  for  our  own  pecuniary  advantage.  We  draw  no  tribute 
from  it ;  it  is  not  to  us  a  profitable  investment ;  we  should  be 
ashamed  to  acknowledge  that  in  governing  it  we  in  any  way  sacri- 
ficed its  interest  to  our  own.  A  fortiori  then  it  is  barbaric  to  apply 
such  a  theory  to  colonies,  for  it  is  to  treat  one's  own  countrymen, 
those  with  whom  we  have  no  concern  at  all  except  on  the  ground 
of  kindred,  as  if  they  were  conquered  enemies,  or  rather  in  a  way 
in  which  a  civilized  nation  cannot  treat  even  conquered  enemies. 
And  probably  even  in  the  old  colonial  system  such  a  theory  was 
not  consciously  and  deliberately  adopted.  But  since  in  the  sixteenth 
centuiy  there  was  no  scruple  in  appl3dng  it  to  conquered  dependen- 
cies, and  since  the  colonies  of  Spain  were  in  a  certain  sense  conquered 
dependencies,  we  can  understand  that  unconsciously,  unintention- 
ally the  barbaric  principle  crept  into  her  colonial  system,  and  that 
it  lurked  there  and  poisoned  it  in  later  times.  We  can  understand 
too  how  the  example  of  Spain  and  the  precedents  set  by  her  influ- 
enced the  other  European  States,  Holland,  France  and  England, 
which  entered  upon  the  career  of  colonisation  a  century  later. 


MODERN   VIEWS  I  15 

In  the  case  of  some  of  these  States,  for  examj)le  I '"ranee,  the 
result  of  this  theory  was  that  the  mother-country  exercised  an  iron 
authority  over  her  colonies.  In  Canada  the  French  settlers  were 
subject  to  a  multitude  of  rigid  regulations,  from  which  they  would 
have  been  free  if  they  had  remained  in  France.  Nothing  of  the 
kind  certainly  can  be  said  of  the  English  colonies.  They  were 
subject  to  certain  fixed  restrictions  in  the  matter  of  trade,  but 
apart  from  these  they  were  absolutely  free.  Carr)ang  their  nation- 
ality with  them,  they  claimed  everywhere  the  rights  of  English- 
men. It  has  been  observed  by  Mr.  Merivale  that  the  old  colonial 
system  admitted  no  such  thing  as  the  modern  Crown  Colony,  in 
which  Englishmen  are  governed  administratively  without  represent- 
ative assemblies.  In  the  old  system  assemblies  were  not  formally 
instituted,  but  grew  up  of  themselves,  because  it  was  the  nature  of 
Englishmen  to  assemble.  Thus  the  old  historian  of  the  colonies, 
Hutchinson,  writes  under  the  year  16 19,  "  This  year  a  House  of 
Burgesses  broke  out  in  Virginia."  And  assuredly  the  Home  Gov- 
ernment in  those  times  did  not  sin  by  too  much  interference.  So 
completely  were  the  colonies  left  to  themselves,  that  some  of 
them,  especially  those  of  New  England,  were  from  the  very  begin- 
ning for  the  most  practical  purposes  independent  States.  As  early 
as  1665,  only  forty  years  after  the  first  settlement  and  a  hundred 
years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  I  find  that  Massa- 
chusetts did  not  regard  itself  as  practically  subject  to  England, 
"They  say,"  writes  a  Commissioner,  "that  so  long  as  they  pay 
the  fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver,  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
Charter,  they  are  not  obliged  to  the  King  but  by  civility." 

Thus  our  old  colonial  system  was  not  practically  at  all  tyran- 
nous, and  when  the  breach  came  the  grievances  of  whicli  the 
Americans  complained,  though  perfectly  real,  were  smaller  than 
ever  before  or  since  led  to  such  mighty  consequences.  The  mis- 
fortune of  that  system  was  not  that  it  interfered  too  mucli,  but 
that  such  interference  as  it  admitted  was  of  an  invidious  kind.  It 
claimed  very  little,  but  what  it  did  claim  was  unjust.  It  gave  un- 
bounded liberty  except  in  one  department,  namely  trade,  and  in 
that  department  it  interfered  to  fine  the  colonists  for  the  benefit 
of. the  home  traders.    Now  this  was  to  put  the  mother-country  in 


Il6  COLONIAL  POLICY 

a  false  position.  It  put  her  forward  as  claiming  to  treat  the  col- 
onies as  a  possession,  as  an  estate  to  be  worked  for  the  benefit  of 
those  Englishmen  who  remained  at  home.  No  claim  could  be 
more  invidious.  If  it  was  not  quite  the  claim  that  a  master  makes 
upon  a  slave,  it  was  at  least  similar  to  that  which  an  absentee  land- 
lord makes  upon  tenants  in  whom  he  takes  no  further  interest, 
and  yet  even  the  absentee  landlord,  if  he  gives  nothing  else,  does 
at  least  give  the  use  of  land  which  was  really  his  own.  But  what 
—  a  Massachusetts  colonist  might  say  —  has  England  given  to 
us  that  she  should  have  this  perpetual  mortgage  on  our  industry .? 
The  Charter  of  James  I.  allowed  us  the  use  of  lands  which  James 
I.  never  saw  and  which  did  not  belong  to  him,  lands  too  which, 
without  any  Charter,  we  might  perhaps  have  occupied  for  our- 
selves without  opposition.   .   .   . 

^  With  the  impressive  rhetoric  of  which  he  was  a  master,  Adam 
Smith,  in  the  very  year  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  thus 
passed  judgement  upon  the  system  of  control  which  for  more  than 
a  century  England  had  exercised  over  the  economic  activity  of  her 
colonies  : 

To  prohibit  a  great  people  from  making  all  that  they  can  of  every  part  of 
their  own  produce,  or  from  employing  their  stock  and  their  industry  in  the 
way  that  they  judge  most  advantageous  to  themselves,  is  a  manifest  violation 
of  the  most  sacred  rights  of  mankind. 

Some  such  opinion  has  probably  been  expressed  or  implied  by 
nearly  every  writer  on  the  subject  from  that  time  to  this.  A  period 
in  which,  to  begin  with,  the  old  colonial  system  was  apparently 
discredited  by  its  failure,  and  in  which,  soon  afterwards,  all  the 
dominant  forces  in  political  society  began  to  tend  towards  eman- 
cipation, towards  liberation  from  restraint,  was  not  an  age  in  which 
Adam  Smith's  summary  appeal  to  "  the  most  sacred  rights  of  man- 
kind" was  likely  to  be  seriously  called  in  question  :  nor  shall  I  seek 
to  controvert  it  to-day.  But,  starting  from  such  a  preconception,  it 
has  seemed  to  many  a  natural  inference  —  though,  as  we  shall  see, 

1  Ashley,  Commercial  Legislation  of  England  and  the  American  Colonies, 
1660-1760;  in  Surveys  Historic  and  Economic,  pp-  309-31 1,  332-334,  354-356. 
Printed  by  permission  of  the  author  and  publishers,  Longmans,  Green,  and 
Company. 


MODERN   VIKAVS  I  17 

Adam  Smith  took  care  not  to  draw  it  —  that  so  seemingly  mani- 
fest an  iniquity  must  have  been  actually  hurtful  to  those  who  were 
subjected  to  it ;  thiit  what  was  mistaken  in  principle  must  have 
been  mischievous  in  operation.  We  cannot  be  surprised  that  the 
first  generation  of  American  historians  sliould  think  so;  writing, 
as  they  did,  before  the  passions  ]5rovoked  by  the  great  struggle 
had  had  time  to  subside.  Tlius  Bancroft  did  not  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce "  the  effects  of  this  system  "  "  baleful  "  ;  and  he  proceeded 
to  justify  this  statement  by  an  argument  which  was  designed  to  show 
that  it  robbed  the  colonists  in  two  ways  :  it  compelled  them  to  pay 
more  than  their  "fair  value"  for  the  commodities  they  imported, 
and  to  accept  less  than  their  "'  fair  value  "  for  the  commodities  they 
sold.  But  a  like  opinion  is  not  confined  to  American  historians  : 
it  has  come  to  be  very  generally  accepted  by  English  writers  ;  and 
upon  its  side  it  has  the  authority  of  the  most  painstaking  and  the 
most  widely  read  of  the  historians  of  the  eighteenth  century — the 
judicious  Mr.  Lecky  himself.  In  two  well-known  passages  in  his 
second  and  fourth  volumes,  Mr.  Lecky  leaves  no  doubt  as  t(j  his 
conviction.  Though  "the  country"  —  i.e.  the  American  colonies 
—  "  was,"  he  says,  "  growing  rapidly  richer,"  yet  "  its  progress  was 
seriously  retarded,"  and  "  many  of  its  natural  capacities  were  para- 
lysed by  law."  "  It  is,"  he  elsewhere  remarks,  "undoubtedly  true 
that  the  commercial  policy  of  England  has  established  a  real  oppo- 
sition of  interest  between  the  mother  country  and  her  colonies  !  " 
If  so,  it  would  have  demanded  an  unwholesome  degree  of  patience 
for  the  Americans  to  have  submitted  with  cheerfulness.  Commerce 
must,  in  the  words  of  Bancroft,  have  been  "  converted  into  a  source 
of  rankling  hostility"  :  in  the  more  subdued  .language  of  Mr.  Lecky, 
"  political  alienation  "  could  not  have  failed  to  be  "  the  ine\ilable  con- 
sequence." Mr.  Lecky's  philosophy  of  the  American  Revolution 
is,  therefore,  this  —  though  the  passage  is  almost  too  familiar  for 
quotation  : 

If  the  policy  which  was  the  proximate  cause  of  the  American  Revolution 
was  chiefly  due  to  the  king  and  to  the  landed  gentry,  the  ultimate  cause  may 
be  mainly  traced  to  the  great  influence  which  the  commercial  classes  possessed 
in  British  legislation.  The  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Canada  made  it  pos- 
sible for  the  Americans  to  dispense  with  English  protection.  The  commercial 
restrictions  alone  made  it  to  their  interest  to  do  so. 


Il8  COLONIAL  ECONOMY 

I  propose  to  set  forth  what  seem  to  me  adequate  reasons  for 
believing  that  this  view  of  the  case  is  altogether  mistaken  ;  that, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  objects  it  had  in  view  —  and  these 
objects,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  deny,  were  largely  selfish — the 
policy  of  England  was  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  economically  dis- 
advantageous ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  beneficial  to  the 
American  colonies.   .   .   . 

The  English  commercial  legislation,  I  conclude,  did  the  colonies 
no  harm  prior  to  1 760  ;  and  the  English  connection  did  them  much 
good.  LInder  these  circumstances,  it  is  no  wonder  the  Americans 
were  neither  indignant  nor  restive.  I  know  of  no  evidense,  during 
the  century  under  review,  for  l^ancroft's  "  rankling  hostility  "  or  for 
Mr.  Lecky's  "  political  alienation  "  as  "  the  inevitable  conseciuence." 
Individuals  here  and  there  felt  themselves  hampered  in  their  oper- 
ations, and  were  naturally  annoyed  ;  but  there  is  absolutely  no  evi- 
dence of  any  widespread  irritation.  When  one  reads  Mr.  Lecky, 
one  thinks  of  a  movement  of  popular  thought  comparable  to  the 
opposition  to  Laud's  ecclesiastical  policy  or  to  the  agitation  which 
led  to  the  great  Reform  Bill.  But,  when  one  comes  to  look  into 
the  American  sources,  one  has  to  search  very  minutely  indeed  to 
find  any  reference  at  all  to  the  restrictions.  The  lawlessness  pro- 
duced by  the  half-smuggling  molasses  business  did,  in  a  sense,  con- 
tribute to  the  Revolution,  but  it  was  a  very  minor  element  among 
many  others  :  to  be  put  by  the  side  of  the  irritation  of  the  New 
Hampshire  backwoodsmen  at  the  attempts  to  enforce  the  claims 
of  the  Crown  to  masts  for  the  navy  ;  to  be  put  much  below  in  im- 
portance the  alarm  which  New  England  Puritanism  felt  before  the 
anticipated  inroads  of  .the  English  Church.  So  far  as  I  can  see, 
the  trade  grievance  was  first  formulated  by  Franklin.  But  the 
pamphlet  in  which  he  did  so,  that  of  1767,  already  cjuoted,  was 
hardly  expected  to  be  taken  seriously ;  and  even  there  the  economic 
grievance  was  put  on  a  level  with  grievances  of  another  kind.  It 
was  not  till  some  years  after  the  conflict  had  begun,  when  imagi- 
nation was  already  playing  tricks  with  memory,  that  the  commercial 
restrictions  were  put  in  the  foreground  and  represented  as  posi- 
tively oppressive.   ... 


MODERN  VIEWS  I  19 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  (regarding 
smuggling  and  elicit  trade)?  It  is  tliat  — with  the  exception,  as 
always,  of  the  molasses  business  —  the  great  bulk  of  the  American 
import  trade  was  strictly  legal,  because  the  colonials  had  no  interest 
that  it  should  be  otherwise.  In  one  way  or  another  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  illicit  trade,  no  doubt ;  yet  it  formed  but  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  whole.  Shefifield,  predicting  that  the  American  states 
would  "  in  future,  as  they  did  before,  give  the  preference  to  l^ritish 
manufactures  over  all  others,"  makes  this  just  comment : 

For  the  preference  formerly  given  was  not  the  effect  of  our  restrictions ; 
nothing  was  easier  for  the  Americans  than  to  evade  them,  and  it  is  well  known 
that  from  the  first  they  uniformly  did  evade  them  whenever  they  found  it  to 
their  interest. 

The  important  thing  is  that  they  did  not  find  it  to  their  interest 
to  any  (comparatively)  large  extent. 

And  the  reasons  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  staple  requirements 
of  New  England,  and,  first  of  all,  woollen  clothing,  could  be  sup- 
plied more  cheaply  in  England  than  elsewhere.  It  was  the  quality 
and  cheapness  of  English  cloth  which  enabled  it  in  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  centuiy  to  secure  the  North  German  market, 
and  would  have  given  it  the  French  market  but  for  Colbert's  high 
tariff  of  1667.  As  soon  as  the  barrier  was  removed  b)-  the  Com- 
mercial Treaty  wdth  France  in  1786,  English  cloth  again  beat  down 
the  competition  of  the  French  domestic  product.  And  as  to  such 
commodities  of  other  European  countries  as  could  not  be  produced 
so  cheaply  in  England,  eveiTthing  tends  to  confirm  the  a  priori  argu- 
ment of  the  previous  paper.    To  quote  Sheffield  for  the  last  time  : 

It  is  certain  many  foreign  articles  will  go  to  America  through  (ireat  Britain 
as  formerly,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  the  American  merchant  would  find  in 
resorting  to  every  quarter  of  the  world  to  collect  a  cargo.  The  Americans  send 
ships  to  be  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  European  goods.  A  general  cargo  for  the 
American  market  cannot  be  made  up  on  such  advantageous  terms  in  any  part 
of  the  world  as  in  England.  In  our  ports  all  articles  may  be  got  with  despatch 
—  a  most  winning  circumstance  in  trade. 

It  would  be  worth  while  for  some  American  scholar  to  determine 
just  when  the  Acts  of  Trade  first  came  to  be  looked  upon  by  Amer- 
icans as  constituting  or  having  constituted  a  grievance  —  after  the 


I20  COLOiXIAL  POLICY 

first  irritation  had  subsided  which  the  Navigation  Laws  had  occa- 
sioned in  the  third  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  centur}".  Doubtless, 
when  once  the  breach  with  the  mother  country  had  taken  place, 
American  writers  and  speakers  described  the  system  as  a  griev- 
ance, and  imputed  a  like  feeling  to  earlier  generations.  But  cer- 
tainlv  it  is  not  easy  to  find  any  expression  to  that  effect  in  the 
twenties,  thirties,  forties,  or  fifties  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is 
well  known  that  American  politicians,  during  the  earlier  years  of 
the  controversy  with  the  British  Government,  constantly  drew  a 
sharp  distinction  between  legislation  for  the  control  of  trade  and 
legislation  for  the  securing  of  revenue,  and  declared  again  and 
again  that  with  the  former  they  had  no  quarrel.  As  late  as  1768 
we  find  the  shrewd  Franklin  expressing  his  regret  that  such  a 
position  was  still  pretty  generally  taken,  and  arguing  for  a  more 
sweeping  denial  of  the  legislative  authority  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment. Li  not  going  at  first  beyond  an  objection  to  taxation  with- 
out consent,  the  American  leaders  were  doubtless  influenced  by 
weightN'  political  considerations  ;  }'et  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  they 
would  have  been  so  restrained  in  their  utterances  if,  during  the 
preceding  hundred  years,  the  Acts  of  Trade  had  really  been  felt 
to  be  galling  restraints.   .   ,   .  ^ 

^  The  colonists  had  evinced  a  determined  spirit  of  independence 
from  the  outset.  In  the  seventeenth  century  several  colonies  had 
refused  obedience  to  the  representatives  of  the  Crown,  and  one 
colony  had  paid  no  attention  to  the  decisions  of  the  courts  at 
Westminster.  The  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  pe- 
riod of  almost  incessant  bickering  and  petty  strife  bet\veen  the 
representiitives  of  the  British  government  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  popular  branches  of  the  colonial  legislatures  on  the  other  hand. 
These  disputes  were  usually  confined  to  local  politics  ;  they  never 
assumed  the  ^orm  of  a  combination  between  two  or  more  colonies 
to  resist  the  authority  of  Great  Britain. 

1  This  article  contains  an  excellent  discussion  of  the  effects  of  the  commercial 
policy  of  England  upon  the  American  colonies. 

-  Channing.  The  United  States  of  America,  1765-1865,  pp.  39-40.  Printed  by 
permission  of  the  author  and  publishers.  The  Macmillan  Company. 


MODERN  VIEWS  12  I 

During  the  French  and  Indian  War  these  altercations  threat- 
ened to  assume  a  more  serious  aspect  owing  to  the  attem[ns  of 
British  officials  to  enforce  obedience  to  acts  of  ParHament  as  to 
billeting  of  soldiers  and,  also,  to  the  supersession  of  colonial  niili- 
taiy  officers  b\-  those  holding  commissions  direct  from  the  Crown. 
That  these  disputes  led  to  no  gTa\-er  results  must  be  attributed  to 
the  laisses-faire  administrative  policy  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  and 
his  immediate  successors.  Had  that  polic)-  been  maintained  after 
1 760,  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  that  the  conquest  of  Canada 
and  the  existence  of  the  Navigation  Laws  and  Acts  of  Trade  w'ould 
have  led  to  rebellion.  Lord  Mahon  was  undoubtedly  right  in  say- 
ing that,  had  not  some  new  cause  of  complaint  arisen,  the  colonial 
agents,  even  in  his  day,  might  still  have  been  debating  at  White- 
hall, It  was  not  so  to  be.  The  wise  counsels  of  the  earlier  time 
were  thrown  to  the  winds.  The  British  government,  by  enforcing 
the  Acts  of  Trade  and  by  levying  taxes  on  the  colonies  by  acts  of 
Parliament,  compelled  the  colonists  to  combine  in  defence  of  what 
they  considered  to  be  their  rights,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  to 
revolution  and  independence. 


CHAPTER    IV 

ECONOMIC   ASPECTS   OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

INTRODUCTION 

There  are  three  questions  regarding  the  Revolution,  which  involve  economic 
considerations  of  more  or  less  importance.  The  first  refers  to  the  causes  of  the 
war,  the  second  to  the  resources  of  the  Americans  for  carrying  it  on,  and  the 
third  to  its  effects  both  upon  American  society  and  upon  Europe.  It  has  always 
been  recognized  that  taxation  and  commercial  restrictions  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
land were  the  principal  causes  of  the  war.  But  the  fact  that  the  controversy 
which  preceded  it,  raged  around  the  question  of  political  rights,  has  tended 
to  obscure  the  real  economic  factors  in  the  situation.  We  hear  much  about 
taxation  without  representation  and  but  little  about  taxation  itself ;  and  we  are 
led  to  infer  that  it  was  the  manner  of  imposing  taxes,  rather  than  the  taxes 
themselves,  to  which  the  colonists  were  opposed.  We  have  lost  sight  of  the 
fact  that  the  amount  of  taxation  imposed  by  England  was  insignificant  in 
amount,  and  could  not  possibly  be  now  considered  as  a  serious  burden.  In  the 
same  way  we  hear  much  about  the  selfishness  of  England's  commercial  policy, 
of  her  readiness  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  colonists  to  those  of  the  mer- 
chant and  manufacturer  at  home ;  but  comparatively  little  is  said  about  the  ac- 
tual effect  of  the  commercial  restrictions.  Here  again  we  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  these  commercial  restrictions  were  in  existence  for  a  century  without 
serious  opposition,  were  vastly  more  liberal  than  those  enjoyed  by  any  other 
colonies  in  the  world,  and  had  not  prevented  the  colonies  from  making  such 
progress  in  wealth  and  population  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  all  Europe. 
The  more  rigid  enforcement  after  1763  no  doubt  increased  their  injurious 
effects,  but  even  then  it  is  impossible  to  make  them 'out  a  grievous  burden. 
Why,  then,  did  they,  along  with  the  insignificant  taxes,  stir  up  such  fierce  oppo- 
sition ?  Why  were  the  Americans  willing  to  endure  the  horrors  of  a  long  and 
costly  war  for  what  seems  now  so  small  a  cause  ? 

A  partial  explanation  may  be  found  in  the  economic  and  social  conditions 
existing  at  the  time.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  economic  depression  in  nearly 
all  the  colonies  during  the  ten  years  which  preceded  the  war.  This  chiefly 
affected  the  commercial  classes  in  New  England  and  the  middle  colonies,  and 
was  no  doubt  connected  more  or  less  closely  with  the  more  rigid  enforcement 
of  the  commercial  restrictions.  Commerce,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  the 
chief  source  of  private  fortune  in  these  colonics,  and  almost  every  prominent 
man  was  connected  with  it.    Commercial  depression  in  Virginia  had  nothing  to 

122 


INTRODrC'I'ION  123 

do  with  commerce,  but  affected  the  phtnter  class,  and  was  c\cn  more  serious 
than  in  New  England.  It  was  natural  enough  that  a  people  already  suffering 
economic  depression  should  feel  strong  opposition  to  any  increase  of  taxation, 
however  slight,  and  be  irritated  by  any  changes  in  commercial  regulations 
likely  to  affect  them.  It  was  not  alone  an  excessive  devotion  to  abstract  prin- 
ciples of  constitutional  and  political  rights  which  caused  so  much  agitation  and 
excitement  in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  It  was  the  fact  that  those  abstract 
[principles  were  invoked  to  remedy  an  economic  depression  which  was  seri- 
ously felt. 

But  there  was  another  circumstance  which  had  more  influence  than  this  of 
economic  depression.  It  was  the  fact  that  social  conditions  in  the  colonies  were 
such  as  to  render  all  taxation  except  for  purely  local  purposes  extremely  un- 
popular. In  the  unorganized,  dispersed  society  of  the  colonies  it  was  impossible 
for  men  to  recognize  any  connection  between  most  of  the  governmental  expend- 
itures, which  occasioned  taxation,  and  their  own  interests  and  welfare.  Taxes 
were  a  burden  and  did  not  seem  to  be  justified  by  necessity,  especially  after  the 
French  had  been  expelled  from  the  continent.  That  a  great  reluctance  to  pay 
taxes  existed  in  all  the  colonies,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  was  one  of  the 
marked  characteristics  of  the  American  people  long  after  their  separation  from 
England.  Down  to  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  it  constituted  one  of  the  difficul- 
ties American  statesmen  always  had  to  face.  It  was  the  principal  rock  upon 
which  the  confederation  split,  and  Hamilton  recognized  it  as  the  chief  problem 
to  be  solved  in  the  establishment  of  the  new  government.  Until  the  Civil  War 
it  was  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  respectable  revenue 
system  in  either  federal  or  state  finance.  It  was  this  unwillingness  to  bear  the 
burden  of  ta.\ation  that  caused  nine  of  the  states  to  default  in  the  payment  of 
interest  on  their  public  debts  in  the  early  forties,  and  at  least  one  of  them  to 
repudiate  the  debt  altogether.  It  was  fear  of  this  also  that  caused  so  long  a 
delay  in  levying  adequate  taxes  to  support  the  government  during  the  Civil 
War.  Here  we  have  an  explanation  of  that  extravagant  and,  to  us  now, 
somewhat  incomprehensible  opposition  to  the  slight  burden  of  taxation  which 
England  proposed  to  levy  upon  the  colonies. 

The  influence  of  the  commercial  restrictions  was  rather  more  political  than 
economic.  The  long  controversy  which  began  with  the  Stamp  Act  brought 
out,  not  so  much  their  influence  upon  colonial  industry,  as  the  selfish  motives 
of  English  statesmen  in  making  them.  It  was  easy  to  show  the  readiness  of 
the  English  government  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  colonists  to  the  inter- 
ests of  citizens  of  the  mother  country.  This  was  all  that  was  necessary  for 
purposes  of  political  agitation,  and  all  that  was  brought  out  by  the  controversy. 
Whether  colonial  interests  were  in  fact  sacrificed  by  the  policy  remained  for 
posterity  to  consider  and  decide. 

Regarding  the  other  aspects  of  the  Revolution  involving  economic  consid- 
erations, only  brief  observations  can  be  made.  If  we  compare  the  separation 
of  the  colonies  from  the  British  Empire  with  the  attempted  secession  of  the 


124       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

southern  states  from  the  Union,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  by  the  simi- 
larity in  their  position.  Each  of  them  possessed  one  resource  upon  which  they 
chiefly  relied  for  success  in  establishing  their  independence.  It  was  the  impor- 
tance of  the  cotton  trade  and  its  connection  with  the  interests  of  various  Euro- 
pean countries  that  the  South  expected  would  supply  her  with  the  sinews  of 
war,  and  raise  up  friends  to  fight  her  battles  for  her.  In  the  same  way  it  was 
the  importance  of  colonial  trade  to  the  leading  nations  of  western  Europe, 
and  their  own  prominence  in  it,  that  the  colonies  expected  would  perform  a 
similar  service  for  them.  The  chief  difference  between  them  appears  in  the 
fact  that  the  South  was  utterly  disappointed  in  her  expectations,  while  the 
American  colonies  were  entirely  successful  in  realizing  theirs. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  possession  of  colonies,  and  the  trade  to  which 
they  gave  rise,  was  everywhere  in  Europe  considered  the  most  important  source 
of  national  power.  England's  supremacy  on  the  seas  and  great  progress  in  wealth 
were  attributed  to  colonial  commerce,  and  in  this  her  American  colonies  were  the 
largest  factor.  To  lose  the  commerce  of  these  colonies,  therefore,  would,  it  was 
thought,  bring  ruin  to  her.  For  other  nations  to  gain  it  would  bring  wealth  and 
power  to  them.  The  prevailing  mercantilist  ideas  of  the  time  gave  these  views  a 
strength  which  we  cannot  now  realize.  That  they  existed,  however,  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  and  they  were  fully  recognized  and  shared  by  American  statesmen. 
This  it  was  which  constituted  their  chief  resource  in  the  struggle  with  the 
mother  country,  and  the  skill  with  which  it  was  used,  reflects  great  credit  upon 
American  statesmanship.  By  the  temporary  stoppage  of  their  trade  with  the 
mother  country,  and  the  development  of  industries  to  satisfy  their  wants  at 
home,  they  sought  to  bring  political  pressure  to  bear  upon  Parliament,  and  to 
cause  obnoxious  measures  to  be  repealed.  This  policy  came  much  nearer  prov- 
ing a  success  than  we  are  accustomed  to  think.  Adam  Smith  said,  "  the  ex- 
pectation of  a  rupture  with  the  colonies  struck  the  people  of  Great  Britain  with 
more  terror  than  they  ever  felt  for  a  Spanish  armada  or  a  French  invasion," 
and  "  rendered  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  among  the  merchants  at  least,  a 
popular  measure."  Had  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  towns  possessed 
as  many  representatives  in  parliament  as  belonged  to  them,  this  non-inter- 
course policy  of  the  colonies  would  have  stood  a  good  chance  of  success. 
When  the  commercial  interests  were  overruled  and  the  policy  of  coercion 
adopted,  the  colonists  turned  to  foreign  countries  with  the  one  resource  they 
had  to  offer.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  largely  designed  to  render 
this  resource  more  available  in  securing  that  assistance,  without  which  their 
prospects  of  success  in  the  struggle  were  desperate.  In  the  French  alliance 
their  fondest  expectations  were  more  than  realized. 

The  immediate  economic  results  of  the  Revolution  are  far  less  striking  and 
important  than  the  political,  both  as  regards  American  society  and  the  world 
at  large.  It  did  not  mark  the  end  of  the  colonial  stage  of  our  economic  devel- 
opment, nor  did  it  furnish  European  economists  with  an  example  and  illus- 
tration of  their  theories,  as  it  did  to  political  philosophers.    Nevertheless  its 


INFLUENCES  LKADINC  'IX)  THE  REVOLUTION     125 

economic  influence  was  considerable.  The  intcnuplion  of  our  commercial 
relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world  forced  the  beginning  of  that  diversification 
of  industries,  which  was  to  become  later  an  important  clement  in  the  growth 
of  our  great  internal  commerce.  By  securing  political  independence  we  put 
ourselves  in  a  position  to  reap  the  great  harvest  of  neutrality,  when  the  Euro- 
pean wars  broke  out,  and  this  gave  the  American  people  the  first  considerable 
accumulation,  of  capital  they  had  ever  possessed.  To  Europe  it  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  that  great  series  of  commercial  restrictions  known  as 
the  Mercantile  System.  Colonies  and  colonial  policy  were  the  most  important 
part  of  this  system.  The  separation  of  the  colonies  from  England  by  demon- 
strating that  a  country  could  still  continue  to  enjoy  the  commerce  of  new  com- 
munities, without  political  connection  with  them,  w-ent  far  to  discredit  the  old 
colonial  system  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  through  it  the  whole  system  of_  — 
mercantile  restrictions.  .  '^^^/'J'^^ 

I.  INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO  THE  REVOLUTION  ^- 
A.  Economic  Depres.sion  ^ 

^  .  .  .  The  methods  which  were  now  [1764]  adopted  to  pre- 
vent smugghng,  might  not  have  been  attended  with  any  unpleasant 
consequences,  if  they  had  been  confined  to  the  coasts  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  ;  but  by  extending  them  to  the  shores  of  America,  they 
interrupted  a  commerce,  which  though  not  strictly  legal,  was  ex- 
tremely advantageous  to  the  colonics.  They  w-ere  therefore  in  a 
state  of  no  common  discontent  on  account  of  the  acts  of  the  British 
Parliament  which  added  to  their  restraints,  when  the  stamp  act 

1  Hard  times  have  always  produced  some  kind  of  political  activity  in  this  coun- 
try. In  later  times  it  has  consisted  in  nothing  more  serious  than  putting  one  polit- 
ical party  out  of  power  or  an  attempt  to  do  so ;  but  in  our  earlier  history  it  had 
more  serious  consequences.  Nullification  in  South  Carolina  and  the  similar  move- 
ment in  New  England,  which  resulted  in  the  Hartford  Convention,  were  very  largely 
the  result pf  economic  depression.  In  a  similar  way  the  two  most  important  events 
in  our  political  history,  the  separation  frpm  Great  IJritain  and  the  formation  of  the 
present  constitution,  were  profoundly  influenced  by  the  same  cause  and  cannot  be 
explained  without  taking  it  into^ionsideration.  In  case  of  the  Revolution,  economic 
depression  coupled  with  the  social  conditions  which  made  taxpaying  seem  un- 
necessary and  unjust,  prepared  the  soil  in  which  the  political  ideas  of  the  time 
could  flourish.  It  was  not  the  abstract  idea  of  taxation  ivithoiit  represeiiintioit  which 
moved  the  colonists.  It  was  the  fact  that  they  felt  taxation  to  be  a  grievous  burden, 
whether  levied  by  their  own  representaUve  or  not,  that  stirred  them  to  such  strong 
opposition. 

2  Anderson,  An  Historical  and  Chronological  Deduction  of  the  Origin  of  Com- 
merce, IV,  62-6-. 


126       ECONOMIC. ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

appeared  to  heighten  their  resentment,  and  raise  a  kind  of  private 
displeasure  into  pubhc  remonstranee  and  general  opposition. 

A  number  of  armed  cutters  were  stationed  around  the  coasts  of 
Great  Britain,  and  the  most  rigid  orders  were  issued  to  the  com- 
manders of  them  to  act  in  the  capacity  of  revenue  officers.  They 
were  enjoined  to  take  the  usual  custom-house  oaths,  and  to  ob- 
serve the  regulations  prescribed  by  them.  Thus  was  the  dis- 
tinguished character  of  a  British  naval  officer  degraded  by  the 
emploN'ments  of  a  tide-waiter,  and  that  active,  zealous  courage 
which  had  been  accustomed  to  the  conquest  of  an  enemy  was  now 
to  be  exerted  in  opposing  a  contraband  trade,  and  to  find  a  reward 
in  the  seizure  of  prohibited  commodities. 

The  clamour  against  these  measures  was  loud  in  England  ;  but 
in  America  the  discontent  on  the  occasion  was  little  short  of  out- 
rage. As  naval  gentlemen,  the  commanders  of  these  vessels  were 
not  conversant  in  the  duties  of  revenue  collection,  they  were  there- 
fore oftentimes  guilty  of  oppression  :  remedies  were  indeed  at  hand 
in  England  ;  but  as  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  or  the  Treasury 
could  alone  rectify  any  errors,  check  any  violence,  punish  any  in- 
justice, or  restore  any  violated  property,  it  was  always  extremely 
difficult,  and  in  many  cases  almost  impracticable,  for  the  Ameri- 
cans to  obtain  redress. 

But  bad  as  this  evil  was,  there  arose  one,  from  the  same  source, 
which  was  still  worse.  —  A  trade  had  been  carried  on  for  more 
than  a  century  between  the  British  and  Spanish  colonies  in  the  new 
world,  to  the  great  advantage  of  both,  but  especially  the  former,  as 
well  as  of  the  mother  country  ;  the  chief  materials  of  it  being  on 
the  side  of  the  British  colonies,  British  manufactures,  or  such  of 
their  own  produce  as  enabled  them  to  purchase  British  manufactures 
for  their  own  consumption  ;  and,  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards,  gold 
and  silver  in  bullion  and  coin,  cochineal,  and  medicinal  drugs,  be- 
side live  stock  and  mules  ;  which,  in  the  West  India  plantations, 
to  which  places  alone  these  last  articles  were  carried,  from  their 
great  utility,  justly  deserved  to  be  considered  of  equal  importance 
with  the  most  precious  metals. 

This  trade  did  not  clash  with  the  spirit  of  any  act  of  Parliament    ■  % 
made  for  the  regulation  of  the  British  plantation  trade  ;  or,  at  least 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO    11 II':   KKVOLl'I'K  )\ 


I  27 


with  that  spirit  of  trade  which  universally  j^revails  in  our  commercial 
acts:  but  it  was  found  to  vary  sufficiently  from  the  letter  of  the 
former,  to  give  the  new  revenue  officers  a  plea  for  doing  that  from 
principles  of  duty,  which  there  were  no  small  temptations  to  d(j 
from  the  more  powerful  motives  of  interest.  Accordingly,  they 
seized,  indiscriminately,  all  the  ships  upon  that  trade,  both  of  sub- 
jects and  foreigners  ;  which  the  custom-house  officers  stationed  on 
shore,  either  through  fear  of  the  inhabitants,  a  more  just  way  of 
thinking,  or  an  happy  ignorance,  had  always  permitted  to  pass 
unnoticed. 

As  the  advantage  of  this  commerce  was  veiy  much  in  favour  of 
Great  Britain,  the  Spanish  monarchy  had  alwa}-s  o]:)posed  it :  guarda- 
costas  were  commissioned  to  scour  the  coasts  of  her  American  do- 
minions, and  to  seize  every  vessel  which  approached  too  near  them  ; 
a  duty  which  they  had  exercised  with  such  general  licence,  as  to 
provoke  the  war  which  broke  out  in  1739.  The  l^ritish  cruizers 
seemed  to  act  at  this  time  with  the  same  spirit  in  destroying  this 
commerce,  so  that  in  a  short  space  of  time  it  was  almost  wholly 
annihilated. 

This  circumstance  was  to  the  northern  colonies  a  deprivation  of 
the  most  serious  nature.  — This  traffic  had  long  proved  the  mine 
from  whence  they  drew  those  supplies  of  gold  and  silver  that  enabled 
them  to  make  copious  remittances  to  England,  and  to  provide  a 
sufficiency  of  current  specie  at  home.  A  sudden  stop  being  thus 
put  to  such  a  source  of  advantage,  the  Americans  expressed  the 
injury  they  sustained  in  the  harshest  terms  that  a  sense  of  injury 
could  inspire.  But  in  spite  of  all  complaints,  the  ministr}'  continued 
to  proceed  in  their  unfortunate  career,  and  measures  equally  offen- 
sive to  the  inhabitants  of  the  North  American  colonies  continued 
to  be  successively  adopted. 

Besides  this  trade  carried  on  between  the  British  colonies  in 
general,  especially  those  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Spanish, 
there  had  for  a  long  time  subsisted  one  equally  extensive, between 
the  British  North  American  colonies  in  particular,  and  those  of 
the  French  West  Indies,  to  the  great  advantage  of  both,  as  it  con- 
sisted chiefly  in  such  goods  as  must  otherwise  ha\e  I'emained  upon 
the  hands  of  the  possessors  ;  so  that  it  united,  in  the  strictest  sense, 


128        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

all  those  benefits  which  liberal  minds  include  in  the  idea  of  a  well 
regulated  commerce,  as  tending,  in  the  highest  degree,  to  the  mutual 
welfare  of  those  who  were  concerned  in  it. 

In  these  benefits  the  respective  mother  countries  had,  without 
doubt,  a  very  large  share,  though  it  may  be  impossible  to  determine 
which,  upon  the  whole,  had  the  most.  We  had  enough  to  engage 
those  in  power  to  think  it  worth  connivance,  for  it  certainly  was 
not  strictly  to  law,  in  consideration  of  the  vast  quantity  of  manu- 
factures it  enabled  our  American  colonies  to  take  from  us  ;  and 
this  also,  in  spite  of  all  the  clamours  which  those  concerned  in 
our  West  India  trade  and  possessions  could  raise  against  it,  as 
enabling  the  French  to  undersell  them  in  West  India  produce  at 
the  foreign  markets.  This  outcry  might  indeed  be  found  to  arise, 
in  a  great  measure,  from  another  consideration,  which  it  was  not 
so  proper  for  these  gentlemen  to  avow,  that  of  their  not  getting  so 
good  a  price  as  otherwise  they  might  expect,  for  such  part  of  their 
produce  as  they  sold  in  the  markets  of  their  mother  country  ;  and 
which,  considering  the  vast  demand  for  it,  even  by  the  poor,  to 
whom,  from  long  habit,  it  is  become  one  of  the  chief  necessaries 
of  life,  it  would  have  savoured  of  oppression  if  it  had  been  per- 
mitted to  advance  in  price.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  this  trade  was 
suffered  to  be  carried  on  in  the  late  war  between  Great  Britain  and 
France  ;  directly,  by  means  of  flags  of  truce  ;  and  indirectly,  through 
the  Dutch  and  Danish  islands  ;  and  afterwards  through  the  Spanish 
port  of  Monte  Christi,  in  the  island  of  Hispaniola ;  till,  at  last,  the 
vast  advantages  the  French  received  from  it  above  what  the  Eng- 
lish could  expect,  in  consequence  of  our  having,  in  a  manner,  laid 
siege  to  all  their  West  India  islands,  determined  government  to 
put  a  stop  to  it. 

In  doing  this,  however,  they  did  not  think  proper  to  consider  it 
so  much  in  the  light  of  a  contraband  trade,  as  in  that  of  a  treasonable 
practice,  by  supplying  the  enemy  with  necessaries,  without  which 
it  would  have  been  impossible  for  these  valuable  islands  to  hold 
out  so  long  against  our  attempts  to  reduce  them.  Accordingly,  as 
soon  as  the  conclusion  of  the  war  had  taken  the  appellation  of  trea- 
son from  this  trade,  it  returned  again  to  its  pristine,  flourishing 
condition  ;  and   thus   it  remained,  till   it   sunk  beneath  the  same 


INFLUENCKS  LEADING  TO    11 11'.   Kl'-VOLUTK  )N 


129 


blow  with  the  trade  between  us  and  the  Spaniards,  whose  history 
we  have  already  related. 

This  trade  not  onl)-  jjrevented  our  North  American  colonies 
from  being  drained  of  their  current  cash,  by  the  calls  of  the 
mother  country  upon  them,  but  added  greatl}'  to  it,  so  as  to  make 
it,  in  some  measure,  keep  pace  with  their  domestic  trade,  which 
could  not  but  greatly  increase  in  proportion  to  the  remarkable  in- 
crease of  mankind  in  a  part  of  the  world,  where  the  cheapness  of 
land  determines  so  great  a  part  of  the  inhabitants  to  the  exercise 
of  the  rural  arts,  which  are  known  to  be  so  favourable  to  population. 

Though  the  suppression  of  that  trade  which  we  have  just  been 
relating,  instead  of  barely  interrupting  these  supplies  of  the  neces- 
saries and  conveniences  of  life,  which  the  North  American  colonies 
were  before  accustomed  to  receive  in  return  for  their  superfluities 
and  incumbrances,  tended  visibly,  by  obstructing  their  internal 
commerce,  to  deprive  them,  in  a  great  degree,  even  of  those  bless- 
ings, the  sources  of  which  lay  within  themselves  ;  yet  a  law  was 
made  in  the  beginning  of  the  last  year,  which,  whilst  it  rendered 
legal,  in  some  respects,  their  intercourse  with  the  other  European 
colonies  in  the  new  world,  loaded  the  best  part  of  it  with  duties  so 
far  above  its  strength  to  bear,  as  to  render  it  contraband  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes.  Besides,  it  ordered  the  money  arising  from 
these  duties  to  be  paid,  and  in  specie,  into  the  British  Exchequer, 
to  the  entire  draining  of  the  little  ready  money  which  might  be 
still  remaining  in  the  colonies  ;  and  within  a  fortnight  after,  another 
law  was  passed  to  hinder  the  colonies  from  supplying  the  demand 
of  money. for  their  internal  wants,  by  preventing  such  paper  bills 
of  credit  as  might  be  afterwards  in  them,  from  being  made  legal 
tender  in  payment ;  and  the  legal  tender  of  such  bills  as  were 
actually  subsisting,  from  being  prolonged  beyond  the  periods 
already  limited  for  calling  in  and  smking  the  same. 

These  new  regulations  following  each  other  so  rapidly,  produced 
an  equal  degree  of  surprize  and  discontent  among  the  people  of 
North  America.  Warm  and  spirited  remonstrances  were  sent  to 
England  on  the  occasion.  Among  other  arguments  they  alleged, 
that  such  restraints  upon  their  trade  were  absolutely  ruinous,  as 
they  tended  to  put  an  end  to  the  clearing  of  their  lands,  and 


130       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

damped  the  prosecution  of  their  fisheries.  They  also  asserted, 
that  unless  those  foreign  ports  where  they  deposited  the  surplus  of 
their  corn,  and  of  the  provisions  of  all  kinds  with  which  their  coun- 
try abounded,  were  freely  opened  to  them,  they  knew  not  whither 
to  carry  them.  The  British  islands  in  the  West  Indies  were  not 
equal  to  their  consumption,  and  Great  Britain  did  not  want  them  : 
it  was  absolutely  necessary,  therefore,  that  some  places  for  the  dis- 
posal of  them  should  be  permitted,  where  they  might  fetch  a  rea- 
sonable price, 

1  Our  chief  productions  are  provisions,  naval  stores,  furs,  iron 
and  lumber.  A  few  colonies  yield  tobacco  and  indigo.  Some  of 
these  commodities  are  necessary  to  Great-Britain ;  but  all  that  she 
requires  are  vastly  insufficient  to  pay  for  her  manufactures  which 
we  want.  The  productions  of  some  of  the  southern  colonies  may 
perhaps  be  equal  to  their  demands,  but  the  case  is  widely  different 
with  the  northern  ;  for  in  these,  the  importations  from  Great-Britain 
are  computed  to  be  generally  more  than  double  the  value  of  their 
immediate  exportations  to  that  kingdom. 

The  only  expedient  left  us  for  making  our  remittances,  is  to 
carry  on  some  other  trade,  whereby  we  can  obtain  silver  and  gold, 
which  our  own  country  does  not  afford.  Hence  it  is  evident,  that 
if  our  taking  off  and  paying  for  her  manufactures,  is  beneficial'  to 
Great-Britain,  the  channels  by  which  we  acquire  money  for  that 
purpose,  ought  to  be  industriously  kept  open  and  uninterrupted. 

Our  trade  with  Spain,  Portugal  and  the  foreign  plantations  in 
the  West-Indies  have  chiefly  answered  this  end,  though  with  much 
difficulty,  the  mother  country  having  long  since  drawn  the  "com- 
mercial cords  with  which  the  colonies  are  bound,  extremely  tight 
upon  them.  Everything  produced  here,  that  Great-Britain  chooses 
to  take  to  herself,  must  be  carried  to  that  kingdom  only  —  every- 
thing we  choose  to  import  from  Europe  must  be  shipped  in  Great- 
Britai7i  —  heavy  duties  have  been  laid  on  our  importations  from 
the  foreign  plantations. 

1  Dickinson,  The  Late  Regulations  Respecting  the  British  Colonies,  Considered 
[1765],  Political  Writings,  I,  50-54,  64-65,  66-68.  See  also  An  Essay  on  the  Trade 
of  the  Northern  Colonies,  etc.,  and  Remonstrance  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island, 

etc.,  pp.  51-54,  56-62  of  this  volume. 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO  THE  REVOLL'TION      131 

However  under  all  these  restraints  and  some  (jthers  that  have 
been  imposed  on  us,  we  ha\e  not  till  lately  been  unhappy.  Our 
spirits  were  not  depressed.  —  We  apprehended  no  design  formed 
against  our  liberty.  We  for  a  long  time  enjoyed  peace,  and  were 
quite  free  from  an\-  heavy  debt,  either  internal  or  external.  We 
had  a  paper  currency  which  served  as  a  medium  of  domestic  com- 
merce, and  permitted  us  to  emjjloy  all  the  gold  and  siher  we  could 
acquire,  in  trade  abroad.  W'e  had  a  multitude  of  markets  for  our 
provisions,  lumber  and  iron.  —  These  allowed  liberties,  with  some 
others  we  assumed,  enabled  us  to  collect  considerable  sums  of 
money  for  the  joint  benefit  of  ourselves  and  our  mother  countiy. 

But  the  modern  regulations  are  in  eveiy  circumstance  afflicting. 
The  remittances  we  have  been  able  to  make  to  (ircat-Britain,  with 
all  the  license  hitherto  granted  or  taken,  and  all  the  monc}-  brought 
among  us  in  the  course  of  the  late  war,  have  not  been  sufiicient  to 
pay  her  what  we  owe  ;  but  there  still  remains  due,  according  to  a 
late  calculation  made  by  the  English  merchants,  the  sum  of  four 
millions  sterling.  Besides  this,  we  are  and  have  been  for  many 
years  heavily  taxed,  for  the  payment  of  the  debts  contracted  by 
our  efforts  against  the  common  enemy.  These  seem  to  be  diffi- 
culties severe  enough  for  young  colonies  to  contend  with.  The 
last  sinks  our  paper  currency  ver)^  fast.  —  The  former  sweeps  off 
our  silver  and  gold  in  a  torrent  to  Great-Britain,  and  leaves  us 
continually  toiling  to  supply  from  a  number  of  distimt  springs  the 
continually  wasting  stream. 

Thus  drained,  we  are  prohibited  b\'  new  and  stricter  restraints 
being  laid  on  our  trade,  from  procuring  these  coins  as  we  used  to 
do  :  and  from  instituting  among  ourselves  bills  of  credit  in  the 
place  of  such  portions  of  them  as  are  required  in  our  internal 
traffic  ;  and  in  this  exhausted  condition,  our  languishing  country 
is  to  strive  to  take  up  and  to  totter  under  the  additional  biirthi-n 
of  the  STAMP  ACT.  .  .  . 

The  restriction  also  with  regard  to  our  iron,  is  thought  particularly 
severe.  Whenever  we  can  get  a  better  price  in  Great-Britain,  than 
elsewhere,  it  is  unnecessary  ;  whenever  we  can  get  a  better  price 
in  other  places,  it  is  prejudicial.  Cargoes  composed  of  this  metal, 
provisions  and  lumber,  have  been  found  to  answer  veiy  well  at  the 


132        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Portuguese  and  some  other  markets  ;  and  as  the  last  articles  are 
frequently  veiy  low,  and  our  foreign  trade  is  reduced  to  so  few 
commodities,  the  taking  away  any  one  of  them  must  be  hurtful  to 
us.  Indeed,  to  require  us  to  send  all  our  iron  to  Great-Britain,  is, 
in  the  opinion  of  some  of  our  most  judicious  merchants,  to  require 
an  impossibility  :  for  as  this  article  is  so  heavy,  and  such  small 
quantities  can  be  sent  in  one  vessel,  they  assert,  that  we  cannot 
find  freight  directly  home  for  one  half  of  it.   .   .   . 

But  it  is  unnecessary  to  endeavour  to  prove  by  reasoning  on  these 
things,  that  we  shall  siijfer,  for  we  already  suffer.  Trade  is  decay- 
ing ;  and  all  credit  is  expiring.  Money  is  become  so  extremely 
scarce,  that  reputable  freeholders  find  it  impossible  to  pay  debts 
which  are  trifling  in  comparison  to  their  estates.  If  creditors  sue, 
and  take  out  executions,  the  lands  and  personal  estate,  as  the  sale 
must  be  for  ready  money,  are  sold  for  a  small  part  of  what  they 
were  worth  when  the  debts  were  contracted.  The  debtors  are 
ruined.  The  creditors  get  but  part  of  their  debts,  and  that  ruins 
them.  Thus  the  consumers  break  the  shop-keepers  ;  they  break 
the  merchants  ;  and  the  shock  must  be  felt  as  far  as  London. 
Fortunate,  indeed,  is  the  man  who  can  get  satisfaction  ///  money 
for  any  part  of  his  debt,  in  some  counties  ;  for  in  many  instances, 
after  lands  and  goods  have  been  repeatedly  advertised  in  the  pub- 
lic gazettes,  and  exposed  to  sale,  not  a  buyer  appears. 

By  these  means  multitudes  are  already  ruined,  and  the  estates 
of  others  are  melting  away  in  the  same  manner.  It  must  strike 
any  one  with  great  surprize  and  concern,  to  hear  of  the  number  of 
debtors  discharged  every  court  by  our  insolvent  act.  Though  our 
courts  are  held  every  quarter,  yet  at  the  last  term  for  the  county 
of  PltiladelpJiia  alone,  no  less  than  thirty-five  persons  applied  for 
the  benefit  of  that  act.  If  it  be  considered,  that  this  law  extends 
only  to  those  who  do  not  owe  any  single  debt  above  ^150,  that 
many  are  daily  released  by  the  lenity  of  their  creditors,  and  that 
many  more  remove,  without  their  knowledge,  it  will  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  form  a  judgment  of  the  condition  to  which  the  people  are 
reduced. 

If  these  effects  are  produced  already,  what  can  we  expect,  when 
the  same  causes  shall  have  operated  longer  }    What  can  we  expect. 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO  THE  REVOLUTION     133 

when  the  exhausted  eolonies  shall  feel  the  STAMP  ACT  drawing 
off,  as  it  were,  the  last  drops  of  their  blood  ?  j^'rom  whence  is  the 
silver  to  come  with  which  the  taxes  imposed  b)-  this  act,  and  the 
duties  imposed  by  other  late  acts,  are  to  be  paid  ?  Or  how  will 
our  merchants  and  the  lower  nDiks  of  people,  on  whom  the  force 
of  these  regulations  will  fall  first,  and  with  the  greatest  violence, 
bear  this  additional  load  ?   .   .   . 

^  The  publication  of  orders  for  the  strict  execution  of  the 
Molasses  Act  has  caused  a  greater  alarm  in  this  country  than  the 
taking  of  Fort  William  Henry  did  in  1757.  Petitions  from 
the  trading  towns  have  been  presented  to  the  General  Court ;  and 
a  large  Committee  of  both  Houses  is  sitting  ever)^  day  to  prepare 
instructions  for  their  Agent.  In  the  mean  time,  the  Merchants 
say,  There  is  an  end  of  the  trade  in  this  Province  ;  that  it  is  sacri- 
ficed to  the  West  Indian  Planters  ;  that  it  is  time  for  ever)'  prudent 
man  to  get  out  of  debt  with  Great  Britain  as  fast  as  he  can,  and 
betake  himself  to  husbandry,  and  be  content  with  such  coarse 
manufactures  as  this  countiy  will  produce.  This  is  now  the  com- 
mon talk  wherever  one  goes  ;  and  it  is  certain,  that  whatever 
detrinTeht  the  continuation  and  strict  execution  of  the  Molasses 
Act  will  bring  to  the  trade  of  NortJi  Anieriea  (and  surely  more  or 
less  it  will  bring),  it  will  soon  come  home  to  Great  Britcun  ;  «"nd 
tber»  the  British  Merchants  will  see  their  imprudence  in  sitting 
still  as  unconcerned  spectators,  wiiilst  the  West  Indians  are  con- 
fining the  trade  of  this  extensive  and  improving  countr)-  within 
their  own  narrow  and  unextensible  circle.  For  nothing  is  more 
plain,  than  that  if  the  exports  of  North  Anieriea  are  diminished 
(be  it  by  one  fourth,  one  third,  or  one  lialf),  her  imports  from 
Great  Britaiti  must  be  lessened  in  the  same  proportion.  To  ai)ply 
this  to  a  fact:  last  year  were  imported  into  this  Province  15,000 
hogsheads  of  molasses,  all  of  which,  except  less  than  500,  came 
from  Ports,  which  are  now  Foreign.  The  value  of  this,  at  is.  4d. 
a  gallon  (which  is  a  middling  price  as  sold  out  of  merchants  store- 
houses) is  100,000  pounds  sterling;  to  purchase  which,  fish  and 

1  Bernard,  Select  Letters  on  the  Trade  and  Covernmcnt  of  America  [January  7, 
1764],  pp.  9-1 1. 


134       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

lumber  of  near  the  same  value  must  be  sent  from  hence.  Now 
suppose  this  trade  prohibited  (for  a  duty  of  ^o  per  cent,  amounts 
to  a  prohibition)  the  consequences  must  be,  that  this  Province 
must  import  100,000  pounds  less  of  British  goods  ;  and  there  is 
an  entire  loss  of  100,000  pounds  (the  fish  and  lumber  coming 
from  an  inexhaustible  store)  worth  of  goods  to  the  general  British 
Empire,  besides  the  loss  of  trade  and  decrease  of  shipping ;  and 
this  annual,  in  one  Province,  and  in  one  article  of  trade  only.  Is 
there  not  therefore  just  cause  of  alarm  from  the  apprehensions  of 
the  probability  or  possibility  of  such  consequences  .■*  If  it  should 
be  proposed  to  try  the  experiment  for  two  or  three  years  only ; 
first  let  it  be  considered,  that  the  experiment  itself,  if  it  turns  out 
as  is  expected,  will  cost  Great  Britain  many  hundred  thousand 
pounds.  But  this  is  not  all  :  if,  after  the  experiment  has  been 
made,  it  should  be  thought  proper  to  restore  the  North  Americans 
to  the  freedom  of  this  trade,  is  it  certain  that,  after  an  interruption 
of  two  or  three  years,  it  can  be  recovered  again  }  Is  it  not  probable, 
that  in  the  interim  the  Forrign  Plantations  may  get  supplied  from 
other  parts  (viz.  low-priced  fish  from  the  French  fisheries,  lumber 
from  the  East  side  of  the  Mississippi ;)  and  when  the  North 
Anicj'icans  have  leave  again  to  resort  to  the  Foreign  Ports,  they 
may  find  them  shut  against  them  }  When  the  sale  of  French 
Molasses  to  the  North  Americans  is  prohibited,  may  it  not  be  the 
cause  of  procuring  the  French  planters  liberty  to  distil  it  them- 
selves .''  And  if  this  valuable  trade,  which  takes  from  us  what  no 
other  markets  will  receive,  and  returns  to  us  what  ultimately  centers 
in  Great  Britain,  should,  by  making  experiments,  be  destroyed  ; 
would  it  not  be  the  case  of  the  man  whose  curiosity  (or  expectation 
of  extraordinary  present  gain)  killucl  the  goose  who  laid  him  the 
golden  eggs  }  Surely  it  is  not  an  idle  or  groundless  fear  which 
makes  thinking  people  dread  the  consequences  of  continuing  and 
enforcins:  this  Act. 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO  THE  REVoLrrioX      1-5 

1  J^ctition  of  CoNiiri/  and  House  of  Rcprcsoitativcs,  to  the 
Honorable  House  of  Cojinnons,  November  ^,  I76j. 

To  the  Honorable  the  Commons  of  Great  Britain,  in  I'arliament 
assembled. 

The  petition  of  the  Council  and  House  of  Representatives  of  his 
Majesty's  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 

Most  humbly  sheweth, 

That  the  act,  passed  in  the  last  session  of  Parliament,  entitled 
"  an  act  for  i;ranting  certain  duties  in  the  British  colonies  and 
plantations  in  America,"  &c.,  must  necessarily  brin<;-  many  burdens 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  these  colonies  and  plantations,  which  \-our 
petitioners  conceive  would  not  have  been  imjjosed,  if  a  full  repre- 
sentation of  the  state  of  the  colonies  had  been  made  to  your 
honorable  House  — 

That  the  duties  laid  upon  foreign  sugars  and  molasses  by  a 
former  act  of  Parliament,  entitled  "an  act  for  the  better  securing 
and  encouraging  the  trade  of  his  Majesty's  sugar  colonics  in 
America,"  if  the  act  had  been  executed  with  rigor,  must  ha\-e  had 
the  effect  of  an  absolute  prohibition  — 

That  the  duties  laid  on  those  articles  by  the  present  act  still 
remain  so  great,  that,  how'ever  otherwise  intended,  the5'  must 
undoubtedly  have  the  same  effect  — 

That  the  importation  of  foreign  molasses  into  this  Province  in 
particular,  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  a  prohibition  will  be 
prejudicial  to  many  branches  of  its  trade,  and  will  lessen  the  con- 
sumption of  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain  — 

That  this  importance  does  not  arise  merely,  nor  principally, 
from  the  necessity  of  foreign  molasses  in  order  to  its  being  con- 
sumed or  distilled  wdthin  the  Province  — 

That  if  the  trade,  for  many  years  carried  on,  for  foreign 
molasses,  can  be  no  longer  continued,  a  vent  cannot  be  found  for 

1  Speeches  of  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  from  1765  to  1775,  etc.,  pp.  21- 
22.  For  evidence  that  the  commercial  depression  continued  after  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  see  Preamble  to  the  non-importation  agreement  entered  into  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Boston  in  1768  on  p.  149 ;  also  Anderson,  Origin  of  Commerce. 
IV,  1 18-1 19.  If  economic  depression  existed  in  the  southern  colonies,  it  could  not 
have  been  produced  by  the  trade  restrictions,  but  its  existence  would  make  the 


136        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

more  than  one  half  the  fish  of  inferior  quahty  which  are  caught 
and  cured  b)-  the  inhabitants  of  the  Province,  the  French  not  per- 
mittini;  fish  to  be  carried  by  foreigners  to  any  of  their  islands,  un- 
less it  be  bartered  or  exchanged  for  molasses  — 

That  if  there  be  no  sale  of  fish  of  inferior  quality,  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  continue  the  fishery ;  the  fish  usually  sent  to  Europe 
will  then  cost  so  dear,  that  the  F'rench  will  be  able  to  undersell  the 
English  at  all  the  liuropean  markets  ;  and  by  this  means  one  of 
the  most  valuable  returns  to  Great  Britain  will  be  utterly  lost,  and 
that  great  nursery  of  seamen  destroyed  — 

That  the  restraints  laid  upon  the  expoitation  of  timber,  boards, 
staves  and  other  lumber  from  the  colonies  to  Ireland  and  other 
parts  of  Europe,  except  Great  Britain,  must  greatly  affect  the  trade 
of  this  Province,  and  discourage  the  clearing  and  improving  of  the 
lands  which  are  yet  uncultivated  — 

That  the  powers  given  by  the  late  act  to  the  court  of  vice 
admiralty,  instituted  over  all  America,  are  so  expressed  as  to  leave 
it  doubtful,  whether  goods  seized  for  illicit  importation  in  any  one 
of  the  colonies  may  not  be  removed,  in  order  to  trial,  to  any  other 
colony,  w'here  the  judge  may  reside,  although  at  many  hundred 
miles  distance  from  the  place  of  seizure  — 

That  if  this  construction  should  be  admitted,  many  persons, 
however  legally  their  goods  may  have  been  imported,  must  lose 
their  property,  merely  from  an  inability  of  following  after  it,  and 
making  that  defence  w^hich  they  might  do,  if  the  trial  had  been  in 
the  colony  w^here  the  goods  were  seized  — 

That  this  construction  would  be  so  much  the  more  grievous, 
seeing  that  in  America  the  officers,  by  this  act,  are  indemnified  in 
case  of  seizure,  whenever  the  judge  of  admiralty  shall  certify  that 
there  was  probable  cause  ;  and  the  claimant  can  neither  have  costs 
nor  maintain  an  action  against  the  person  seizing,  how  much  so- 
ever he  may  have  expended  in  defence  of  his  property  — 

That  the  extension  of  the  powers  of  courts  of  vice  admiralty 
has,    so  far   as   the   jurisdiction   of   the   said    courts    hath    been 

people  more  inclined  to  political  opposition  to  the  mother  country.  There  is 
abundance  of  evidence  that  economic  depression  did  exist  among  the  planters  of 
Virginia  at  least.    See  Burnaby's  Travels,  and  American  Husbandry,  on  pp.  22-25. 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  TO  THE  REVOLUTION     137 

extended,  deprived  the  colonies  of  one  of  the  most  valuable  of 
English  liberties,  trials  by  juries  — .   ,   . 


B.   Social  Conditions  Unfavorable  to  Taxation 

^The  citizen  of  a  modern  well-organized  state  regards  taxation 
as  one  of  the  normal  experiences  of  life.  He  can  scarcely  imagine 
what  life  would  be  without  it,  and  he  hears  with  astonishment  of 
people  who  were  civilized,  yet  did  not  need  to  be  taxed,  were  not 
taxed,  and  refused  to  be  taxed  as  passionately  as  we  refuse  to  be 
robbed.    The  situation,  however,  is  not  difficult  to  realize. 

In  a  country  which  had  no  civilized  neighbours,  and  in  which 
the  population  was  scattered  in  isolated  farms  and  plantations, 
each  household  lived  upon  its  own  piece  of  ground.  In  the 
northern  colonies  each  farmstead  almost  sufficed  for  itself.  In 
the  southern  colonies,  where  indigo,  tobacco,  and  rice  were  pro- 
duced, there  was  more  constant  and  direct  intercourse  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  dependence  upon  it.  For  this  reason  the 
English  writers  spoke  of  the  northern  colonies  as  poor  or  as  use- 
less to  the  empire.  In  either  case,  however,  upon  the  farmstead 
or  the  plantation  the  owner  lived  in  slight  relations  with  any  of 
his  fellowmen  but  his  immediate  neighbours.  If  he  and  they 
needed  defence,  they  had  to  defend  themselves  ;  they  could  not 
without  difficulty  and  with  little  result  call  upon  any  larger  political 
body  for  protection.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  therefore,  a  man  got 
nothing  from  the  Commonwealth  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
except  the  regulation  and  enforcement  of  contracts  and  the 
settlement  of  disputes  under  general  regulations  of  law  and  by 
established  tribunals. 

Outside  of  the  farm  production  and  the  household  mechanical 
industries,  the  school,  the  church,  and  two,  or  three  mechanical 
employments,  like  blacksmithing  and  wagon-making,  were  the 
only  social  ties  of  the  industrial  organization.  It  was  when  it 
became  necessary  to  obtain  supplies  of  iron  and   other  metals, 

1  Sumner,  The  Financier  and  the  Finances  of  the  American  Revolution,  I,  11- 
12,  14-15,  24-25,  27.  Printed  by  permission  of  the  author  and  pubhshers,  Dodd, 
Mead,  and  Company. 


138       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

salt,  spices,  tea,  coffee,  and  sugar,  that  the  freeholders  were 
forced  into  exchange  opeilations  for  their  supplies. 

Such  being  the  general  characteristics  of  the  situation,  the 
individual  saw  little  reason  why  he  should  pay  anything  to  the 
Commonwealth,  which  to  him  was  only  an  abstraction,  or,  if  he 
tried  to  make  it  concrete,  was  only  a  group  of  office-holders  whom 
hie  never  had  seen.  They  appeared  to  come  to  him,  or  to  enter 
into  his  life,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  take  a  part  of  his  prod- 
uct for  which  he  received  no  return.  Hence  we  find  the  Ameri^ 
can  colonies  resisting  taxation  in  a  way  which  to  the  modern  man 
seems  childish  and  ignorant.  In  the  quarrel  with  Great  Britain 
a  great  deal  was  made  of  the  principle  of  tiixation  ;  but,  as  usual, 
the  declaration  about  the  principles  only  covered  the  real  question  of 
interest.    What  they  objected  to  was  parting  with  their  products.  .  .  . 

Modern  systems  of  taxation  under  a  high  organization  reach 
commodities  in  transfer.  The  colonists  could  not  use  those  taxes 
except  for  tobacco,  and  spirits,  or  salt ;  that  is,  commodities  which 
could  not  be  produced  in  households  economically.  All  these 
taxes,  however,  were  inquisitorial  and  direct ;  and  the  collection 
of  them,  in  a  country  with  a  sparse  population,  was  very  expensive 
and  difficult.  Morris  wrote  to  Jefferson  in  1784  that  the  expense 
of  collecting  taxes  in  this  country  was  greater  than  in  almost  any 
other.  These  were  very  serious  obstacles  to  the  imposition  of  any 
taxes  of  the  kind  we  have  described,  so  that,  in  a  sense,  it  might 
be  said  that  taxation  did  not  pay.  A  further  difficulty  was  that  a 
community  of  the  kind  we  have  described  had  very  little  occasion 
for  the  use  of  money.  A  tax,  however,  was  a  direct  call  for 
money  ;  that  is,  it  called  for  what  the  farmer  had  not.  Hence  we 
find  that  paper  money  was  constantly  called  for  and  excused  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  needed  to  pay  taxes,  and  currency  and 
taxes  appear  in  a  constant  combination. 

There  were  therefore  real  reasons  for  the  social  friction  which 
was  always  produced  by  taxation,  and  it  required  ingenuity  to 
devise  means  of  obtaining  a  revenue  from  a  colonial  community. 
The  easiest  and  best  means  was  by  import  duties  on  spices,  sugar, 
tea,  coffee,  wine,  and  spirits.  The  next  best  plan  was  by  some 
means    which    should    reach    those   operations    of  the   courts  of 


INFLUENCES  LEADINC;  'IT)  THE  REVOLUTION     139 

justice  in  the  enforcement  of  contracts  and  settlement  of  disputes, 
which,  as  we  have  seen  above,  were  real  services  rendered  by  the 
Commonwealth.  The  colonists  were  always  extremely  litigious. 
The  transfers  of  freeholds  were  very  frequent,  conveyancing  being  ' 
very  simple.  The  Stamp  Act  Congress  alleged  this  fact  as  an 
argument  why  the  stiunp  tax  was  oppressive,  but  it  was  also  the 
reason  why  the  tax  was  effective  for  revenue  purposes.  Import 
duties,  however,  had  the  great  convenience  and  the  great  advan- 
tage, in  a  political  point  of  view,  that  they  could  be  levied  in  bulk 
at  the  seaports,  and  that  the  tax-collector  and  the  tax-payer  never 
came  face  to  face.  The  English  government  laid  import  duties  by 
a  number  of  Acts  from  the  25  th  of  Charles  Second  on,  so  that  in 
the  controversies  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  some  of  the 
writers  on  the  English  side  declared  that  the  American  assertions 
that  they  had  never  been  taxed  by  themselves,  were  false.  In 
the  Congress  of  1774,  R.  H.  Lee  reckoned  the  revenue  actually 
raised  from  America  at  ;^8o,ooo  sterling.  When  first  a  federal 
revenue  was  necessary,  import  duties  presented  themselves  imme- 
diately as  the  most  convenient  way  to  get  it.   .   .   . 

When  the  war  broke  out,  the  payment  of  the  import  duties, 
tonnage  taxes,  and  port  dues  to  Great  Britain,  which  amounted, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  ^80,000  per  annum,  speedily  ceased.  In  the 
States  which  underwent  a  revolutionary  change  the  revolutionaiy 
legislatures  did  not  venture  on  any  taxation  for  two  or  three  years. 
Therefore  the  outbreak  of  the  war  caused  the  cessation  of  that 
little  taxation  which  had  existed,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the 
Federal  Constitution  was  adopted  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  paid  a  tax  for  federal  purposes  equal  to  the  import  duties 
which  they  had  paid  under  the  British  nile. 

A  modern  writer  has  said  :  "As  to  taxation,  it  was  ridiculous  to 
believe  that  the  people  would  submit  to  the  creature  of  their  own 
making  the  powers  which  they  had  denied  to  Parliament ;  and 
even  an  attempt  at  such  a  measure  might  at  this  stage  have  proved 
of  so  unpopular  a  nature  as  to  be  attended  with  the  downfall  of 
Congress."  Although  it  may  sound  strange  that  a  modern  writer 
should  sympathize  with  the  revolutionary  standpoint,  the  statement 
undoubtedly  expresses  the  view  of  Congress  in  the  early  years  of 


I40       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

the  Revolution.  The  Americans  would  not  pay  any  taxes  which 
were  levied  upon  them  by  a  Parliament  in  which  they  were  not 
represented,  and  they  would  not  pay  any  which  were  levied  by  a 
"  creature  of  their  own  making  "  ;  that  is,  they  would  not  pay  any 
at  all.    This  describes  the  situation  faithfully.   .   .   . 

In  P'ranklin's  instructions,  which  were  prepared  in  October, 
1778,  excuses  are  made  for  the  neglect  of  taxation.  It  is  said 
that  America  had  never  been  much  taxed,  nor  for  a  continued 
length  of  time,  ""and  the  contest  being  upon  the  very  question  of 
taxation^  the  laying  of  imposts,  unless  from  the  last  necessity, 
would  have  been  madness."  This  extract  from  a  serious  docu- 
ment, intended  to  be  read  by  the  F"rench  authorities,  throws  the 
strongest  light  on  the  state  of  mind  in  which  the  public  men  of 
the  country  were  at  that  time  with  respect  to  taxation.  The  alliance 
had  then  been  formed,  and  Frenchmen  were  liable  to  taxation  in 
order  to  execute  its  purposes.  Congress,  instead  of  resolutely 
taking  the  necessary  measures  for  success,  presents  an  excuse, 
which  could  not  have  been  valid  unless  it  had  been  assumed  that 
taxation  was  an  arbitraiy  and  unnecessaiy  exaction  which  might 
be  escaped  altogether.   .   .   , 

C.  Partial  Spirit  of  Colonial  Policy  revealed  by 
Controversy 

^  The  colonists  being  thus  greatly  alarmed,  as  I  said  before,  by 
the  news  of  the  act  for  abolishing  the  legislature  of  New  York, 
and  the  imposition  of  these  new  duties,  professedly  for  such  dis- 
agreeable purposes,  (accompanied  by  a  new  set  of  revenue  officers, 
with  large  appointments,  which  gave  strong  suspicions  that  more 
business  of  the  same  kind  was  soon  to  be  provided  for  them,  that 
tliey  might  earn  their  salaries,)  began  seriously  to  consider  their 
situation  ;  and  to  revolve  afresh  in  their  minds  grievances,  which, 
from  their  respect  and  love  for  this  country,  they  had  long  borne, 
and  seemed  almost  willing  to  forget. 

1  Franklin,  Causes  of  the  American  Discontent  before  1768,  in  Works,  IV, 
249-251.  This  extract  describes  accurately  the  process  by  which  the  people  grad- 
ually came  to  regard  the  commercial  policy  of  England  as  burdensome  and 
tyrannical  after  having  lived  under  it  for  a  century  without  serious  complaint. 


INFLUENCES  LEADING  'J'O  THE  REVOLUTION     141 

They  reflected  how  Hghtly  the  interest  of  all  America  had  been 
estimated  here,  when  the  interests  of  a  few  of  the  inhaliitants  of 
Great  Britain  happened  to  have  the  smallest  competition  with  it. 
That  the  whole  American  people  was  forbidden  the  advantage  of 
a  direct  importation  of  wine,  oil,  and  fruit,  from  Portugal,  but  must 
take  them  loaded  with  all  the  expense  of  a  voyage  one  thousand 
leagues  round  about,  being  to  be  landed  first  in  England,  to  be 
re-shipped  for  America ;  expenses  amounting,  in  war  time  at 
least,  to  thirty  pounds  per  cent  more  than  otherwise  they  would 
have  been  charged  with  ;  and  all  this,  merely  that  a  few  Portugal 
merchants  in  London  may  gain  a  commission  on  those  goods 
passing  through  their  hands  (Portugal  merchants,  by  the  by,  that 
can  complain  loudly  of  the  smallest  hardships  laid  on  their  trade 
by  foreigners,  and  yet,  even  in  the  last  year,  could  oppose  with  all 
their  influence  the  giving  ease  to  their  fellow  subjects  laboring 
under  so  heavy  an  oppression  !).  That,  on  a  slight  complaint  of 
a  few  Virginia  merchants,  nine  colonies  had  been  restrained  from 
making  paper  money,  become  absolutely  necessary  to  their  in- 
ternal commerce,  from  the  constant  remittance  of  their  gold  and 
silver  to  Britain. 

But  not  only  the  interest  of  a  particular  body  of  merchants, 
but  the  interest  of  any  small  body  of  British  tradesmen  or  arti- 
ficers, has  been  found,  they  say,  to  outweigh  that  of  all  the  King's 
subjects  in  the  colonies.  There  cannot  be  a  stronger  natural  right 
than  that  of  a  man's  making  the  best  profit  he  can  of  the  natural 
produce  of  his  lands,  provided  he  does  not  thereby  hurt  the  state 
in  general.  Iron  is  to  be  found  everywhere  in  America,  and  the 
beaver  furs  are  the  natural  produce  of  that  country.  Hats,  and 
nails,  and  steel  are  wanted  there  as  well  as  here.  It  is  of  no 
importance  to  the  common  welfare  of  the  empire,  whether  a  subject 
of  the  King's  obtains  his  living  by  making  hats  on  this  or  on  that 
side  of  the  water.  Yet  the  hatters  of  England  have  prevailed  to 
obtain  an  act  in  their  own  favor,  restraining  that  manufacture  in' 
America ;  in  order  to  oblige  the  Americans  to  send  their  beaver 
to  England  to  be  manufactured,  and  purchase  back  the  hats,  loaded 
with  the  charges  of  double  transportation.  In  the  same  manner 
have  a  few  nail-makers,  and  a  still  smaller  body  of  steel-makers 


142       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

(perhaps  there  are  not  half  a  dozen  of  these  in  England),  prevailed 
totally  to  forbid  b\-  an  act  of  Parliament  the  erecting  of  slitting- 
mills,  or  steel-furnaces,  in  America  ;  that  the  Americans  may  be 
obliged  to  take  all  their  nails  for  their  buildings,  and  steel  for 
their  tools,  from  these  artificers,  under  the  same  disadvantages. 

II.    RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRUGGLE 
A.    The  Issue  of  Paper  Money 

^  .  .  .  When  Great  Britain  commenced  the  present  war  upon 
the  colonies,  they  had  neither  arms  nor  ammunition,  nor  money 
to  purchase  them  or  pay  soldiers.  The  new  government  had  not 
immediately  the  consistence  necessaiy  for  collecting  heavy  taxes  ; 
nor  would  taxes  that  could  be  raised  within  the  year  during  peace, 
have  been  sufficient  for  a  year's  expense  in  time  of  war  ;  they  there- 
fore printed  a  quantity  of  paper  bills,  each  expressing  to  be  of  the 
value  of  a  certain  number  of  Spanish  dollars,  from  one  to  thirty ; 
with  these  they  paid,  clothed,  and  fed  their  troops,  fitted  out  ships, 
and  supported  the  war  during  five  years  against  one  of  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  Europe. 

The  paper  thus  issued,  passed  current  in  all  the  internal  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  at  par  with  silver  during  the  first  year  ; 
supplying  the  place  of  the  gold  and  silver  formerly  current,  but 
which  was  sent  out  of  the  country  to  purchase  arms,  &c.,  or  to 
defray  expenses  of  the  army  in  Canada  ;  but  the  great  number  of 
troops  necessary  to  be  kept  on  foot  to  defend  a  coast  of  near  five 
hundred  leagues  in  length,  from  an  enemy,  who,  being  masters  at 
sea,  could  land  troops  where  they  pleased,  occasioned  such  a  de- 
mand for  money,  and  such  frequent  additional  emissions  of  new 
bills,  that  the  quantity  became  much  greater  than  was  wanted  for 
the  purposes  of  commerce  ;  and,  the  commerce  being  diminished 
by  the  war,  the  surplus  quantity  of  cash  was  by  that  means  also 
proportionally  augmented. 

.  .  .  Thus  the  excessive  quantities  which  necessity  obliged  the 
Americans  to  issue  for  continuing  the  war,  occasioned  a  depreci- 
ation of  value,  which,  commencing  toward  the  end  of  1776,  has 

1  Franklin,  The  Paper  Money  of  the  United  States,  in  Works,  II,  421-422,  424. 


rksourcf:s  for  carrving  on   iiii-:  s'irii(](;le  143 

gone  on  augmcnling,  till  ;il  the  beginning  of  tlie  ])resent  year 
(1780?)  fifty,  sixty,  and  as  far  as  seventy  dollars  in  jxiper  were 
reekoned  not  more  than  equal  to  one  dollar  in  silver,  and  the 
prices  of  all  things  rose  in  proportion.   .   .   . 

The  general  effect  of  the  depreciation  among  tlie  inhabitants  of 
the  States  has  been  this,  that  it  has  operated  as  a  gradual  tax 
upon  them,  their  business  has  been  done  and  paid  for  by  the  paper 
money,  and  every  man  has  paid  his  share  of  the  tax  according 
to  the  time  he  retained  any  of  the  money  in  his  hands,  and  to  the 
depreciation  within  that  time.  Thus  it  has  proved  a  tax  on  money, 
a  kind  of  'property  very  difficult  to  be  taxed  in  any  other  mode  ; 
and  it  has  fallen  more  equally  than  many  other  taxes,  as  those 
people  paid  most,  who,  being  richest,  had  most  money  passing 
through  their  hands. 

B.    Commerce  as  a  Political  Influence  —  the  Non- 
Importation  Associations 

^  The  first  use  which  the  colonies  made  of  commerce  in  connec- 
tion with  the  disputes  with  the  mother  country  was  as  an  engine 
of  coercion.  According  to  the  ideas  of  the  time.  Great  Britain 
made  great  profits  out  of  the  colonies  in  the  way  of  trade.  The 
colonies  had  always,  in  words  at  least,  recognized  this  and  acqui- 
esced in  it.  In  fact,  they  had  always  resisted  and  evaded  it,  so  far 
as  it  was  true  ;  that  is,  so  far  as  their  trade  was  confined  to  Eng- 
land against  their  interests.  So  far  as  their  trade  with  England 
was  consistent  with  their  interests,  the  notion  that  England  won 
any  profit  from  them  by  holding  them  in  a  colonial  relation  fell 
to  the  ground.  This  was  distinctly  proved  after  the  war,  when  the 
trade  of  America  almost  all  returned  to  England,  because  that 
trade  offered  greater  profits  and  advantages  than  any  other. 

The  notion  of  the  times,  however,  was  that  trade  was  a  thing ; 
that  it  could  be  appropriated  and  made  a  property  ;  that  "  the  trade 
of  the  colonies  "  was  a  concrete  entity  which  could  be  disposed  of 
in  one  way  or  another,  —  for  instance,  taken  from  luighmd  and 

1  Sumner,  The  Financier  and  the  Finances  of  the  American  Revolution,  I, 
103-105.  Printed  by  permission  of  the  author  and  pubHshers,  Dodd,  Mead,  and 
Company. 


144       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

given  to  France,  or  conquered  by  one  nation  from  another.  The 
colonists  themselves  had  been  brought  up  in  this  view,  and  always 
affirmed  it  in  public  discussions  and  literature  ;  but  privately  and 
individually  they  acted  entirely  upon  the  assumption  that  the  trade 
of  the  colonies  was  only  an  aggregate  name  for  a  group  of  rela- 
tions, each  one  of  which  was  a  relation  between  a  buyer  and  seller, 
who  made  an  exchange  with  each  other  simply  and  solely  for  the 
mutual  advantage  of  the  individuals  concerned. 

If,  now,  the  trade  of  the  colonies  was  a  thing  of  value,  which 
could  be  conquered,  sold,  transferred,  or  given  away,  the  colonists 
most  naturally  thought  that  they  could  dispose  of  it  themselves  as 
a  consideration,  by  means  of  which  to  obtain  political  and  other 
good  things  which  they  wanted  ;  or  that  by  withholding  it  from 
the  mother  country,  they  could  coerce  her.  This  was  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  association  for  non-importation,  non-exportation  and 
non-consumption  ;  in  short,  of  commercial  war. 

^  The  expectation  of  a  rupture  with  the  colonies,  accordingly, 
has  struck  the  people  of  Great  Britain  with  more  terror  than  they 
ever  felt  for  a  Spanish  armada,  or  a  French  invasion.  It  was  this 
terror,  whether  well  or  ill  grounded,  which  rendered  the  repeal  of 
the  stamp  act,  among  the  merchants  at  least,  a  popular  measure. 
In  the  total  exclusion  from  the  colony  market,  was  it  to  last  only 
for  a  few  years,  the  greater  part  of  our  merchants  used  to  fancy 
that  they  foresaw  an  entire  stop  to  their  trade  ;  the  greater  part  of 
our  master  manufacturers,  the  entire  ruin  of  their  business  ;  and 
the  greater  part  of  our  workmen  an  end  of  their  employment.  A 
rupture  with  any  of  our  neighbours  upon  the  continent,  though 
likely  too  to  occasion  some  stop  or  interruption  in  the  employ- 
ments of  some  of  all  these  different  orders  of  people,  is  foreseen, 
however,  without  any  such  general  emotion. 

1  Wealth  of  Nations,  l>k.  IV,  ch.  vii. 


RESOURCES   I'OR  (ARRVINC;  ON  THE  S'l'Rl'CKlLE    145 

Petitions  in  Pa rli anient  against  the  American  Stamp  Act, 
January  I  J,  iy66 

^  A  petition  of  the  merchants  of  London,  trading-  to  North 
America,  was  presented  to  the   I  louse,  and  read  ;  setting  forth  ; 

"That  the  petitioners  have  been  long  concerned  in  carpy'ing  on 
the  trade  between  this  country  and  the  British  colonies  on  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America  ;  and  that  they  have  annually  exported 
vei-)'  large  quantities  of  British  manufactures,  consisting  of  woollen 
goods  of  all  kinds,  cottons,  linens,  hardware,  shoes,  household  fur- 
niture, and  almost  without  exception  of  every  other  species  of  goods 
manufactured  in  these  kingdoms,  besides  other  articles  imported 
from  abroad,  chiefly  purchased  with  our  manufactures  and  with  the 
produce  of  our  colonies  ;  by  all  which,  many  thousand  manufactur- 
ers, seamen  and  labourers,  have  been  employed,  to  the  very  great 
and  increasing  benefit  of  this  nation  ;  and  that,  in  return  for  these 
exports,  the  petitioners  have  received  from  the  colonies,  rice,  indigo, 
tobacco,  naval  stores,  oil,  whale  fins,  furs,  and  lately  potash,  with 
other  commodities,  besides  remittances  by  bills  of  exchange  and 
bullion,  obtained  by  the  colonists  in  payment  for  articles  of  their 
produce,  not  required  for  the  British  market,  and  therefore  ex- 
ported to  other  places  ;  and  that,  from  the  nature  of  this  trade, 
consisting  of  British  manufactures  exported,  and  of  the  import  of 
raw  materials  from  America,  many  of  them  used  in  our  manufac- 
tures, and  all  of  them  tending  to  lessen  our  dependence  on  neigh- 
bouring states,  it  must  be  deemed  of  the  highest  importance  in  the 
.commercial  system  of  this  nation  ;  and  that  this  commerce,  so  bene- 
ficial to  the  state,  and  so  necessary  for  the  support  of  multitudes, 
now  lies  under  such  difficulties  and  discouragement,  that  nothing 
less  than  its  utter  ruin  is  apprehended,  without  the  immediate 
interposition  of  parliament ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  the  trade 
between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country,  as  established  and 
as  permitted  for  many  years,  and  of  the  experience  which  the  peti- 
tioners have  had  of  the  readiness  of  the  Americans  to  make  their 
just  remittances  to  the  utmost  of  their  real  ability,  they  have  been 

1  Hansard,  The  Parliamentary  History  of  England  [1765-1771],  XVI,  133-136. 


146       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

induced  to  make  and  venture  such  large  exportations  of  British 
manufactures,  as  to  leave  the  colonies  indebted  to  the  merchants 
of  Great  Britain  in  the  sum  of  several  millions  sterling ;  and  that 
at  this  time  the  colonists,  when  pressed  for  payment,  appeal  to 
past  experience,  in  proof  of  their  willingness ;  but  declare  it  is 
not  in  their  power,  at  present,  to  make  good  their  engagements, 
alleging,  that  the  taxes  and  restrictions  laid  upon  them,  and  the 
extension  of  the  jurisdiction  of  vice  admiralty  courts  established  by 
some  late  acts  of  parliament,  particularly  by  an  act  passed  in  the 
fourth  year  of  his  present  Majesty,  for  granting  certain  duties  in 
the  British  colonies  and  plantations  in  America,  and  by  an  act 
passed  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  present  Majesty,  for  granting  and 
applying  certain  stamp  duties,  and  other  duties,  in  the  British 
colonies  and  plantations  in  America,  with  several  regulations  and 
restraints,  which,  if  founded  in  acts  of  parliament  for  defined  pur- 
poses, are  represented  to  have  been  extended  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  disturb  legal  commerce  and  harass  the  fair  trader,  have  so  far 
interrupted  the  usual  and  former  most  fruitful  branches  of  their 
commerce,  restrained  the  sale  of  their  produce,  thrown  the  state 
of  the  several  provinces  into  confusion,  and  brought  on  so  great  a 
number  of  actual  bankruptcies,  that  the  former  opportunities  and 
means  of  remittances  and  payments  are  utterly  lost  and  taken  from 
them  ;  and  that  the  petitioners  are,  by  these  unhappy  events,  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  applying  to  the  House,  in  order  to  secure 
themselves  and  their  families  from  impending  ruin  ;  to  prevent  a 
multitude  of  manufacturers  from  becoming  a  burthen  to  the  com- 
munity, or  else  seeking  their  bread  in  other  countries,  to  the  irre- 
trievable loss  of  this  kingdom  ;  and  to  preserve  the  strength  of  this 
nation  entire,  its  commerce  flourishing,  the  revenues  increasing, 
our  navigation,  the  bulwark  of  the  kingdom,  in  a  state  of  growth 
and  extension,  and  the  colonies,  from  inclination,  duty,  and  inter- 
est, firmly  attached  to  the  mother  country  ;  and  therefore  praying 
the  consideration  of  the  premises,  and  entreating  such  relief,  as  to 
the  House  shall  seem  expedient." 

This  Petition  was  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the  whole  House, 
as  were  also  the  following  petitions,  viz.  Of  the  master,  wardens, 
and  commonalty  of  the  society  of  merchants  venturers  of  the  city 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  Till-:  STRUGGEE    147 

of  Bristol,  under  their  eommon  seal  ;  of  the  merchants,  tradesmen, 
and  manufacturers  of  the  same  city  ;  of  the  merchants  of  Liverpool, 
trading  to  and  from  America  and  the  coast  of  Africa  ;  of  the  mer- 
chants and  inhabitants  of  the  borough  of  Leeds,  trading  to  the  sev- 
eral colonies  of  North  America,  and  of  the  manufacturers  of  broad 
woollen  cloth,  and  sundry  other  assortments  of  woollen  goods,  manu- 
factured for  supplying  the  North  American  markets  ;  of  the  mer- 
chants of  Lancaster  trading  to  and  from  North  America  ;  of  the 
merchants,  manufacturers,  and  traders  of  the  town  of  Manchester, 
and  neighbourhood  thereof ;  of  the  manufacturers  of  the  town  and 
county  of  Leicester ;  and  of  the  clothiers  and  manufacturers  of 
superfine  broad  cloth,  in  the  town  of  Bradford  in  .Wiltshire  ;  all 
complaining  of  a  great  decay  in  the  trade  to  the  North  American 
colonies,  owing  to  the  late  obstructions  and  embarrassments  laid 
thereon,  and  praying  relief. 

And  afterwards  there  were  presented  to  the  House  and  read, 
and  referred  to  the  same  Committee,  the  following  Petitions,  viz. 
of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Frome ;  of  the  mer- 
chants, factors,  and  manufacturers  of  Birmingham  ;  of  the  mayor, 
bailiffs,  and  commonalty,  of  the  city  of  Coventry,  and  the  principal 
tradesmen  and  manufacturers  of  silk  ribbands  and  worsted  goods, 
in  and  near  the  said  city,  whose  common  seal  and  names  are  there- 
unto respectively  affixed,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  others  con- 
cerned in  the  same  manufactures  ;  of  the  merchants  and  dealers 
in  the  silk,  mohair,  and  button  manufactures,  residing  in  the  town 
of  Macclesfield  ;  of  the  merchants,  traders,  and  manufacturers  of 
Wolverhampton  ;  of  the  merchants,  traders,  and  manufacturers 
of  Stourbridge  ;  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  Dudley  ; 
of  the  tradesmen,  manufacturers,  &c.  of  the  borough  of  Mine- 
head  ;  of  the  mayor,  aldermen,  burgesses,  jorincijDal  inhabitants, 
and  traders,  in  the  woollen  manufactoiy  in  Taunton  ;  of  the  mas- 
ters, wardens,  and  commonalty,  of  blanket  weavers  in  Witney  ;  of 
the  mayor,  recorder,  aldermen,  sheriff,  and  commonalty,  of  the 
town  and  county  of  the  town  of  Newcastle  upon  Tyne  ;  of  the 
merchants  of  Glasgow  trading  to  North  America  ;  of  the  bailiff 
and  burgesses  of  Chippenham  ;  and  of  the  principal  tradesmen, 
manufacturers,  and  inhabitants,  of  the  town  of  Nottingham  ;  all 


148       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

containing  much  the  same  complaint  as  in  the  former  petitions, 
and  concluding  with  the  same  pra)'er. 

1  In  America,  the  quiet  which  began  to  take  place  upon  the  re- 
peal of  the  stamp  act  was  again  disturbed,  and  the  affairs  of  that 
country  again  fell  into  confusion.  The  laws  which  had  been  passed 
last  year,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  in  the  colonies  by 
the  laying  of  duties  on  the  importation  of  glass,  paper  and  some 
other  commodities  from  England,  and  the  consequent  establish- 
ment of  Custom-houses  in  their  ports,  have  been  productive  of 
very  alarming  disturbances  in  the  colonies,  and  of  consequences 
highly  prejudicial  to  the  commercial  interests  of  this  country.  It 
may  appear  unfortunate,  that,  after  the  recent  example  of  the  mis- 
chiefs that  attended  the  stamp  act,  and  the  consequent  repeal  of  it 
from  a  conviction  of  those  evils,  a  measure  of  a  similar  tendency 
should  be  so  suddenly  adopted,  before  the  ill  humours  that  had 
arisen  from  the  former  had  yet  subsided.  Much  has  been  said  pro 
and  con  on  this  subject,  and  most  of  the  arguments  already  used 
on  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act  have  been  repeated  ;  this  discussion 
will  properly  appear  in  our  next  volume,  when,  from  the  conse- 
quences attending  this  measure,  it  becomes  an  object  of  national 
and  parliamentary  consideration. 

The  first  public  instance  of  disgust  shewn  upon  this  occasion 
was  at  Boston,  where,  at  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  [1768], 
several  resolutions  were  entered  into  for  the  encouragement  of 
manufactures,  the  promoting  of  economy,  and  the  lessening  and 
restraining  the  use  of  foreign  superfluities.  These  resolutions,  all 
of  which  were  highly  prejudicial  to  the  commerce  of  this  countr)', 
contained  a  long  list  of  enumerated  articles,  which  it  was  either  de- 
termined not  to  use  at  all,  or  in  the  smallest  possible  quantities. 
A  subscription  was  opened  at  the  same  time,  and  a  committee  ap- 
pointed, for  the  encouragement  of  their  own  former  manufactures, 
and  the  establishment  of  new  ones.  Among  these,  it  was  resolved 
to  give  particular  encouragement  to  the  making  of  paper,  glass, 
and  the  other  commodities  that  were  liable  to  the  payment  of  the 
new  duties,  upon  importation.  It  was  also  resolved  to  restrain  the 
1  Annual  Register,  1768,  pp.  67-68,  235-237. 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRUGGLE    149 

expences  of  funerals,  to  reduce  dress  to  a  degree  of  primitive  sim- 
plicity and  plainness,  and  in  general  not  to  purchase  any  commod- 
ities from  the  mother  countiy,  that  could  be  procured  in  any  of 
the  Colonies. 

These  resolutions  were  adopted,  or  similar  ones  entered  into,  by 
all  the  old  Colonies  on  the  continent.  In  some  time  after  (February 
1 1,  176S)  a  circular  letter  was  sent  by  the  Assembly  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  signed  by  the  Speaker,  to  all  the  other  Assemblies  in 
North  America.  The  design  of  this  letter  was  to  shew  the  evil 
tendency  of  the  late  Acts  of  Parliament,  to  represent  them  as  un- 
constitutional, and  to  propose  a  common  union  between  the  Colonies, 
in  the  pursuit  of  all  legal  measures  to  prevent  their  effect,  and  a 
harmony  in  their  applications  to  Government  for  a  repeal  of  them. 
It  also  expatiated  largely  on  their  natural  rights  as  men,  and  their 
constitutional  ones  as  English  subjects  ;  all  of  which,  it  was  pre- 
tended, were  infringed  by  these  laws.   .   .   . 

Agreements  entered  into  by  the  Inliabitants  of  Boston 
and  New  York 

The  merchants  and  traders  in  the  town  of  Boston  having  taken 
into  consideration  the  deplorable  situation  of  the  trade,  and  the 
many  difificulties  it  at  present  labours  under  on  account  of  the  scar- 
city of  money,  which  is  daily  increasing  for  want  of  the  other  re- 
mittances to  discharge  our  debts  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  large 
sums  collected  by  the  officers  of  the-  customs  for  duties  on  goods 
imported  ;  the  heavy  taxes  levied  to  discharge  the  debts  contracted 
by  the  government  in  the  late  war  ;  the  embarrassments  and  re- 
strictions laid  on  trade  by  several  late  acts  of  parliament ;  together 
with  the  bad  success  of  our  cod  fishery,  by  which  our  principal 
sources  of  remittance  are  like  to  be  greatly  diminished,  and  we 
thereby  rendered  unable  to  pay  the  debts  we  owe  the  merchants  in 
Great  Britain,  and  to  continue  the  importation  of  goods  from  thence ; 

We,  the  subscribers,  in  order  to  relieve  the  trade  under  those 
discouragements,  to  promote  industry,  frugality,  and  economy,  and 
to  discourage  luxur\%  and  every  kind  of  extravagance,  do  promise 
and  engage  to  and  with  each  other  as  follows : 


I50 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


First,  That  we  will  not  send  for  or  import  from  Great  Britain, 
either  upon  our  own  account,  or  upon  commission,  this  fall,  any 
other  goods  than  what  are  already  ordered  for  the  fall  supply. 

Secondly,  That  we  will  not  send  for  or  import  any  kind  of  goods 
or  merchandize  from  Great  Britain,  either  on  our  own  account,  or 
on  commissions,  or  any  otherwise,  from  the  i  st  of  January  1 769, 
to  the  1st  of  January  1770,  except  salt,  coals,  fish-hooks  and  lines, 
hemp,  and  duck  bar  lead  and  shot,  wool-cards  and  card-wire. 

Thirdly,  That  we  will  not  purchase  of  any  factor,  or  others,  any 
kind  of  goods  imported  from  Great  Britain,  from  January  1769, 
to  January  1770. 

Fourthly,  That  we  will  not  import,  on  our  own  account,  or  on 
commissions  or  purchase  of  any  who  shall  import  from  any  other 
colony  in  America,  from  January  1769,  to  January  1770,  any  tea, 
glass,  paper,  or  other  goods  commonly  imported  from  Great  Britain. 

Fifthly,  That  we  will  not,  from  and  after  the  ist  of  January 
1769,  import  into  this  province  any  tea,  paper,  glass,  or  painters 
colours,  until  the  act  imposing  duties  on  those  articles  shall  be 
repealed. 

In  witness  whereof,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands,  this  first 
day  of  August,  1768. 

A^czv  York,  September  75.  The  following  resolves  are  agreed  to  by 
the  tradesmen  of  this  city,  reflecting  on  the  salutary  measures  en- 
tered into  by  the  people  in  Boston  and  this  city  to  restrict  the  im- 
portation of  goods  from  Great  Britain,  until  the  acts  of  parliament 
laying  duties  on  paper,  glass,  &c.  are  repealed  :  and  being  animated 
with  a  spirit  of  liberty,  and  thinking  it  our  duty  to  exert  ourselves 
by  all  lawful  means,  to  maintain  and  obtain  our  just  rights  and 
jM'ivileges,  whicli  we  claim  under  our  most  excellent  constitution 
as  lOnglishmen,  not  to  be  taxed  but  by  our  own  consent  or  that  of 
our  representatives  :  and  in  order  to  support  and  strengthen  our 
neighbours,  the  merchants  of  this  city,  we  the  subscribers,  uniting 
in  the  common  cause,  do  agree  to  and  with  each  other,  as  follows  : 

I.  That  we  will  not  ourselves  purchase  or  take  any  goods  or 
merchandize  iin])()ik-d  from  luirope,  by  any  merchant,  directly  or 
indirectly,  contrary  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  an  agree- 
ment of  the  merchants  of  this  city,  on  the  27th  of  August  last. 


RKS()iTR(i;s  FOR  CARRYING  ()\  Till",  srKr(;(;r.K  151 

II.  That  \vc  will  not  ourselves,  or  by  any  other  means,  buy  any 
kind  of  goods  from  an\'  merchant,  store-keeper,  or  retailer,  (if  any 
such  there  be)  who  shall  refuse  to  join  with  their  brethren  in 
signing"  the  said  agreement ;  but  that  we  will  use  every  lawful 
means  in  our  power  to  prevent  our  accjuaintance  from  dealing 
with  them. 

III.  That  if  any  merchant,  in  or  from  Europe,  should  import 
any  goods  in  order  to  sell  them  in  this  province,  contrary  to  the 
above  agreement,  that  we  ourselves  will  by  no  means  deal  with 
such  importers  ;  and  as  far  as  we  can,  by  all  lawful  means,  en- 
deavour to  discourage  the  sale  of  such  goods. 

IV.  That  we  will  endeavour  to  fall  upon  some  expedient  to 
make  known  such  importers  or  retailers  as  shall  refuse  to  unite 
in   maintaining  and  obtaining  the  liberties  of  their  country. 

\^  That  we,  his  majesty's  most  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects, 
inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New  York,  being  filled  with  love  and 
gratitude  to  our  present  most  gracious  sovereign,  and  the  highest 
veneration  for  the  British  constitution,  which  we  unite  to  plead 
as  our  birthright,  and  are  always  willing  to  unite  to  support  and 
maintain,  give  it  as  our  opinion,  and  are  determined  to  deem  those 
persons  who  shall  refuse  to  unite  in  the  common  cause,  as  acting 
the  part  of  an  enemy  to  the  true  interest  of  Great  Britain  and  her 
colonies,  and  consequently  not  deserving  the  patronage  of  mer- 
chants or  mechanics. 

New  York,  September  5,  1768.^ 

TJic  Association  of  tJic  Continental  Congress,  I'J'/4 

2  We,  his  majesty's  most  loyal  subjects,  the  delegates  of  the 
several  colonies  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts-Bay,  Rhode- 
Island,  Connecticut,  New-York,  New-Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  the 
three  lower  counties  of  New-Castle,  Kent,  and  Sussex,  on  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  Virginia,  North-Carolina,  and  South-Carolina, 
deputed  to  represent  them  in  a  continental  Congress,  held  in  the 

1  For  similar  agreements  made  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  at  Williamsburg,  Va.,  in 
1769,  see  Niles,  Principles  and  Acts  of  the  Revolution,  pp.  167-169;  and  Row- 
land, The  Life  of  George  Mason,  I,  214-218. 

2  Journals  of  the  Continental  Conp;ress  [Library  of  Congress  I->dition],  L  75-80. 


15: 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OE  THE  REVOLUTION 


city  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  5th  day  of  September,  1774,  avowing 
our  allegiance  to  his  majesty,  our  affection  and  regard  for  our 
fellow-subjects  in  Great  Britain  and  elsewhere,  affected  with  the 
deepest  anxiety,  and  most  alarming  apprehensions,  at  those 
grievances  and  distresses  with  which  his  Majesty's  American  sub- 
jects are  oppressed  ;  and  having  taken  under  our  most  serious  de- 
liberation, the  state  of  the  whole  continent,  find,  that  the  present 
unhappy  situation  of  our  affairs  is  occasioned  by  a  ruinous  system 
of  colony  administration,  adopted  by  the  British  ministry  about 
the  year  1763,  evidently  calculated  for  inslaving  these  colonies, 
and,  with  them,  the  l^ritish  empire.  In  prosecution  of  which 
system,  various  acts  of  parliament  have  been  passed,  for  raising  a 
revenue  in  America,  for  depriving  the  American  subjects,  in  many 
instances,  of  the  constitutional  trial  by  jury,  exposing  their  lives 
to  danger,  by  directing  a  new  and  illegal  trial  beyond  the  seas,  for 
crimes  alleged  to  have  been  committed  in  America  :  and  in  pros- 
ecution of  the  same  system,  several  late,  cruel,  and  oppressive  acts 
have  been  passed,  respecting  the  town  of  Boston  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  and  also  an  act  for  extending  the  province  of  Que- 
bec, so  as  to  border  on  the  western  frontiers  of  these  colonies, 
establishing  an  arbitrary  government  therein,  and  discouraging  the 
settlement  of  British  subjects  in  that  wide  extended  country;  thus, 
by  the  influence  of  civil  principles  and  ancient  prejudices,  to  dis- 
pose the  inhabitants  to  act  with  hostility  against  the  free  Protestant 
colonies,  whenever  a  wicked  ministiy  shall  chuse  so  to  direct  then\. 

To  obtain  redress  of  these  grievances,  which  threaten  destruc- 
tion to  the  lives,  liberty,  and  property  of  his  majesty's  subjects,  in 
North  America,  we  are  of  opinion,  that  a  non-importation,  non- 
consumption,  and  non-exportation  agreement,  faithfully  adhered  to, 
will  prove  the  most  speedy,  effectual,  and  peaceable  measure  :  and, 
therefore,  we  do,  for  ourselves,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  several 
colonies,  whom  we  represent,  firmly  agree  and  associate,  under  the 
sacred  ties  of  virtue,  honour  and  love  of  our  country,  as  follows  : 

I.  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  December  next,  we  will 
not  import,  into  British  America,  from  Great-Britain  or  Ireland, 
any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise  whatsoever,  or  from  any  other 
place,  any  such  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise,  as  shall  have  been 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRUGGLE    153 

exported  from  Great-Britain  or  Ireland  ;  nor  will  we,  after  that 
day,  import  any  East-India  tea  from  any  part  of  the  world  ;  nor 
any  molasses,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee,  or  pimento,  from  the  British 
plantations  or  from  Dominica ;  nor  wines  from  Madeira,  or  the 
Western  Islands ;  nor  foreign  indigo. 

2.  We  will  neither  import  nor  purchase,  any  slave  imported 
after  the  first  day  of  December  next ;  after  which  time,  we  will 
wholly  discontinue  the  slave  trade,  and  will  neither  be  concerned 
in  it  ourselves,  nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our  commodi- 
ties or  manufactures  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it. 

3.  As  a  non-consumption  agreement,  strictly  adhered  to,  will  be 
an  effectual  security  for  the  observation  of  the  non-importation,  we, 
as  above,  solemnly  agree  and  associate,  that,  from  this  day,  we  will 
not  purchase  or  use  any  tea,  imported  on  account  of  the  East-India 
company,  or  any  on  which  a  duty  hath  been  or  shall  be  paid  ;  and 
from  and  after  the  first  day  of  March  next,  we  will  not  purchase 
or  use  any  East- India  tea  whatever  ;  nor  will  we  nor  shall  any  per- 
son for  or  under  us,  purchase  or  use  any  of  those  goods,  wares,  or 
merchandise,  we  have  agreed  not  to  import,  which  we  shall  know, 
or  have  cause  to  suspect,  were  imported  after  the  first  day  of  Decem- 
ber, except  such  as  come  under  the  rules  and  directions  of  the 
tenth  article  hereafter  mentioned. 

4.  The  earnest  desire  we  have,  not  to  injure  our  fellow-subjects 
in  Great-Britain,  Ireland,  or  the  West-Indies,  induces  us  to  sus- 
pend a  non-exportation,  until  the  tenth  day  of  September,  1775  ; 
at  which  time,  if  the  said  acts  and  parts  of  acts  of  the  British 
parliament  herein  after  mentioned  are  not  repealed,  we  will  not, 
directly  or  indirectly,  export  any  merchandise  or  commodity  what- 
soever to  Great-Britain,  Ireland,  or  the  West-Indies,  except  rice  to 
Europe.  .   .   . 

1 1 .  That  a  committee  be  chosen  in  every  county,  city  and  town, 
by  those  who  are  qualified  to  vote  for  representatives  in  the  legis- 
lature, whose  business  it  shall  be  attentively  to  observe  the  conduct 
of  all  persons  touching  this  association  ;  and  when  it  shall  be  made 
to  appear,  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  majority  of  any  such  committee, 
that  any  person  within  the  limits  of  their  appointment  has  violated 
this  association,  that  such  majority  do  forthwith  cause  the  truth  of 


154 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


the  case  to  be  published  in  the  gazette  ;  to  the  end,  that  all  such 
foes  to  the  rights  of  British- America  may  be  publicly  known,  and 
universally  contemned  as  the  enemies  of  American  liberty  ;  and 
thenceforth  we  respectively  will  break  off  all  dealings  with  him 
or  her. 

12,  That  the  committee  of  correspondence,  in  the  respective 
colonies,  do  frequently  inspect  the  entries  of  their  custom-houses, 
and  inform  each  other,  from  time  to  time,  of  the  true  state  thereof, 
and  of  every  other  material  circumstance  that  may  occur  relative  to 
this  association.   .   .   . 

14.  And  we  do  further  agree  and  resolve,  that  we  will  have  no 
trade,  commerce,  dealings,  or  intercourse  whatsoever,  with  any 
colony  or  province,  in  North-America,  which  shall  not  accede  to, 
or  which  shall  hereafter  violate  this  association,  but  will  hold  them 
as  unworthy  of  the  rights  of  freemen,  and  as  inimical  to  the  liber- 
ties of  their  country. 

And  we  do  solemnly  bind  ourselves  and  our  constituents,  under 
the  ties  aforesaid,  to  adhere  to  this  association,  until  such  parts  of 
the  several  acts  of  parliament  passed  since  the  close  of  the  last  war, 
as  impose  or  continue  duties  on  tea,  wine,  molasses,  syrups,  paneles, 
coffee,  sugar,  pimento,  indigo,  foreign  paper,  glass,  and  painters' 
colours,  imported  into  America,  and  extend  the  powers  of  the 
admiralty  courts  beyond  their  ancient  limits,  deprive  the  American 
subject  of  trial  by  jury,  authoriz^e  the  judge's  certificate  to  indemnify 
the  prosecutor  from  damages,  that  he  might  otherwise  be  liable  to 
from  a  trial  by  his  peers,  require  oppressive  security  from  a  claim- 
ant of  ships  or  goods  seized,  before  he  shall  be  allowed  to  defend 
his  property,  are  repealed.  —  And  until  that  part  of  the  act  of  the 
1 2  Geo.  Ill,  c.  24,  entitled  "  An  act  for  the  better  securing  his  majes- 
ty's dock-yards,  magazines,  ships,  ammunition,  and  stores,"  by  which 
any  persons  charged  with  committing  any  of  the  offences  therein 
described,  in  America,  may  be  tried  in  any  shire  or  county  within 
the  realm,  is  repealed  —  and  until  the  four  acts,  passed  the  last 
session  of  parliament,  viz.  that  for  stopping  the  port  and  blocking 
up  the  harbour  of  Boston  —  that  for  altering  the  charter  and  gov- 
ernment of  the  Massachusetts-Jkiy  —  and  that  which  is  entitled 
"An  act  for  the  better  administration  of  justice,  &c." — and  that 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRUGGLE    155 

"  for  extending  the  limits  of  Ouebee,  &c."  are  repealed.  And  we 
recommend  it  to  the  provincial  conventions,  and  to  the  committees 
in  the  respective  colonies,  to  establish  such  farther  regulations  as 
they  may  think  proper,  for  carrying  into  execution  this  association. 

1  Petitions  of  the  Mct'chants  of  London  and  Bristol  for  Recon- 
ciliation with  America,  Jannary  2J,  1775 

Mr.  Alderman  Hayley  said  he  had  a  petition  from  the  mer- 
chants of  the  city  of  London  concerned  in  the  commerce  to  North 
America,  to  that  honourable  House,  and  desired  leave  to  pre- 
sent the  same,  which  being  given,  it  was  brought  up  and  read, 
setting  forth  ; 

"That  the  petitioners  are  all  essentially  interested  in  the  trade 
to  North  America,  either  as  exporters  and  importers,  or  as  vend- 
ers of  British  and  foreign  goods  for  exportation  to  that  country  ; 
and  that  the  petitioners  have  exported,  or  sold  for  exportation,  to 
the  British  colonies  in  North  America,  veiy  large  quantities  of  the 
manufacture  of  Great  I^ritain  and  Ireland,  and  in  particular  the 
staple  articles  of  woollen,  iron,  and  linen,  also  those  of  cotton,  silk, 
leather,  pewter,  tin,  copper,  and  brass,  with  almost  every  British 
manufacture  ;  also  large  quantities  of  foreign  linens  and  other 
articles  imported  into  these  kingdoms,  from  Flanders,  Holland, 
Germany,  the  East  Countries,  Portugal,  Spain,  and  Italy,  which 
are  generally  received  from  those  countries  in  return  for  British 
manufactures  ;  and  that  the  petitioners  have  likewise  exported,  or 
sold  for  exportation,  great  quantities  of  the  various  species  of  goods 
imported  into  this  kingdom  from  the  East-Indies,  part  of  which 
receive  additional  manufacture  in  Great  Britain  ;  and  that  the  pe- 
titioners receive  returns  from  North  America  to  this  kingdom  di- 
rectly, viz.  pig  and  bar  iron,  timber,  staves,  naval  stores,  tobacco, 
rice,  indigo,  deer,  and  other  skins,  beaver  and  furs,  train  oil,  whale- 
bone, bees  wax,  pot  and  'pearl  ashes,  drugs  and  dying  woods,  with 
some  bullion,  and  also  wheat  flour,  Indian  corn  and  salted  provi- 
sions, when,  on  account  of  scarcity  in  Great  Britain,  those  articles 

1  Hansard,  The  Parliamentary  History  of  England  [i774-i777]>  XVIII,  i68- 
178,   219-221. 


156        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

are  permitted  to  be  imported  ;  and  that  the  petitioners  receive  re- 
turns circuitously  from  Ireland  (for  flax  seed,  &c.  exported  from 
North  America)  by  bills  of  exchange  on  the  merchants  of  this  city 
trading  to  Ireland,  for  the  proceeds  of  linens,  &c.  imported  into 
these  kingdoms  from  the  West  Indies  ;  in  return  for  provisions, 
lumber  and  cattle,  exported  from  North  America,  for  the  use  and 
support  of  the  West  India  islands,  by  bills  of  exchange  on  the 
West  India  merchants,  for  the  proceeds  of  sugar,  molasses,  rum, 
cotton,  coffee,  or  other  produce,  imported  from  those  islands  into 
these  kingdoms  ;  from  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal,  P"rance,  Flanders, 
Germany,  Holland,  and  the  East  Countries,  by  bills  of  exchange 
or  bullion  in  return  for  wheat  flour,  rice,  Indian  corn,  fish,  and 
lumber,  exported  from  the  British  colonies  in  North  America,  for 
the  use  of  those  countries  ;  and  that  the  petitioners  have  great  rea- 
son to  believe,  from  the  best  informations  they  can  obtain,  that  on 
the  balance  of  this  extensive  commerce,  there  is  now  due  from 
the  colonies  in  North  America,  to  the  said  city  only,  2,000,000 1. 
sterling,  and  upwards  ;  and  that,  by  the  direct  commerce  with  the 
colonies,  and  the  circuitous  trade  thereon  depending,  some  thou- 
sands of  ships  and  vessels  are  employed,  and  many  thousands  of 
seamen  are  bred  and  maintained,  thereby  increasing  the  naval 
strength  and  power  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  that,  in  the  year  1765, 
there  was  a  great  stagnation  of  the  commerce  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  her  colonies,  in  consequence  of  an  Act  for  granting  and 
applying  certain  stamp  duties,  and  other  duties,  in  the  British  col- 
onies and  plantations  in  America,  by  which  the  merchants  trading 
to  North  America,  and  the  artificers  employed  in  the  various  manu- 
factures consumed  in  those  countries,  were  subjected  to  many  hard- 
ships ;  and  that,  in  the  following  year,  the  said  Act  was  repealed, 
under  an  express  declaration  of  the  legislature,  that  the  continuance 
of  the  said  Act  would  be  attended  with  many  inconveniences,  and 
might  be  productive  of  consequences  greatly  detrimental  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  these  kingdoms  ;  upon  which  repeal,  the 
trade  to  the  British  colonies  immediately  resumed  its  former  flour- 
ishing state  ;  and  that  in  the  year  1767,  an  Act  passed  for  granting 
certain  duties  in  the  British  colonies  and  plantations  in  America, 
which  imposed  certain  duties,  to  be  paid  in  America,  on  tea,  glass, 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRUGGLE    157 

red  and  white  lead,  painters'  colours,  paper,  paste-board,  mill-board, 
and  scale-board,  when  the  commerce  with  the  colonies  was  again 
interrupted  ;  and  that  in  the  year  1770,  such  parts  of  the  said  Act 
as  imposed  duties  on  glass,  red  and  white  lead,  painters'  colours, 
paper,  paste-board,  mill-board,  and  scale-board,  were  repealed,  when 
the  trade  to  America  soon  revived,  except  in  the  article  of  tea,  on 
which  a  duty  was  continued,  to  be  demanded  on  its  importation 
into  America,  whereby  that  branch  of  our  commerce  was  nearly 
lost;  and  that,  in  the  year  1773,  an  Act  passed,  to  allow  a  draw- 
back of  the  duties  of  customs  on  the  exportation  of  tea  to  his 
Majesty's  colonies  or  plantations  in  America,  and  to  empower  the 
commissioners  of  the  Treasury  to  grant  licenses  to  the  East  India 
Company,  to  export  tea,  duty  free ;  and  by  the  operation  of  those 
and  other  laws,  the  minds  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  in  the  British 
colonies  have  been  greatly  disquieted,  a  total  stop  is  now  put  to  the 
export  trade  with  the  greatest  and  most  important  part  of  North 
America,  the  public  revenue  is  threatened  with  a  large  and  fatal 
diminution,  the  petitioners  with  grievous  distress,  and  thousands  of 
industrious  artificers  and  manufacturers  with  utter  ruin  ;  under 
these  alarming  circumstances,  the  petitioners  receive  no  small 
comfort,  from  a  persuasion  that  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
newly  delegated  to  the  most  important  of  all  trusts,  will  take  the 
whole  of  these  weighty  matters  into  their  most  serious  consider- 
ation ;  and  therefore  praying  the  House,  that  they  will  enter  into 
a  full  and  immediate  examination  of  that  system  of  commercial 
policy,  which  was  formerly  adopted,  and  uniformly  maintained,  to 
the  happiness  and  advantage  of  both  countries,  and  will  apply 
such  healing  remedies  as  can  alone  restore  and  establish  the  com- 
merce between  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  on  a  permanent 
foundation  ;  and  that  the  petitioners  may  be  heard  by  themselves, 
or  agents,  in  support  of  the  said  petition.   ..." 

Petition  of  the  West  India  Planteis  to  the  Comvions  respeetijig  the 
Aineriean  Non-Importation  Agj-eement,  Febrnary  2,  I'/JS 

A   Petition  of  the  planters  of  his  Majesty's. sugar  colonies  re- 
siding in  Great  Britain,  and  of  the  merchants  of  London  trading 


T^S       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

to  the    said    colonies,   was    presented    to   the    House,   and   read ; 
setting  forth, 

"'  That  the  petitioners  are  exceedingly  alarmed  at  an  Agreement 
and  Association  entered  into,  by  the  congress  held  at  Philadelphia, 
in  North  America,  on  the  5th  of  Sept.  1774,  whereby  the  members 
thereof  agreed  and  associated,  for  themselves  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  several  provinces  lying  between  Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia, 
that  from  and  after  the  ist  of  Sept.  1774,  they  would  not  import 
into  British  America  any  melasscs,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee,  or  pie- 
mento,  from  the  British  plantations  ;  and  that  after  the  loth  of 
Sept.  1775,  if  the  Acts  and  the  parts  of  the  Acts  of  the  British 
parliament  therein  mentioned,  are  not  repealed,  they  would  not  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  export  any  merchandize  or  commodity  whatso- 
ever to  the  West  Indies  ;  and  representing  to  the  House  that  the 
British  property  in  the  West  India  islands  amounts  to  upwards  of 
30  millions  sterling ;  and  that  a  further  property  of  many  millions 
is  employed  in  the  commerce  created  by  the  said  islands,  a  com- 
merce comprehending  Africa,  the  East  Indies  and  Europe  ;  and 
that  the  whole  profits  and  produce  of  those  capitals  ultimately  cen- 
ter in  Great  Britain,  and  add  to  the  national  wealth,  while  the  nav- 
igation necessary  to  all  its  branches,  establishes  its  strength  which 
wealth  can  neither  purchase  nor  balance  ;  and  that  the  sugar  plan- 
tations in  the  West  Indies  are  subject  to  a  greater  variety  of  con- 
tingencies than  many  other  species  of  property,  from  their  necessary 
dependence  on  external  support ;  and  that  therefore,  should  any 
interruption  happen  in  the  general  system  of  their  commerce,  the 
great  national  stock  thus  vested  and  employed  must  become  un- 
profitable and  precarious  ;  and  that  the  profits  arising  from  the  pres- 
ent state  of  the  said  islands,  and  that  are  likely  to  arise  from  their 
future  improvement,  in  a  great  measure  depend  on  a  free  and 
reciprocal  intercourse  between  them  and  the  several  provinces  of 
North  America,  from  whence  they  are  furnished  with  provisions 
and  other  supplies  absolutely  necessary  for  their  support  and  the 
maintenance  of  their  plantations  ;  and  that  the  scarcity  and  high 
price,  in  Great  Britain  and  other  parts  of  Europe,  of  those  articles 
of  indispcnsible  necessity,  which  they  now  derive  from  the  middle 
colonies  of  America,  and  the  inadequate  population  in  some  parts 


RESOURCES   FOR  CARRYING  ON  1'HE  S'l'RUGGLE 


159 


of  that  continent,  with  the  distance,  danger  and  uncertainty,  of  the 
navigation  from  others,  forbid  the  petitioners  to  hope  for  a  supply 
in  any  degree  proportionate  to  their  wants  ;  and  that,  if  the  first 
part  of  the  said  Agreement  and  Association  for  a  non-importation 
hath  taken  place,  and  shall  be  continued,  the  same  will  be  highly 
detrimental  to  the  sugar  colonies  ;  and  that,  if  the  second  part  of 
the  said  Agreement  and  Association  for  a  non-exportation  shall  be 
carried  into  execution,  which  the  petitioners  do  firmly  believe  will 
happen,  unless  the  harmony  that  subsisted  a  few  )-ears  ago  between 
this  kingdom  and  the  provinces  of  America,  to  the  definite  advan- 
tage of  both,  be  restored,  the  islands,  which  are  supplied  with  most 
of  their  subsistence  from  thence,  will  be  reduced  to  the  utmost  dis- 
tress, and  the  trade  between  all  the  islands  and  this  kingdom  will 
of  course  be  obstructed,  to  the  diminution  of  the  public  revenue,  to 
the  extreme  injuiy  of  a  great  number  of  planters,  and  to  the  great 
prejudice  of  the  merchants,  not  only  by  the  said  obstruction,  but 
also  by  the  delay  of  payment  of  the  principal  and  interest  of  an 
immense  debt  due  from  the  former  to  the  latter  ;  and  therefore 
praying  the  House,  to  take  into  their  most  serious  consideration 
that  great  political  system  of  the  colonies  heretofore  so  veiy  bene- 
ficial to  the  mother  country  and  her  dependencies,  and  adopt  such 
measures  as  to  them  shall  seem  meet,  to  prevent  the  evils  with 
which  the  petitioners  are  threatened,  and  to  preserve  the  inter- 
course between  the  West  India  islands  and  the  northern  colonies, 
to  the  general  harmony  and  lasting  benefit  of  the  whole  British 
empire ;  and  that  they  may  be  heard,  by  themselves,  their  agents, 
or  counsel,  in  support  of  their  Petition." 

C.  Commerce  as  a  Military  Resource  —  The  French 
Alliance 

A  dams :  A  ntohiograpJi  v 

^  1775-  September.  At  the  appointed  time,  we  returned  to 
Philadelphia,  and  Congress  were  reassembled.  Mr.  Richard  Penn 
had  sailed  for  England,  and  carried  the  petition,  from  which  Mr. 
Dickinson  and   his  party  expected  relief.    I   expected  none,  and 

1  Works  of  John  Adams,  II,  503-506. 


l6o       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

was  wholly  occupied  in  measures  to  support  the  army  and  the  ex- 
pedition into  Canada.  Every  impoitant  step  was  opposed,  and 
carried  by  bare  majorities,  which  obliged  me  to  be  almost  con- 
stantly engaged  in  debate  ;  but  I  was  not  content  with  all  that  was 
done,  and  almost  every  day  I  had  something  to  say  about  advising 
the  States  to  institute  governments,  to  express  my  total  despair  of 
any  good  from  the  petition  or  any  of  those  things  which  were 
called  conciliatory  measures.  I  constantly  insisted  that  all  such 
measures,  instead  of  having  any  tendency  to  produce  a  reconcilia- 
tion, would  only  be  considered  as  proofs  of  our  timidity  and  want 
of  confidence  in  the  ground  we  stood  on,  and  would  only  encourage 
our  enemies  to  greater  exertions  against  us  ;  that  we  should  be 
driven  to  the  necessity  of  declaring  ourselves  independent  States, 
and  that  we  ought  now  to  be  employed  in  preparing  a  plan  of  con- 
federation for  the  Colonies,  and  treaties  to  be  proposed  to  foreign 
powers,  particularly  to  France  and  Spain  ;  that  all  these  measures 
ought  to  be  maturely  considered  and  carefully  prepared,  together 
with  a  declaration  of  independence  ;  that  these  three  measures, 
independence,  confederation,  and  negotiations  with  foreign  powers, 
particularly  France  ought  to  go  hand  in  hand,  and  be  adopted  all 
together ;  that  foreign  powers  could  not  be  expected  to  acknowledge 
us  till  we  had  acknowledged  ourselves,  and  taken  our  station  among 
them  as  a  sovereign  power  and  independent  nation  ;  that  now  we 
were  distressed  for  want  of  artillery,  arms,  ammunition,  clothing, 
and  even  for  flints  ;  that  the  people  had  no  markets  for  their  pro- 
duce, wanted  clothing  and  many  other  things,  which  foreign  com- 
merce alone  could  fully  supply,  and  we  could  not  expect  commerce 
till  we  were  independent ;  that  the  people  were  wonderfully  well 
united,  and  extremely  ardent.  There  was  no  danger  of  our  want- 
ing support  from  them,  if  we  did  not  discourage  them  by  checking 
and  quenching  their  zeal ;  that  there  was  no  doubt  of  our  ability  to 
defend  the  country,  to  support  the  war,  and  maintain  our  inde- 
pendence. We  had  men  enough,  our  people  were  brave,  and  every 
day  improving  in  all  the  exercises  and  discipline  of  war  ;  that  we 
ought  immediately  to  give  permission  to  our  merchants  to  fit  out 
privateers  and  make  reprisals  on  the  enemy  ;  that  Congress  ought 
to  arm  ships,  and  commission  officers,  and  lay  the  foundation  of  a 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRVINO  ON  'I'lIE  STRIKKU.E    i6l 

navy  ;  that  immense  advantages  might  be  derived  from  this  re- 
source ;  that  not  only  West  India  articles,  in  great  abundance,  and 
l^ritish  manufactures,  of  all  kinds,  might  be  obtained,  but  artillery 
ammunitions  and  all  kinds  of  supplies  for  the  army  ;  that  a  system 
of  measures,  taken  with  unanimity  and  pursued  with  resolution, 
would  insure  us  the  friendship  and  assistance  of  France. 

Some  gentlemen  doubted  of  the  sentiments  of  France  ;  thought 
she  would  frown  upon  us  as  rebels,  and  be  afraid  to  countenance 
the  example.  I  replied  to  those  gentlemen,  that  I  apprehended 
they  had  not  attended  to  the  relative  situation  of  F'rance  and  F2ng- 
land  ;  that  it  was  the  unquestionable  interest  of  F'rance  that  the 
British  Continental  Colonies  should  be  independent ;  that  Britain, 
by  the  conquest  of  Canada  and  her  naval  triumphs  during  the  last 
war,  and  by  her  vast  possessions  in  America  and  the  FLast  Indies, 
was  exalted  to  a  height  of  power  and  pre-eminence  that  FVance 
must  envy  and  could  not  endure.  But  there  was  much  more  than 
pride  and  jealousy  in  the  case.  Her  rank,  her  consideration  in 
Europe,  and  even  her  safety  and  independence,  were  at  stake. 
The  navy  of  Great  Britain  was  now  mistress  of  the  seas,  all  over 
the  globe.  The  navy  of  France  almost  annihilated.  Its  inferiority 
was  so  great  and  obvious,  that  all  the  dominions  of  F'rance,  in  the 
West  Indies  and  in  the  East  Indies,  lay  at  the  mercy  of  Great 
Britain,  and  must  remain  so  as  long  as  North  America  belonged 
to  Great  Britain,  and  afforded  them  so  many  harbors  abounding 
with  naval  stores  and  resources  of  all  kinds,  and  so  many  men  and 
seamen  ready  to  assist  them  and  man  their  ships  ;  that  interest 
could  not  lie  ;  that  the  interest  of  France  was  so  obvious,  and  her 
motive  so  cogent,  that  nothing  but  a  judicial  infatuation  of  her 
councils  could  restrain  her  from  embracing  us  ;  that  our  negotia- 
tions with  F^rance  ought,  however,  to  be  conducted  with  great 
caution,  and  with  all  the  foresight  we  could  possibly  obtain  ;  that 
we  ought  not  to  enter  into  any  alliance  with  her,  which  should  en- 
tangle us  in  any  future  wars  in  Europe  ;  that  we  ought  to  lay  it 
down,  as  a  first  principle  and  a  maxim  never  to  be  forgotten,  to 
maintain  an  entire  neutrality  in  all  future  European  wars  ;  that  it 
never  could  be  our  interest  to  unite  with  France  in  the  destruction 
of  England,  or  in  any  measures  to  break  her.spirit,  or  reduce  her 


1 62        ECONOMIC  ASPF.CTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

to  a  situation  in  which  she  could  not  support  her  independence. 
(3n  the  other  hand,  it  could  never  be  our  duty  to  unite  with  Britain 
in  too  great  a  humiliation  of  France ;  that  our  real,  if  not  our  nominal, 
independence,  would  consist  in  our  neutrality.  If  we  united  with 
either  nation,  in  any  future  war,  we  must  become  too  subordinate 
and  dependent  on  that  nation,  and  should  be  involved  in  all 
European  wars,  as  we  had  been  hitherto  ;  that  foreign  powers 
would  find  means  to  corrupt  our  people,  to  influence  our  councils, 
and,  in  fine,  we  should  be  little  better  than  puppets,  danced  on  the 
wires  of  the  cabinets  of  Europe.  We  should  be  the  sport  of  European 
intrigues  and  politics  ;  that,  therefore,  in  preparing  treaties  to  be 
proposed  to  foreign  powers,  and  in  the  instructions  to  be  given  to 
our  ministers,  we  ought  to  confine  ourselves  strictly  to  a  treaty  of 
commerce  ;  that  such  a  treaty  would  be  an  ample  compensation  to 
France  for  all  the  aid  we  should  want  from  her.  The  opening 
of  American  trade  to  her,  would  be  a  vast  resource  for  her  com- 
merce and  naval  power,  and  a  great  assistance  to  her  in  protecting 
her  East  and  West  India  possessions,  as  well  as  her  fisheries  ;  but 
that  the  bare  dismemberment  of  the  British  empire  would  be  to 
her  an  incalculable  security  and  benefit,  worth  more  than  all  the 
exertions  we  should  require  of  her,  even  if  it  should  draw  her 
into  another  eight  or  ten  years'  war. 

When  I  first  made  these  observations  in  Congress,  I  never  saw 
a  greater  impression  made  upon  that  assembly  or  any  other.  At- 
tention and  approbation  were  marked  upon  every  countenance. 
Several  gentlemen  came  to  me  aftei'wards,  to  thank  me  for  that 
speech,  particularly  Mr.  Caesar  Rodney,  of  Delaware,  and  Mr. 
Duane,  of  New  York.  I  remember  these  two  gentlemen  in  par- 
ticular, because  both  of  them  said  that  I  had  considered  the  sub- 
ject of  foreign  connections  more  maturely  than  any  man  they  had 
ever  heard  in  America  ;  that  I  had  perfectly  digested  the  subject, 
and  had  removed,  Mr.  Rodney  said,  all,  and  Mr.  Duane  said,  the 
greatest  part  of  his  objections  to  foreign  negotiations.  Even  Mr, 
Dickinson  said,  to  gentlemen  out  of  doors,  that  I  had  thrown  great 
light  on  the  subject. 

These  and  such  as  these,  were  my  constant  and  daily  topics, 
sometimes  of  reasonisig  and  no  doubt  often  of  declamation,  from 


RESOURCES   FOR  CARRYING  ON    THE  STRUCKiLE    163 

the   mectinij^  of   Conj^rcss   in   llic  auUiniii   of    1775,  through   the 
whole  winter  and  spring  of   1776. 

^  The  C  'o)iiiJiittcc  of  Secret  Correspo>idence 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  corresponding  with  our  friends  in  (jreat  Britain,  Ireland, 
and  other  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  that  they  lay  their  correspondence 
before  Congress  when  directed. 

Resolved,  That  this  Congress  will  make  provision  to  defray  all 
such  expenses  as  may  arise  by  canying  on  such  correspondence, 
and  for  the  payment  of  such  agents  as  they  may  send  on  this 
service. 

The  members  chosen  —  Mr,  Harrison,  Dr.  Franklin,  Mr,  John- 
son, Mr.  Dickinson,  and  Mr.  Jay.    November  2C},  lyjS- 

^  Letter  of  Franklin  to  Duvias,  December  IL),  I/"/^ 

We  are  threatened  from  England  with  a  veiy  powerful  force  to 
come  next  year  against  us.  We  are  making  all  the  provision  in 
our  power  here  to  prevent  that  force,  and  we  hope  we  shall  be  able 
to  defend  ourselves.  But  as  the  events  of  w^ar  are  always  uncertain, 
possibly,  after  another  campaign  we  may  find  it  necessaiy  to  ask 
aid  of  some  foreign  power.  It  gives  us  great  pleasure  to  learn 
from  you  that  "all  Europe  wishes  us  the  best  success  in  the 
maintenance  of  our  liberty."  Ikit  we  wish  to  know  whether  any  one 
of  them,  from  principles  of  humanity,  is  disposed  magnanimously 
to  step  in  for  the  relief  of  an  oppressed  people,  or  whether  if,  as  it 
seems  likely  to  happen,  we  should  be  obliged  to  break  f)ff  all  con- 
nection with  Britain,  and  declare  ourselves  an  independent  people, 
there  is  any  state  or  power  in  luu'ope  who  would  be  willing  to  enter 
into  an  alliance  with  us  for  the  benefit  of  our  commerce,  which 
amounted,  before  the  war,  to  near  seven  millions  sterling  per 
annum,  and  must  continually  increase,  as  our  people  increase  most 
rapidly.    Confiding,  my  dear  friend,  in  your  good  will  to  us  and 

^  Secret  Journals  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  II,  5. 
2  Wharton,  The    Revolutionary    Diplomatic  Correspondence   of   the    United 
States,  II,  65. 


1 64        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

our  cause,  and  in  your  sagacity  and  abilities  for  business,  the  com- 
mittee of  Congress,  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  estabHshing  and 
conducting  a  correspondence  with  our  friends  in  Europe,  of  which 
committee  I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  member,  have  directed  me  to 
request  of  you  that,  as  you  are  situated  at  The  Hague,  where  am- 
bassadors from  all  the  courts  reside,  you  would  make  use  of  the 
opportunity  which  that  situation  affords  you  of  discovering,  if 
possible,  the  disposition  of  the  several  courts  with  respect  to  such 
assistance  or  alliance,  if  we  should  apply  for  the  one  or  propose 
for  the  other.  .  .  . 


^Letter  of  Franklin  ct  a  I.,  Committee  of  Secret  Correspondence, 
to  Silas  Deane,  March  J,  lyyO 

.  .  .  With  the  assistance  of  Monsieur  Dubourg,  who  under- 
stands English,  you  will  be  able  to  make  immediate  application  to 
Monsieur  de  Vergennes,  ministre  dcs  affaires  etrangeres,  either 
personally  or  by  letter,  if  M.  Dubourg  adopts  that  method,  ac- 
quainting him  that  you  are  in  France  upon  business  of  the 
American  Congress,  in  the  character  of  a  merchant,  having  some- 
thing to  communicate  to  him  that  may  be  mutually  beneficial  to 
I'Yance  and  the  North  American  Colonies  ;  that  you  request  an 
audience  of  him,  and  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  appoint  the 
time  and  place.  At  this  audience,  if  agreed  to,  it  may  be  well  to 
show  him  first  your  letter  of  credence,  and  then  acquaint  him  that 
the  Congress,  finding  that  in  the  common  course  of  commerce,  it 
was  not  practicable  to  furnish  the  continent  of  America  with  the 
quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition  necessary  for  its  defense  (the 
ministry  of  Great  Britain  having  been  extremely  industrious  to  pre- 
vent it),  you  have  been  dispatched  by  their  authority  to  apply  to 
some  European  power  for  a  supply.  That  France  had  been  pitched 
on  for  the  first  application,  from  an  opinion  that  if  we  should,  as 
there  is  a  great  appearance  we  shall,  come  to  a  total  separation 
from  Great  Britain,  France  would  be  looked  upon  as  the  power 
whose  friendship  it  would  be  fittest  for  us  to  obtain  and  cultivate. 

1  Wharton,  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  II,  7S-79. 


RESOURCES  FOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRU(;CLi:    165 

That  the  commercial  advantages  liritain  liad  enjoyed  with  the 
Colonies  had  contributed  greatly  to  her  late  wealth  and  importance. 
That  it  is  likely  great  part  of  our  commerce  will  naturally  fall  to 
the  share  of  France,  especially  if  she  favors  us  in  this  application, 
as  that  will  be  a  means  of  gaining  and  securing  the  firiendship  of 
the  Colonies  ;  and  that  as  our  trade  was  rapidly  increasing  with 
our  increase  of  people,  and,  in  a  greater  proportion,  her  part  of  it 
will  be  extremely  valuable.  That  the  supply  we  at  present  want  is 
clothing  and  arms  for  twenty-five  thousand  men,  with  a  suitable 
quantity  of  ammunition,  and  one  hundred  field  pieces.  That  we 
mean  to  pay  for  the  same  by  remittances  to  France,  or  through 
Spain,  Portugal,  or  the  French  Lslands,  as  soon  as  our  navigation 
can  be  protected  by  ourselves  or  friends  ;  and  that  we,  besides, 
want  great  quantities  of  linens  and  woollens,  with  other  articles  for 
the  Indian  trade,  which  you  are  now  actually  purchasing,  and  for 
which  you  ask  no  credit,  and  that  the  whole,  if  France  should 
grant  the  other  supplies,  would  make  a  cargo  which  it  might  be 
well  to  secure  by  a  convoy  of  two  or  three  ships  of  war. 

^  Letter  fn))n  Robert  Morris  to  the  Covimissioners  at  Paris, 
December  21,  IJ'/6 

For  my  part  I  see  but  two  chances  for  relief  ;  one  is  from  you. 
If  the  court  of  France  open  their  eyes  to  their  own  interest,  and 
think  the  commerce  of  North  America  will  compensate  them  for 
the  expense  and  evil  of  a  war  with  Britain,  they  may  readily  create 
a  diversion,  and  afford  us  succors  that  will  change  the  fate  of  affairs  ; 
but  they  must  do  it  soon  ;  our  situation  is  critical,  and  does  not  ad- 
mit of  delay.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  instant  submission  must 
ensue  if  they  do  not  directly  afford  us  relief  ;  but  there  is  a  great 
difference  between  the  benefits  they  will  derive  from  a  commercial 
connection  with  this  country,  in  full  health  and  vigor,  and  what 
they  can  possibly  expect  after  it  is  exhausted  by  repeated  efforts 
during  the  precarious  process  of  a  tedious  war,  during  which  its 
cities   will    be    destroyed,    the    country   ravaged,    the    inhabitants 

1  Wharton,  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  II,  235. 


1 66       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

reduced  in  numbers,  plundered  of  their  property,  and  unable  to 
reap  the  luxuriant  produce  of  the  finest  soil  in  the  world.  Neither 
can  they,  after  a  tedious  delay  in  negotiation,  expect  that  vigorous 
assistance  from  us  in  prosecuting  the  war  that  they  may  be  assured 
of  if  they  join  us  in  its  infancy.  If  they  join  us  generously  in  the 
day  of  our  distress,  without  attempting  undue  advantages  because 
we  are  so,  they  will  find  a  grateful  people  to  promote  their  future 
glory  and  interest  with  unabating  zeal ;  and  from  my  knowledge 
of  the  commerce  of  this  country  with  Europe,  I  dare  assert  that 
whatever  European  power  possesses  the  pre-emption  of  it  must  of 
consequence  become  the  richest  and  most  potent  in  Europe.  But 
should  time  be  lost  in  tedious  negotiations  and  succors  be  withheld, 
America  must  sue  for  peace  from  her  oppressors. 

^  Letter  from  Franklin,  Den  lie,  and  Arthur  Lee  to  Vcrgennes, 
Paris,  December  2J,  1^/6 

Sir  :  We  beg  leave  to  acquaint  your  excellency  that  we  are 
appointed  and  fully  empowered  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  of  America  to  propose  and  negotiate  a  treaty  of  amity  and 
commerce  between  France  and  the  United  States.  The  just  and 
generous  treatment  their  trading  ships  have  received  by  a  free  ad- 
mission into  the  ports  of  this  kingdom,  with  other  considerations 
of  respect,  has  induced  the  Congress  to  make  this  offer  first  to 
France.  We  request  an  audience  of  your  excellency,  wherein  we 
may  have  an  opportunity  of  presenting  our  credentials,  and  we 
flatter  ourselves  that  the  propositions  we  are  authorized  to  make 
are  such  as  will  not  be  found  unacceptable. 

With  the  greatest  regard,  we  have  the  honor  to  be,  your 
excellency's  most  obedient  and  most  humble  servants, 

B.  Franklin. 
Silas  Deane, 
Arthur  Lee. 

1  Wharton,  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  II,  239. 


RESOURCES  EOR  CARRYING  ON  THE  STRi:(;c;LE    167 

^  Letter  frojii  Franklin,  Dcanc,  and  Lcc  to  Vcrgcnncs. 
Paris,  Jannary  5,  Z/// 

Sir  :  The  Congress,  the  better  to  defend  their  eoasts,  protect 
their  trade,  and  drive  off  the  enemy,  have  instructed  us  to  apply 
to  France  for  eight  ships  of  the  hne,  completely  manned,  the  ex- 
pense of  which  they  will  undertake  to  pay.  As  other  princes  of 
Europe  are  lending  or  hiring  their  troops  to  J^ritain  against 
America,  it  is  apprehended  that  France  may,  if  she  thinks  fit, 
afford  our  independent  States  the  same  kind  of  aid,  without  giving 
England  any  first  cause  of  complaint.  But  if  TLngland  should  on 
that  account  declare  war,  we  conceive  that  by  the  united  force  of 
France,  Spain,  and  America,  she  will  lose  all  her  possessions  in 
the  West  Indies,  much  the  greatest  part  of  that  commerce  which 
has  rendered  her  so  opulent,  and  be  reduced  to  that  state  of 
weakness  and  humiliation  which  she  has,  by  her  perfidy,  her 
insolence,  and  her  cruelty,  both  in  the  east  and  the  west,  so  justly 
merited. 

We  are  also  instructed  to  solicit  the  court  of  France  for  an  im- 
mediate supply  of  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  muskets  and  bayonets, 
and  a  large  quantity  of  ammunition  and  brass  field  pieces,  to  be 
sent  under  convoy.  The  United  States  engage  for  the  payment  of 
the  arms,  artillery,  and  ammunition,  and  to  defray  the  expense  of 
the  convoy.  This  application  has  now  become  the  more  necessary, 
as  the  private  purchase  made  by  Mr.  Deane  of  those  articles  is 
rendered  ineffectual  by  an  order  forbidding  their  exportation. 

We  also  beg  it  may  be  particularly  considered,  that  while  the 
English  are  masters  of  the  American  seas,  and  can,  without  fear 
of  interruption,  transport  with  such  ease  their  army  from  one  part 
of  our  extensive  coast  to  another,  and  we  can  only  meet  them  by 
land  marches,  we  may  possibly,  unless  some  powerful  aid  is  given 
us  or  some  strong  diversion  be  made  in  our  favor,  be  so  harassed 
and  be  put  to  such  immense  distress,  as  that  finally  our  people  will 
find  themselves  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  ending  the  war  by  an 
accommodation . 

1  Wharton,  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  II,  245-246. 


1 68       F.CONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REYOEUTION 

The  courts  of  France  and  Spain  may  rely  with  the  fullest  confi- 
dence that  whatever  stipulations  are  made  by  us  in  case  of  grant- 
ing such  aid,  will  be  ratified  and  punctually  fulfilled  by  the  Congress, 
who  are  determined  to  found  their  future  character,  with  regard  to 
justice  and  fidelity,  on  a  full  and  perfect  performance  of  all  their 
present  engagements. 

North  America  now  offers  to  France  and  Spain  her  amity  and 
commerce.  She  is  also  ready  to  guaranty  in  the  firmest  manner  to 
those  nations  all  her  present  possessions  in  the  West  Indies,  as  well 
as  those  they  shall  acquire  from  the  enemy  in  a  war  that  may  be 
consequential  of  such  assistance  as  she  requests.  The  interests  of 
the  three  nations  are  the  same.  The  opportunity  of  cementing 
them  and  of  securing  all  the  advantages  of  that  commerce,  which 
in  time  will  be  immense,  now  presents  itself.  If  neglected,  it  may 
never  again  return  ;  and  we  can  not  help  suggesting  that  a  con- 
siderable delay  may  be  attended  with  fatal  consequences. 

B.  Franklin. 

Silas  Deane. 

Arthur  Lee, 

III.    RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 
A.    Changes  in  American  Society 

1  The  American  revolution,  on  the  one  hand,  brought  forth  great 
vices  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  it  called  forth  many  virtues,  and  gave 
occasion  for  the  display  of  abilities  which,  but  for  that  event,  would 
have  been  lost  to  the  world.  When  the  war  began,  the  Americans 
were  a  mass  of  husbandmen,  merchants,  mechanics,  and  fisher- 
men ;  but  the  necessities  of  the  country  gave  a  spring  to  the  active 
powers  of  the  inhabitants,  and  set  them  on  thinking,  speaking  and 
acting,  in  a  line  far  beyond  that  to  which  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed. The  difference  between  nations  is  not  so  much  owing  to 
nature,  as  to  education  and  circumstances.  While  the  Americans 
were  guided  by  the  leading  strings  of  the  mother  country,  they 
had  no  scope  nor  encouragement  for  exertion.  All  the  departments 
of  government  were  established  and  executed  for  them,  but  not 

1  Ramsay,  The  History  of  the  American  Revolution  [1789],  II,  600-602. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR  1 69 

by  thcni.  In  the  year  1775  and  1776  the  country,  l)einfi;  suddenly 
thrown  into  a  situation  that  needed  the  abilities  of  all  its  sons, 
these  generally  took  their  places,  each  according  to  the  bent  of  his 
inclination.  As  they  severally  pursued  their  objects  with  ardour,  a 
vast  expansion  of  the  human  mind  speedily  followed.  This  dis- 
played itself  in  a  variety  of  ways.  It  was  found  that  their  talents 
for  great  stations  did  not  differ  in  kind,  but  only  in  degree,  from 
those  which  were  necessary  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  ordi- 
nary business  of  civil  society.  In  the  bustle  that  was  occasioned 
by  the  war,  few  instances  could  be  produced  of  any  persons  who 
made  a  figure,  or  who  rendered  essential  services,  but  from  among 
those,  who  had  given  specimens  of  similar  talents  in  their  respec- 
tive professions.  Those  who  from  indolence  or  dissipation,  had 
been  of  little  service  to  the  community  in  time  of  peace,  were 
found  equally  unserviceable  in  war.  A  few  young  men  were  ex- 
ceptions to  this  general  rule.  Some  of  these,  who  had  indulged  in 
youthful  follies,  broke  off  from  their  vicious  courses,  and  on  the 
pressing  call  of  their  country  became  useful  servants  of  the  public  : 
but  the  great  bulk  of  those,  who  were  the  active  instruments  of 
carrying  on  the  revolution,  were  self-made,  industrious  men.  These 
who  by  their  own  exertions,  had  established  or  laid  a  foundation 
for  establishing  personal  independence,  were  most  generally  trusted, 
and  most  successfully  employed  in  establishing  that  of  their  coun- 
try. In  these  times  of  action,  classical  education  was  found  of  less 
service  than  good  natural  parts,  guided  by  common  sense  and 
sound  judgement. 

Several  names  could  be  mentioned  of  individuals  who  without 
the  knowledge  of  any  other  language  than  their  mother  tongue, 
wrote  not  only  accurately,  but  elegantly,  on  public  business.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  war  not  only  required,  but  created  talents.  Men 
whose  minds  were  warmed  with  the  love  of  liberty,  and  whose 
abilities  were  improved  by  daily  exercise,  and  sharpened  with  a 
laudable  ambition  to  serve  their  distressed  country,  spoke,  wrote, 
and  acted,  with  an  energy  far  surpassing  all  expectations  which 
could  be  reasonably  founded  on  their  previous  acquirements. 

The  Americans  knew  but  little  of  one  another,  previous  to  the 
revolution.    Trade  and   business  had  brought  the  inhabitants  of 


170       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

their  seaports  acquainted  with  each  other,  but  the  bulk  of  the  peo- 
ple in  the  interior  country  were  unacc|uainted  with  their  fellow  citi- 
zens. A  continental  army,  and  a  Congress  composed  of  men  from 
all  the  States,  by  freely  mixing  together,  were  assimilated  into  one 
mass.  Individuals  of  both,  mingling  with  the  citizens,  disseminated 
principles  of  union  among  them.  Local  prejudices  abated.  -By  fre- 
quent collision  asperities  were  worn  off,  and  a  foundation  was  laid 
for  the  establishment  of  a  nation,  out  of  discordant  materials.  In- 
termarriages between  men  and  women  of  different  States  were 
much  more  common  than  before  the  war,  and  became  an  additional 
cement  to  the  union.  Unreasonable  jealousies  had  existed  between 
the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  and  of  the  southern  States  ;  but  on 
becoming  better  acquainted  with  each  other,  these  in  a  great  meas- 
ure subsided.  A  wiser  policy  prevailed.  Men  of  liberal  minds  led 
the  way  in  discouraging  local  distinctions,  and  the  great  body  of 
the  people,  as  soon  as  reason  got  the  better  of  prejudice,  found 
that  their  best  interests  would  be  most  effectually  promoted  by  such 
practices  and  sentiments  as  were  favourable  to  union.  Religious 
bigotry  had  broken  in  upon  the  peace  of  various  sects,  before  the 
American  war.  This  was  kept  up  by  partial  establishments,  and 
by  a  dread  that  the  church  of  England  through  the  power  of  the 
mother  country,  would  be  made  to  triumph  over  all  other  denomi- 
nations. These  apprehensions  were  done  away  by  the  revolution. 
The  different  sects,  having  nothing  to  fear  from  each  other, 
dismissed  all  religious  controversy.  A  proposal  for  introducing 
bishops  into  America  before  the  w'ar,  had  kindled  a  flame  among 
the  dissenters  ;  but  the  revolution  was  no  sooner  accomplished, 
than  a  scheme  for  that  purpose  was  perfected,  with  the  consent 
and  approbation  of  all  those  sects  who  had  previously  opposed 
it.  Pulpits  which  had  formerly  been  shut  to  worthy  men,  because 
their  heads  had  not  been  consecrated  by  the  imposition  of  the 
hands  of  a  Bishop  or  of  a  Presbytery,  have  since  the  establish- 
ment of  independence,  been  reciprocally  opened  to  each  other, 
whensoever  the  public  convenience  required  it.  The  world  will 
soon  see  the  result  of  an  experiment  in  politics,  and  be  able  to  de- 
termine whether  the  happiness  of  society  is  increased  by  religious 
establishments,  or  diminished  by  the  want  of  them.   .   .   . 


RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR  I  7  r 

From  the  latter  periods  of  the  revolution  till  the  j^reseiit  time, 
schools,  colleges,  societies  and  institutions  for  promoting  literature, 
arts,  manufactures,  agriculture,  and  for  extending  human  happi- 
ness, have  been  increased  far  beyond  any  thing  that  ever  took 
place  before  the  declaration  of  independence.  Every  state  in 
the  union,  has  done  more  or  less  in  this  way,  but  1  Pennsylvania 
has  done  the  most.  The  following  institutions  have  been  ver\' 
lately  founded  in  that  state,  and  most  of  them  in  the  time  of  the 
war  or  since  the  peace.  An  university  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  ; 
a  college  of  physicians  in  the  same  place ;  Dickinson  college  at 
Carlisle  ;  Franklin  college  at  Lancaster  ;  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
academy  in  Philadelphia  ;  academies  at  Yorktown,  at  Germantow^n, 
at  Pittsburgh  and  Washington  ;  and  an  academy  in  Philadelphia 
for  young  ladies  ;  societies  for  promoting  political  enquiries  ;  for 
the  medical  relief  of  the  poor,  under  the  title  of  the  Philadelphia 
Dispensary  ;  for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  relief 
of  free  negroes  unlawfully  held  in  bondage  ;  for  propagating  the 
gospel  among  the  Indians,  under  the  direction  of  the  United 
Brethren ;  for  the  encouragement  of  manufactures  and  the  useful 
arts  ;  for  alleviating  the  miseries  of  prisons.  Such  have  been  some 
of  the  beneficial  effects,  which  have  resulted  from  that  expansion 
of  the  human  mind,  which  has  been  produced  by  the  revolution, 
but  these  have  not  been  without  alloy. 

To  overset  an  established  government  unhinges  many  of  those 
principles,  which  bind  individuals  to  each  other.  A  long  time,  and 
much  prudence,  will  be  necessary  to  reproduce  a  spirit  of  union 
and  that  reverence  for  government,  without  which  society  is  a  rope 
of  sand.  The  right  of  the  people  to  resist  their  rulers,  when  in- 
vading their  liberties,  forms  the  corner  stone  of  the  American  re- 
publics. This  principle,  though  just  in  itself,  is  not  favourable  to 
the  tranquillity  of  present  establishments.  The  maxims  and  meas- 
ures, which  in  the  year  1774  and  1775  were  successfully  inculcated 
and  adopted  by  American  patriots,  for  oversetting  the  established 
government,  \\n\\  answer  a  similar  purpose  when  recurrence  is  had 
to  them  by  factious  demagogues,  for  disturbing  the  freest  govern- 
ments that  were  ever  devised. 


172        ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

War  never  fails  to  injure  the  morals  of  the  people  engaged  in 
it.  The  American  war,  in  particular,  had  an  unhappy  influence  of 
this  kind.  Being  begun  without  funds  or  regular  establishments, 
it  could  not  be  carried  on  without  violating  private  rights  ;  and  in 
its  progress,  it  involved  a  necessity  for  breaking  solemn  promises, 
and  plighted  public  faith,  l^he  failure  of  national  justice,  which 
was  in  some  degree  unavoidable,  increased  the  difficulties  of  per- 
forming private  engagements,  and  weakened  that  sensibility  to  the 
obligation^  of  public  and  private  honor,  which  is  a  security  for  the 
punctual  performance  of  contracts.   .   .   . 

On  the  whole,  the  literary,  political,  and  militaiy  talents  of  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  have  been  improved  by  the  revolu- 
lution,  but  their  moral  character  is  inferior  to  what  it  formerly 
was.  So  great  is  the  change  for  the  worse,  that  the  friends  of 
public  order  are  loudly  called  upon  to  exert  their  utmost  abilities, 
in  extirpating  the  vicious  principles  and  habits,  which  have  taken 
deep  root  during  the  late  convulsions.   .  .   . 


^  To  aid  the  work  of  ruin,  the  paper  currency  of  the  country 
operated  in  the  most  powerful,  and  malignant  manner.  At  the  first 
effusion  of  this  evil  upon  the  community,  every  sordid  passion  of 
man  was  stimulated  to  the  most  vigorous  exertion.  Wealth,  for 
such  it  seemed  to  the  fancy,  was  acquired  with  an  ease,  and  ra- 
pidity, which  astonished  the  possessor.  The  price  of  labour,  and 
of  every  vendible  commodity,  rose  in  a  moment  to  a  height  un- 
exampled. Avarice,  ambition,  and  luxury,  saw  their  wishes  antici- 
pated ;  and  began  to  grasp  at  objects  of  which  they  had  not  before 
even  dreamed.  Sudden  wealth  rarely  fails  of  becoming  sudden 
ruin  :  and  most  of  those  who  acquire  it,  are  soon  beggared  in 
morals,  if  not  In  property. 

At  the  end  of  two  years,  this  currency,  in  consequence  of  enor- 
mous emissions,  began  sensibly  to  depreciate  ;  and  the  depreciation 
became  a  new  source  of  degeneracy.  The  want  of  an  established 
standard  of  estimation,  by  which  the  value  of  commodities  may  be 
ascertained,  the  price  of  labour  regulated,  and  bargains  equitably 

1  Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1796-1815],  IV,  369-371. 


RESULTS  Ol'  THE  WAR  I  73 

adjusted,  is  a  greater  evil  than  any  man,  who  has  not  been  a  wit- 
ness of  its  consequences,  can  be  induced  to  believe.  A  general 
perplexity  at  once  clouded  all  human  dealings  ;  and  it  soon  became 
impossible  for  upright  men  to  determine  whether  their  bargains 
were  honest,  or  oppressive.  After  a  short  period  every  case  of  this 
nature  was  determined,  not  by  a  general  mle,  but  by  what  the  par- 
ties thought  its  own  merits  ;  and  to  these  avarice  lent  its  uniform 
bias.  Within  three  years  from  the  commencement  of  this  evil,  the 
currency  sank  so  low,  as  to  be  refused  in  exchange  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life  :  and,  notwithstanding  the  abundance  of  provisions  in 
this  country,  those,  who  could  afford  nothing  else,  were  frequently 
reduced  to  very  serious  difficulties.  Barter  became  extensively,  the 
established  mode  of  dealing  ;  and  barter  is  the  natural  parent  of 
the  low  cunning,  and  the  gross  knavery  of  a  jockey.  A  stable  cur- 
rency, beside  furnishing  incalculable  facility  to  commerce,  is  of  in- 
estimable benefit  to  mankind,  trs  a  kmnun  standard  of  coninintative 
justice,  and  the  great  means  of  enforcing  it  in  all  the  varieties  of 
covimcrcial  intercourse.  For  the  want  of  such  a  standard,  the  gen- 
eral sense  of  right  and  obligation,  in  buying  and  selling,  was  gradu- 
ally lowered ;  and  the  pride  of  making  what  are  called  good  bargains, 
a  soft  name  for  cheating,  gradually  extended.  Whatever  was  not 
punishable  by  law,  multitudes  considered  as  rectitude.  That  deli- 
cacy of  mind,  which  shrinks  at  the  approach  of  wrong ;  that  ten- 
derness of  conscience,  which  turns  with  apprehension  from  every 
doubtful  moral  action  ;  was  extensively  succeeded  by  those  gross 
views,  which  are  satisfied,  where  magistrates  do  not  meddle,  and 
where  shame  does  not  terrify.  In  the  mean  time  the  existing  gov- 
ernment was  peculiarly  unhappy.  All  regular  public  functionaries 
lost  during  this  period,  either  the  whole,  or  a  great  part  of  their 
proper  efficacy.  In  their  stead,  conimittces  of  inspection  and  corre- 
spojidence,  assumed  an  extensive  control  over  both  the  public  and 
private  affairs  of  their  country.  The  powers  of  these  bodies  were 
undefined  ;  and,  therefore,  soon  became  merely  discretionary.  Yet 
they  were  the  tribunals,  by  which  almost  every  cause  was  decided. 
In  most  instances*  they  were  composed  of  men,  unlearned  in  law, 
and  unskilled  in  public  business.  They  had  no  precedents,  and  no 
known  rules  of  judging.    Often  they  were  the  dupes  of  cunning ; 


174       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

and  often  of  fiattety.  At  one  time  they  were  awed  by  superiority 
of  character  in  their  suitors  :  at  another,  they  were  influenced  solely 
by  the  base  pleasure  of  humbling  those,  by  whom  it  was  possessed. 
Extensively  they  were  victims  of  the  addling  pride,  felt  by  little 
minds,  when  unexpectedly  invested  with  authority,  and  the  con- 
sequent love  of  domineering.  It  is  hardly  necessaiy  to  ask,  what 
were  the  decisions,  flowing  from  this  combination  of  ignorance, 
perplexity,  and  prejudice.  Veiy  many,  and  very  great  evils,  were 
actually  produced  by  this  government ;  and  that  it  did  not  produce 
many  more  is  no  small  encomium  on  the  character  of  my  country- 
men, and  a  proof  of  the  superintending  care  and  good  providence 
of  God. 

TJic  iiifluoicc  of  a  i^<cak  and  JJuctiiating  govcrnvicnt  on  the 
morals  and  happiiicss  of  mankind,  is,  to  say  the  least,  not  less 
malignant  than  that  of  an  established  despotism.  The  men,  who 
under  a  better  system  had  formed  just  and  exact  views  of  what 
was  right,  almost  necessarily  receded  from  such  views  by  an  im- 
perceptible declension.  The  rising  generation  grew  up,  for  a  season 
with  scarcely  any  other  ideas  concerning  this  immensely  important 
subject,  than  those  which  were  defective.  Even  justice,  and  truth  ; 
virtues  mathematically  defined,  and  perfectly  known  in  a  sound 
state  of  society ;  were  now,  to  a  great  extent,  seen  only  in  a  fluctu- 
ating light,  which  half  discovered,  and  half  concealed,  their  real 
nature.  But  when  these  two  great  pillars  of  morality  tremble,  the 
whole  building  totters,   ... 


B.    Influence  upon  Europe 

^  Letter  from  Franklin  and  Deane  to  Committee  of  Seerct 
Correspondence,  Paris,  Alareh  12,  I'J'J'J 

All  Europe  is  for  us.  Our  Articles  of  Confederation  being  by 
our  means  translated  and  published  here,  have  given  an  appear- 
ance of  consistence  and  firmness  to  the  American  States  and  Gov- 
ernment  that   begins  to  make  them  considerajjle.    The  separate 

1  Wharton,  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  II,  2cS7-288. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 


175 


constitutions  of  the  several  States  are  also  translatin*;'  and  publish- 
ing here,  which  afford  abundance  of  speculation  to  the  politicians 
of  Europe,  and  it  is  a  very  general  opinion  that  if  we  succeed  in 
establishing  our  liberties,  we  shall,  as  soon  as  peace  is  restored, 
receive  an  immense  addition  of  numbers  and  wealth  from  Europe, 
by  the  families  who  will  come  over  to  participate  in  our  privileges, 
and  bring  their  estates  with  them.  Tyranny  is  so  generally  estab- 
lished in  the  rest  of  the  world,  that  the  prospect  of  an  asylum  in 
America  for  those  who  love  liberty,  gives  general  joy,  and  our 
cause  is  esteemed  the  cause  of  all  mankind.  Slaves  naturally  be- 
come base,  as  well  as  wretched.  We  are  fighting  for  the  dignity 
and  happiness  of  human  nature.  Glorious  is  it  for  the  Americans 
to  be  called  by  Providence  to  this  post  of  honor.  Cursed  and  de- 
tested will  every  one  be  that  deserts  or  betrays  it, 

^  The  late  war,  in  its  commencement  and  progress,  did  great 
good  by  disseminating  just  sentiments  of  the  rights  of  mankind, 
and  the  nature  of  legitimate  government ;  by  exciting  a  spirit  of 
resistance  to  tyranny  which  has  emancipated  one  European  coun- 
try, and  is  likely  to  emancipate  others  ;  and  by  occasioning  the 
establishment  in  America  of  forms  of  government  more  equitable 
and  more  liberal  than  any  that  the  world  has  yet  known.  But,  in 
its  termijiation,  the  war  has  done  still  greater  good  by  preserving 
the  new  governments  from  that  destruction  in  which  they  must 
have  been  involved,  had  Britain  c(jnquercd  ;  by  providing,  in  a  se- 
questered continent  possessed  of  many  singular  advantages,  a  place 
of  refuge  for  opprest  men  in  every  region  of  the  world  ;  and  by 
laying  the  foundation  there  of  an  empire  which  may  be  the  seat  of 
liberty,  science  and  virtue,  and  from  whence  there  is  reason  to  hope 
these  sacred  blessings  will  spread,  till  they  become  universal,  and 
the  time  arrives  when  kings  and  priests  shall  have  no  more  power 
to  oppress,  and  that  ignominious  slavery  which  has  hitherto  debased 
the  world  is  exterminated.  I  therefore,  think  I  see  the  hand  of 
Providence  in  the  late  war  working  for  the  general  good, 

1  Price,  Observations  on  the  Importance  of  the  American  Revolution  [1785], 
PP-  --3- 


176       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

^Letter  of  Tnrgot  to  Dr.  Piicc,  March  22,  lyjS 

It  is  impossible  not  to  wish  ardently  that  this  people  may  attain 
to  all  the  prosperity  of  which  they  are  capable.  They  are  the  Jiope 
of  the  world.  They  may  become  a  vwdcl  to  it.  They  viay  prove 
by  fact  that  men  can  be  free  and  yet  tranquil ;  and  that  it  is  in  their 
power  to  rescue  themselves  from  the  chains  in  which  tyrants  and 
knaves  of  all  descriptions  have  presumed  to  bind  them  under  the 
pretence  of  public  good.  They  may  exhibit  an  example  oi  political 
liberty,  of  religious  liberty,  of  conniicrcial  liberty,  and  of  industry. 
The  Asylum  they  open  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  should  con- 
sole the  earth.  The  ease  with  which  the  injured  may  escape  from 
oppressive  governments,  will  compel  Princes  to  become  just  and 
cautious  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  world  will  gradually  open  their  eyes 
upon  the  empty  illusions  with  which  they  have  been  hitherto  cheated 
by  politicians.  But  for  this  purpose  America  must  preserve  Jicrself 
from  these  illusions  ;  and  take  care  to  avoid  being  what  your  minis- 
terial writers  are  frequently  saying  She  zvill  be  —  an  image  of  our 
Europe —  a  mass  of  divided  powers  contending  for  territory  and 
commerce,  and  continually  cementing  the  slavery  of  the  people 
with  their  own  blood. 

2  I  will  not  speak  of  the  advantages  which  all  America  must  one 
day  reap  from  this  revolution  ;  nor  of  the  impossibility  that  absurd 
despotism  should  reign  for  a  long  time  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
liberty.  —  I  will  confine  myself  to  the  examination  of  what  advan- 
tages Europe,  and  F" ranee  in  particular,  may  draw  from  this  change. 
There  are  two  which  are  particularly  striking  :  the  first,  the  greatest 
of  the  revolution,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  philosophy,  is  that  of  its 
salutary  influence  on  human  knowledge,  and  on  the  reform  of  local 
prejudices  ;  for  this  war  has  occasioned  discussions  imporfcmt  to 
public  happiness,  —  the  discussion  of  the  social  compact,  —  of  civil 
liberty,  —  of  the  means  which  can  render  a  people  independent, 
of  the  circumstances  which  give  sanction  to  its  insurrection,  and 
make  it  legal,  —  and  which  give  this  people  a  place  among  the 
powers  of  the  earth. 

1  Price,  Observations  on  the  Importance  of  the  American  Revolution.- 

2  iJrissot  de  Warville,  The  Commerce  of  America  with  Europe  [178S],  pp.  8-g. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR  I  77 

What  good  has  not  resulted  from  the  repeated  description  of 
the  EngHsh  constitution,  and  of  its  effects  ?  What  good  has  not 
resulted  from  the  codes  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  published 
and  spread  everywhere  ?  And  what  benefits  will  they  still  produce  ? 
They  will  not  be  wholly  taken  for  a  model  ;  but  despotism  will 
pay  a  greater  respect,  either  from  necessity  or  reason,  to  the  rights 
of  men,  which  are  so  well  known  and  established.  Enlightened 
by  this  revolution,  the  governments  of  Europe  will  be  insensibly 
obliged  to  reform  their  abuses,  and  to  diminish  their  burdens,  in 
the  just  apprehension  that  their  subjects,  tired  of  bearing  the 
weight,  will  take  refuge  in  the  asylum  offered  to  them  by  the 
United  States. 

This  revolution,  favourable  to  the  people,  which  is  preparing 
in  the  cabinets  of  Europe,  will  be  undoubtedly  accelerated,  by  that 
which  its  commerce  will  experience,  and  which  we  owe  to  the  en- 
franchisement of  America.  The  war  which  procured  it  to  her,  has 
made  known  the  influence  of  commerce  on  power,  the  necessity  of 
public  credit,  and  consequently  of  public  virtue,  without  which  it 
cannot  long  subsist :  —  What  raised  the  English  to  that  height  of 
power,  from  whence,  in  spite  of  the  faults  of  their  Ministers,  Gen- 
erals, and  Negociators,  they  braved,  for  so  many  years,  the  force 
of  the  most  powerful  nations  ?  Their  commerce,  and  their  credit ; 
which,  loaded  as  they  were  with  an  enormous  debt,  put  them  in  a 
state  to  use  all  the  efforts  which  nations,  the  most  rich  by  their 
soil  and  population,  could  not  have  done  in  a  like  case. 

These  are  the  advantages  which  Erance,  the  world,  and  human- 
ity, owe  to  the  American  Revolution  ;  and  when  we  consider  them, 
and  add  those  we  are  obliged  to  let  remain  in  obscurity,  we  are  far 
from  regretting  the  expences  they  occasioned  us. 

1  What  then  is  the  true  test  of  the  historical  importance  of 
events  .?  I  say,  it  is  their  pirgnancy,  or  in  other  words  the  great- 
ness of  the  consequences  likely  to  follow  from  them.  On  this 
principle  I  have  argued  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  expan- 
sion of  England  is  historically  far  more  important  than  all  domes- 
tic questions  and  movements.    Look  at  the  great  personage  who 

1  Seeley,  The  Expansion  of  England  [Course  I,  I>ecture  viii]. 


178       ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

dominates  English  politics  through  the  whole  middle  period  of 
that  century,  the  elder  Pitt.  His  greatness  is  throughout  identified 
with  the  expansion  of  England  ;  he  is  a  statesman  of  Greater  Brit- 
ain. It  is  in  the  buccaneering  war  with  Spain  that  he  sows  his 
political  wild  oats  ;  his  glory  is  won  in  the  great  colonial  duel  with 
France  ;  his  old  age  is  spent  in  striving  to  avert  schism  in  Greater 
Britain. 

Look  now  at  the  American  Revolution.  In  pregnancy  this  event 
is  evidently  unique.  So  it  has  always  struck  impartial  observers  at 
a  distance.  But  the  newspaper  politicians  of  the  day  had  no  time 
for  such  large  views.  To  them  it  presented  itself  only  in  detail,  as 
.a  series  of  questions  upon  which  Parliament  would  divide.  These 
questions  came  before  them  mixed  up  inextricably  with  other  ques- 
tions, often  of  the  pettiest  kind,  yet  at  the  moment  not  less  impor- 
tant as  practical  questions  of  party  politics.   .   .   . 

Now  I  do  not  think  I  risk  anything  by  saying  in  contradiction 
to  all  this  that  the  American  Revolution,  instead  of  being  a  tire- 
some unfortunate  .business  which  may  be  dispatched  in  a  very  brief 
narrative,  is  an  event  not  only  of  greater  importance  but  on  an 
altogether  higher  level  of  importance  than  almost  any  other  in 
modern  English  history,  and  that  it  is  intrinsically  much  more 
memorable  to  us  than  our  great  war  with  Revolutionary  PVance, 
which  indeed  only  arrives  to  be  at  all  comparable  to  it  through  the 
vast  indirect  consequences  produced  necessarily  by  a  war  on  so 
large  a  scale  and  continued  so  long.  No  doubt  it  is  much  more 
stirring  to  read  of  the  Nile,  Trafalgar,  the  Peninsula  and  Waterloo 
than  of  Bunker's  Hill,  Brandywine,  Saratoga  and  Yorktown,  and 
this  not  only  because  we  like  better  to  think  of  victory  than  of  de- 
feat, but  also  because  in  a  military  sense  the  struggle  with  France 
was  greater  and  more  interesting  than  that  with  America,  and 
Napoleon,  Nelson,  and  Wellington  were  greater  commanders  than 
those  who  appeared  in  the  American  Revolution.  But  events  take 
rank  in  history  not  as  they  are  stirring  or  exciting,  much  less  as 
they  are  gratifying  to  ourselves,  but  as  they  are  pregnant  with 
consequences. 

The  American  Revolution  called  into  existence  a  new  state,  a 
state  inheriting  the  language  and  traditions  of  England,  but  taking 


RKSl^LTS  OF  THE  WAR 


179 


in  some  respects  a  line  of  its  own,  in  which  it  departed  from  the 
precedents  not  only  of  ICngland  but  of  Juirope.  lliis  state  was  at 
the  time  not  large  in  pojuilation,  though  it  was  very  large  in  terri- 
tory, and  there  were  many  chances  that  it  would  dissolve  again  and 
never  grow  to  be  very  powerful.  Hut  it  has  not  dissohed  ;  it  has 
advanced  steadily,  and  is  now,  as  1  have  said,  superior  not  only  in 
territory  but  in  population  also  to  every  European  state  except 
Russia.  Now  it  is  by  this  result  that  1  estimate  the  historic  im- 
portance of  the  Revolution,  since  it  is  with  the  rise  and  dexelop- 
ment  of  states  that  history  deals. ^ 

1  Perhaps  the  most  important  purely  economic  result  of  the  Revolution  upon 
Europe  was  to  demonstrate,  to  England  at  least,  that  the  policy  of  commercial 
restrictions  was  not  necessary  to  secure  colonial  trade.  She  lost  political  control 
of  the  American  colonies,  but  she  did  not  lose  their  trade.  This  fact  undoubtedly 
had  great  influence  in  modifying  the  commercial  part  of  her  colonial  policy.  The 
American  Revolution  was  therefore  the  first  great  blow  at  the  Mercantile  System 
in  the  realm  of  practical  affairs  as  the  Wealth  of  Nations  was  in  the  realm  of 
thought. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   ECONOMIC   SITUATION   AND   THE   NEW 
GOVERNMENT 

INTRODUCTION 

The  seven  or  eight  years  which  followed  the  close  of  the  Revolution  are 
now  commonly  referred  to  as  the  critical  period  of  American  history.  It  was 
critical  from  the  political  point  of  view,  for  it  witnessed  the  most  profound 
political  change  in  our  experience,  the  formation  and  establishment  of  a  new 
kind  of  central  government.  To  the  student  of  economic  history  it  is  the  rela- 
tion of  this  political  change  to  economic  conditions  which  furnish  the  prin- 
cipal subject  of  interest  in  the  period.  The  relation  of  economic  conditions  to 
politics  is  at  all  times  a  double  one.  On  the  one  hand,  it  includes  the  effect 
which  governmental  action  has  upon  economic  conditions,  the  results  of  its 
economic  policy ;  and,  on  the  other,  it  includes  the  influence  of  economic  con- 
ditions upon  the  government  itself.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  separate  the  two, 
and  not  infrequently  one  is  mistaken  for  the  other  in  historical  literature.  The 
true  causal  relation  between  the  action  of  government  and  economic  conditions 
is  often  reversed  in  the  historical  account.  The  latter  are  supposed  to  be  the 
result  of  the  action  or  non-action  of  government,  when  in  reality  they  have 
been  determined  by  other  forces,  and  have  had  great  influence  in  determining 
political  action  itself.  This  is  an  error  that  is  the  more  likely  to  appear  in 
American  history,  because  the  writers  of  it  make  large  use  of  public  documents 
and  the  utterances  of  public  men,  who  are  always  interested  in  making  the 
government  receive  the  credit,  or  bear  the  blame,  for  whatever  of  prosperity  or 
economic  depression  accompanies  or  follows  political  action.  Moreover,  few 
of  them  have  had  the  training  necessary  to  accurately  trace  cause  and  effect  in 
economic  affairs. 

For  these  reasons  the  current  view  of  the  relation  of  economics  and  politics 
during  the  critical  period  is  hardly  satisfactory.  There  has  always  been  a  dis- 
position to  hold  the  old  confederation  responsible  for  the  economic  difficulties 
of  the  time,  and  to  give  to  the  new  government,  which  followed  it,  credit  for 
the  prosperity  which  came  with  its  establishment.  There  is  very  good  reason, 
however,  for  thinking  that  the  causal  relation  between  economic  and  political 
conditions  is  really  the  reverse  of  this.  Economic  conditions,  over  which  gov- 
ernment had  little  or  no  control,  wrecked  the  old  confederation  ;  while  a  pros- 
perity, slowly  prepared  by  influences  that  were  for  the  most  part  independent 

I  So 


INTRODUCTION  l8l 

of  politics,  smoothed  the  way  for  the  cstabHshment  of  the  new  government  and 
insured  its  extraordinary  success. 

The  reasons  for  this  view  may  be  briefly  stated.  From  an  economic  point 
of  view,  the  decade  following  the  Revolution  represents  one  of  those  cycles  of 
commercial  speculation,  crisis,  hard  times  and  gradual  return  to  conditions  of 
prosperity,  which  has  been  repeated  so  often  in  our  economic  history.  What 
appears  to  have  taken  place  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution  was  a  short  period 
of  great  commercial  activity  based  upon  the  expectation  that  peace  would  be 
followed  by  prosperity.  It  was  well  recognized  that  prosperity  depended  upon 
foreign  trade,  and  large  imports  were  made  in  the  expectation  that  even  larger 
markets  foi  exports  would  be  opened  than  had  been  enjoyed  in  colonial  times. 
But  these  markets  were  not  opened ;  the  expectations  of  the  merchants  were 
not  fulfilled ;  and  a  crisis  followed.  There  were  only  two  ways  to  remedy  this 
situation  and  to  win  back  some  measure  of  prosperity.  One  was  to  secure  the 
opening  of  some  of  the  old  markets  or  discover  new  ones  ;  the  other  was  to 
stop  consuming  foreign  commodities  and  to  produce  as  many  as  possible  of 
them  at  home.  The  people  in  their  economic  activity  as  individuals  set  about 
remedying  the  difficulties  in  both  of  these  ways.  They  opened  up  a  new  trade 
to  the  west  coast  of  America,  to  China,  and  to  the  East  Indies;  and  the  scar- 
city of  crops  in  France  soon  created  a  demand  for  bread  stuffs  in  that  country 
and  her  West  India  colonies  and  opened  their  ports.  Great  numbers  of  small 
manufacturing  enterprises  were  started  and  flourished,  and,  above  all,  the  people 
gave  up  the  extravagance  which  had  been  fostered  by  the  war,  and  commercial 
speculation  which  followed  it,  and  adopted  a  more  frugal  style  of  living.  The 
effect  of  these  changes  acting  over  a  period  of  years  was  gradually  to  change  eco- 
nomic conditions  from  extreme  depression  to  almost  normal  prosperity,  before 
the  new  government  came  into  existence  in  the  spring  of  i  7S9,  and  before  any 
of  its  measures  had  time  to  produce  an  effect. 

It  is  diflicult  to  see  how  the  old  confederation,  if  it  had  possessed  all  the 
efficiency  which  had  been  given  to  the  new  government,  could  have  done  any- 
thing to  remedy  the  situation.  The  root  of  the  difficulty  was  the  dislocation  of 
our  commercial  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world  following  great  commercial 
speculation.  It  was  believed  by  many  statesmen  that  a  stronger  government 
could  relieve  the  situation  by  forcing  other  nations  to  make  commercial  con- 
cessions ;  and  commercial  considerations  were  no  doubt  the  chief  influence 
leading  to  the  constitutional  convention.  But  that  this  was  a  vain  hope  is  shown 
by  the  significant  fact  that  the  commercial  powers  granted  to  the  new  govern- 
ment were  never  used  in  this  way.  It  soon  became  clear  enough  that  com- 
mercial retaliation  could  never  force  from  other  nations  the  concessions  we 
desired,  and  the  policy  was  never  adopted  by  the  new  government,  although  it 
had  been  given  the  power  to  do  so.  The  only  other  way  in  which  the  govern- 
ment could  aid  in  remedying  the  situation  was  by  promoting  the  growth  of 
domestic  industries  to  take  the  place  of  foreign  trade  in  supplying  the  wants 
of  the  people.    A  stronger  government  could  have  levied  heavy  duties  to  check 


1 82  THE  KCONOMIC  SITUATION 

imports,  but  as  those  imports  were  already  effectively  checked  by  the  impossibility 
of  paying  for  them,  and  as  great  progress  was  being  made  in  the  growth  of  new 
industries,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  exercise  of  this  power  could  have  pro- 
duced any  important  results. 

The  defects  of  the  old  confederation  were  then  in  no  way  responsible  for 
the  hard  times.  It  had  not  produced  them,  nor  could  the  best  government  in 
the  world  have  removed  them.  It  could  only  have  enabled  the  people  to  en- 
dure them  with  more  equanimity.  If  it  is  impossible  to  connect  the  hard  times 
of  the  early  part  of  the  period  with  the  old  confederation,  so  it  is  impossible  to 
attribute  the  return  of  prosperity  to  the  influence  of  the  new  government.  Be- 
fore it  came  into  existence,  the  signs  of  improvement  were  plainly  evident,  and 
long  before  any  of  its  measures  could  have  affected  the  situation,  the  full  tide 
of  prosperity  had  reached  us.  Our  trade  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world 
steadily  improved,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  we  were  able  to  import  and  pay 
for  more  English  goods.  By  1 790  the  imports  nearly  equaled  what  had  been 
purchased  on  credit  in  the  boom  times  of  1784.^  Tench  Coxe  in  1787  and 
rhineas  Bond  the  next  year  bore  witness  to  the  rapid  progress  that  had  been 
made  in  the  growth  of  manufactures."  Washington,  who  all  through  the  year 
I  788  was  anxiously  watching  every  circumstance  that  could  affect  the  fate  of 
the  new  Constitution,  noted  the  improvement  and  declared  that  the  people  "  are 
emerging  from  the  gulf  of  dissipation  and  debt  into  which  they  had  precipi- 
tated themselves  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Economy  and  industry  are  evidently 
gaining  ground.  Not  only  agriculture  but  even  manufactures  are  much  more 
attended  to  than  formerly." 

As  has  happened  so  often  in  our  later  history,  the  foundation  of  returning 
prosperity  was  laid  before  political  action  was  taken.  The  new  government 
came  into  existence  just  in  time  to  receive  the  credit  for  improved  economic 
conditions,  and  to  be  floated  into  power  and  popularity  by  that  prestige.  The 
only  influence  in  producing  this  result,  which  may  fairly  be  attributed  to  it,  is 
the  effect  of  that  increased  confidence  which  its  establishment  brought  about. 
Just  as  hard  times  had  brought  failure  to  the  old  confederation,  so  prosperity, 
if  it  did  not  actually  cause  the  success  of  the  new  government,  greatly  simplified 
the  problem  of  its  establishment.  One  may  well  wonder  what  would  have  been 
the  fate  of  Hamilton's  brilliant  projects,  the  refunding  of  the  debt,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  revenue  system,  if  they  had  been  tried  on  the  country 
during  the  economic  gloom   of  17S5-1786. 

^  The  English  customhouse  statistics  show  the  exports  to  the  United  States: 
1784.  ;^3'679-467;  1785,  ;^2,3oS,023;  1786,  ;^i,6o3,465;  17S7,  ;^2,oo9,iii;  17SS, 
;^i,SS6,i42;   1789,  ;^2, 525,298;   1790,  ;^3-43'-778. 

2  See  Coxe,  A  View  of  the  United  States  of  Amcricii,  and  Bond's  Letters  in 
Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  1896,  1. 


GENERAL  CXWDITIONS  1S3 

I.  GENERAL  CONDITIONS  —  ECONOM  It'  Dl'.I'RESSlOiN 
OF  THE  COUNTKN 

^  One  lai">;r  portion  of  iho  woaltlu"  men  of  colonial  times  had 
been  expatriated,  and  another  part  had  been  impoverished  b)-  the 
Revolution.  In  their  place  a  new  moneyed  class  had  sprung  up, 
cspeeialK'  in  the  eastern  states,  men  who  had  grown  rich  in  the 
course  of  the  war  as  sutlers,  by  privateering,  by  speculations  in  the 
fluctuating  paper  money,  and  by  other  operations  not  always  of 
the  most  honorable  kind.  Large  t-laims  against  their  less  fortunate 
neighbors  had  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  these  men,  man\'  of 
whom  were  disposed  to  press  their  legal  rights  to  the  utmost.  The 
sudden  fortunes  made  by  the  war  had  introduced  a  spirit  of  luxury 
into  the  maritime  towns,  and  even  the  taste  and  manners  of  the 
rural  inhabitants  had  been  tainted  by  the  effects  of  military  serxice, 
in  which  so  large  a  part  of  the  male  population  had  been  more  or 
less  engaged.  'Lhe  hsheries.  formerlv  a  chief  resource  ot  New 
L3ngland,  broken  up  by  the  war,  had  not  \et  been  re-established. 
The  farmers  no  longer  found  that  market  for  their  produce  which 
the  French,  American,  and  Hritish  armies  had  furnishetl.  The 
large  importation  of  foreign  goods,  subject  to  little  or  no  duty, 
and  sold  at  peace  prices,  was  proving  ruinous  to  all  those  tlomes- 
tic  manufactures  and  mechanical  emploxnients  which  the  non- 
consumption  agreements  and  the  war  had  created  and  tostered. 
Immediatelv  after  the  peace,  the  countrv  had  been  flooded  with 
imported  goods,  and  debts  had  been  unwarih'  c^ontracted  tor  which 
there  was  no  means  to  pay.  The  iniports  from  Cireat  Britain  in 
the  vears  17S4  and  1785  had  amounted  in  value  to  thirt\-  milliims 
of  dollars,  while  the  exports  thither  had  not  exceedetl  nine  millions. 
The  lawyers,  whose  fees  were  thought  enormous,  and  who  were 
fast  growing  rich  from  the  multiplicitv  of  suits  with  which  all  the 
courts  abounded,  were  regarded  with  no  very  favorable  eyes  by  the 
mass  of  the  citizens,  impoverished  by  the  same  causes  to  which 
they  owed  their  wealth.  There  was  an  abundance  of  discontented 
persons  more  or  less  connected  with  tlie  late  arm\'.  deprixed  b\' 
the   peace  of    their  accustomed   means   o\'   support,    and    without 

'  llililrrth,  Ilislorv  of  llu-  I'nilt'd  Stati-s  of  Aiiu-rica,  111.   |(>5   .|(iS. 


1 84  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

oiDportunity  to  engage  in  productive  industry.  The  community, 
from  these  various  causes,  was  fast  becoming  divided  into  two 
embittered  factions  of  creditors  and  delators.  The  certificates  of 
the  pubhc  debt,  parted  with  at  a  great  discount  by  the  officers  and 
others  to  whom  they  had  been  given,  were  fast  accumulating  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  speculators  able  to  wait  for  better  times.  With 
the  example  of  the  old  tenor  paper  money  before  their  eyes,  an 
opinion  gained  ground  among  the  people,  oppressed  by  taxes  to 
meet  the  interest  on  these  debts,  that  the  holders  of  certificates  by 
purchase  were  only  entitled  to  receive  what  they  had  paid  —  an 
opinion  which  tended  to  still  further  depreciation.  Others  of  the 
debtor  party  had  more  extensive  views.  Stop  and  tender  laws 
were  called  for,  and  in  some  states  were  passed.  New  issues  of 
paper  money  were  demanded,  which,  by  their  depreciation,  might 
sweep  off  the  whole  mass  of  debt,  public  and  private.  Such  issues 
were  made  in  New  York  and  Rhode  Island,  in  which  latter  state 
John  Collins  had  just  been  elected  governor.  The  Rhode  Island 
paper  soon  depreciated  to  eight  for  one.  Laws  were  enacted  to 
enforce  its  circulation ;  but,  though  similar  to  those  formerly 
recommended  by  Congress  to  support  the  credit  of  the  Con- 
tinental money,  they  were  now  generally  denounced  as  oppres- 
sive and  unjust  and  obtained  for  Rhode  Island  an  unenviable 
notoriet}^ 

Even  those  states  which  issued  no  paper  were  far  from  enjoying 
a  sound  currency.  The  excessive  importation  of  foreign  goods  had 
drained  the  country  of  specie.  The  circulating  medium  consisted 
principally  of  treasury  orders  on  the  state  tax  collectors,  and  de- 
preciated certificates  of  state  and  federal  debt.  Even  among  those 
in  favor  of  meeting  the  public  liabilities  by  taxation,  there  was  a 
lack  of  agreement  as  to  the  way  in  which  taxes  should  be  raised. 
The  excessive  importation  of  foreign  goods,  and  the  consequent 
pressure  upon  domestic  manufacturers,  had  diminished  a  good 
deal  the  old  prejudice  against  customs  duties.  A  party  had 
sprung  up  in  favor  of  raising  a  large  part  of  the  public  revenue 
in  that  way,  thus  reviving  the  old  colonial  schemes  for  the  protec- 
tion of  domestic  industry  by  duties  upon  foreign  goods.  This, 
however,   was   opposed    by  the   merchants   as    injurious    to   their 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  1 85 

interests.  They  came  forward  as  tlic  champions  of  free  trade,  and 
insisted  upon  the  old  system  of  direct  taxation.  A  large  part  of 
the  people  seemed  quite  disinclined  to  submit  to  either  method. 

The  weakness,  for  some  years  jxist  so  evident  in  Congress,  had 
begun  to  extend  to  the  states.  Not  only  was  the  idea  in  circulation 
of  separating  into  two  or  three  confederacies,  but  some  of  the  princi- 
pal states  seemed  themselves  in  danger  of  splitting  into  fragments. 

^  Madisoif  s  Letters  to  Jefferson  and  R.  //.  Lee,  I'/S^-I'/SO 

...  I  had  the  additional  pleasure  here  [Harpers  Ferry]  of 
seeing  the  progress  of  the  works  on  the  Potowmac.  About  50 
hands  were  employed  at  these  falls  or  rather  rapids,  who  seemed 
to  have  overcome  the  greatest  difficulties.  Their  plan  is  to  slope 
the  fall  by  opening  the  bed  of  the  river,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
render  a  lock  unnecessary,  and,  by  means  of  ropes  fastened  to  the 
rocks,  to  pull  up  &  ease  down  the  boats  where  the  current  is  most 
rapid.  At  the  principal  falls  150  hands  I  was  told  were  at  work, 
and  that  the  length  of  the  canal  will  be  reduced  to  less  than  a 
mile,  and  carried  through  a  vale  which  does  not  require  it  to  be 
deep.  Locks  will  here  be  unavoidable.  The  undertakers  are  very 
sanguine.  Some  of  them  who  are  most  so  talk  of  having  the  en- 
tire work  finished  in  three  years.  I  can  give  no  particular  account 
of  the  progress  on  James  River,  but  am  told  it  is  very  flattering, 
I  am  still  less  informed  of  what  is  doing  in  North  Carolina  towards 
a  Canal  between  her  &  our  waters.  The  undertaking  on  the  Sus- 
quehannah  is  said  to  be  in  such  forwardness  as  to  leave  no  doubt 
of  its  success.  A  negociation  is  set  on  foot  betwx-en  Pen^., 
Mary'^,  &  Delaware,  for  a  canal  from  the  head  of  Chesapeak  to 
the  Delaware.  Mary"^  as  I  understand  heretofore  opposed  the 
undertaking,  and  Pen^  means  now  to  make  her  consent  to  it  a 
condition  on  which  the  opening  of  the  Susquehannah  within  the 
limits  of  Pen=*  will  depend.  Unless  this  is  permitted  the  opening 
undertaken  within  the  limits  of  Maryland  will  be  of  little  account. 
It  is  lucky  that  both  parties  are  so  dependent  on  each  other  as  to 
be  thus  mutually  forced  into  measures  of  general  utility.    I  am 

1  Writings,  II,  25S-264,  227-229,  150-151,  161-162. 


1 86  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

told  that  Pen-',  has  comphed  with  the  joint  request  of  Virg'"^  and 
Maryland  for  a  Road  between  the  head  of  Potowmac  and  the 
waters  of  the  Ohio  and  the  secure  &  free  use  of  the  latter  through 
her  jurisdiction.  These  fruits  of  the  Revolution  do  great  honour 
to  it.  I  wish  all  our  proceedings  merited  the  same  character.  Un- 
happily there  are  but  too  many  belonging  to  the  opposite  side  of 
the  acc\  At  the  head  of  these  is  to  be  put  the  general  rage. for 
paper  money.  Pen-''.  &  N.  Carolina  took  the  lead  in  this  folly.  In 
the  former  the  sum  emitted  was  not  considerable,  the  funds  for 
sinking  it  were  good,  and  it  was  not  made  a  legal  tender.  It  issued 
into  circulation  partly  by  way  of  loan  to  individuals  on  landed  se- 
curity, partly  by  way  of  payment  to  the  public  creditors.  Its  present 
depreciation  is  about  lo  or  12  per  c*.  In  N.  Carolina  the  sums  issued 
at  different  times  has  been  of  greater  amount,  and  it  has  constantly 
been  a  tender.  It  issued  partly  in  payments  to  military  creditors 
and  latterly,  in  purchases  of  Tob°.  on  public  account.  The  Agent 
I  am  informed  was  .authorised  to  give  nearly  the  double  of  the 
current  price,  and  as  the  paper  was  a  tender,  debtors  ran  to  him 
with  their  Tob°.,  and  the  creditors  paid  the  expence  of  the  farce. 
The  depreciation  is  said  to  be  25  or  30  per  c^  in  that  State. 
S.  Carolina  was  the  next  in  order.  Her  emission  was  in  the  way 
of  loans  to  individuals,  and  is  not  a  legal  tender.  But  land  is  there 
made  a  tender  in  case  of  suits  which  shuts  the  Courts  of  Justice, 
and  is  perhaps  as  great  an  evil.  The  friends  of  the  emission  say 
that  it  has  not  yet  depreciated,  but  they  admit  that  the  price  of 
commodities  has  risen,  which  is  evidently  the  form  in  which  de- 
preciation will  first  shew  itself.  New  Jersey  has  just  issued  ^^30,000 
(dollars  at  7s  6)  in  loans  to  her  citizens.  It  is  a  legal  tender.  An 
addition  of  ;^  100,000  is  shortly  to  follow  on  the  same  principles. 
The  terror  of  popular  associations  stifles  as  yet  an  overt  discrimi- 
nation between  it  &  specie  ;  but  as  this  does  not  operate  in 
Philad^  &  N.  York  where  all  the  trade  of  N.J.  is  carried  on,  its 
depreciation  has  already  commenced  in  those  places  &  must  soon 
communicate  itself  to  N.J.  New  York  is  striking  ;^200,000 
(dolK  at  Ss.)  on  the  plan  of  loans  to  her  citizens.  It  is  made  a 
legal  tender  in  case  of  suits  only.  As  it  is  but  just  issuing  from 
the  press,   its  depreciation  exists  only  in   the  foresight  of  those 


CxENERAL  C:()xM)ITI()NS  1 87 

who  reason  without  prejudice  on  the  subject.  In  Rhode  Island. 
^100,000  (dol''at6s.)  has  lately  been  issued  in  loans  to  individuals. 
It  is  not  only  made  a  tender,  but  severe  penalties  annexed  to  the 
least  attempt  direct  or  indirect  to  give  a  preference  to  specie.  Pre- 
cautions di(.'tated  by  distrust  in  the  rulers  soon  produced  it  in  the 
people.  Sup])lics  were  withheld  from  the  Market,  and  the  Shops 
were  shut,  popular  meetings  ensued,  and  the  .State  remains  in  a 
sort  of  convulsion. 

The  Legislature  of  Mass*^  at  their  last  .Session  rejected  a  paper 
emission  by  a  large  majority.  Connecticut  &  N.  Hampshire  also 
have  as  yet  forborne,  but  symptoms  of  danger  it  is  said  begin  to 
appear  in  the  latter.  The  Senate  of  Mai"y^  has  hitherto  been  a  bar 
to  paper  in  that  State.  The  clamor  for  it  is  now  universal,  and  as 
the  periodical  election  of  the  Senate  happens  at  this  crisis,  and  the 
whole  body  is  unluckily  by  their  Constitution  to  be  chosen  at  once, 
it  is  probable  that  a  paper  emission  will  be  the  result.  If,  in  spite 
of  the  zeal  exerted  ag'''  the  old  .Senate  a  majority  of  them  should 
be  re-elected,  it  will  require  all  their  firmness  to  withstand  the 
popular  torrent.  Of  the  affairs  of  George  I  know  as  little  as  of 
those  of  Kamskatska.  Whether  Virg=^  is  to  remain  exempt  from 
the  epidemic  malady  will  depend  on  the  ensuing  Assembly.  •  My 
hopes  rest  chiefly  on  the  exertions  of  Col.  Mason  and  the  failure 
of  the  experiments  elsewhere.  That  these  must  fail  is  morally 
certain  ;  for  besides  the  proofs  of  it  already  visible  in  some  States, 
and  the  intrinsic  defect  of  the  paper  in  all,  this  fictitious  money 
will  rather  feed  than  cure  the  spirit  of  extravagance  which  sends 
away  the  coin  to  pay  the  unfavorable  balance,  and  will  therefore 
soon  be  carried  to  market  to  buy  up  coin  for  that  purpose.  From 
that  moment  depreciation  is  inevitable.  The  value  of  money  con- 
sists in  the  uses  it  will  serve.  Specie  will  serve  all  the  uses  of 
paper,  paper  w'ill  not  serve  one  of  the  essential  uses  of  specie. 
The  paper  therefore  will  be  less  valuable  than  specie.  Among  the 
numerous  ills  with  which  this  practice  is  pregnant,  one  I  find  is 
that  it  is  producing  the  same  warfare  &  retaliation  among  the 
States  as  were  produced  by  the  State  regulations  of  commerce. 
Mass*®  &  Connecticut  have  passed  laws  enabling  their  Citizens 
who  are  debtors  to  Citizens  of  States  having  their  paper  money,  to 


1 88  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

pay  their  debts  in  the  same  manner  as  their  Citizens  who  are 
creditors  to  Citizens  of  the  latter  States  are  liable  to  be  paid  their 
debts.  The  States  which  have  appointed  deputies  to  Annapolis 
are  N.  Hampshire,  Mass'%  R.  Island,  N.Y.,  N.J.,  Pen^'.,  Delaware, 
&  Virg^.  Connecticut  declined  not  from  a  dislike  to  the  object, 
but  to  the  idea  of  a  Convention,  which  it  seems  has  been  rendered 
obnoxious  by  some  internal  Conventions,  which  embarrassed  the 
Legislative  Authority.  Mary'^.,  or  rather  her  Senate  negatived  an 
appointment  because  they  supposed  the  measure  might  interfere 
with  the  plans  or  prerogatives  of  Cong^.  N.  Carolina  has  had  no 
Legislative  meeting  since  the  proposition  was  communicated.  S. 
Carolina  supposed  she  had  sufficiently  signified  her  concurrence 
in  a  general  regulation  of  trade  by  vesting  the  power  in  Con- 
gress for  I  5  years.    Georgia .    Many  Gentlemen  both  within 

&  without  Cong^,  wish  to  make  this  Meeting  subservient  to  a 
plenipotentiary  Convention  for  amending  the  Confederation.  Tho' 
my  wishes  are  in  favor  of  such  an  event,  yet  I  despair  so  much  of 
its  accomplishment  at  the  present  crisis  that  I  do  not  extend  my 
views  beyond  a  commercial  Reform.  To  speak  the  truth  I  almost 
despair  even  of  this.  You  will  find  the  cause  in  a  measure  now 
before  Congress  of  which  you  will  receive  the  detail  from  Col. 
Monroe.  I  content  myself  with  hinting  that  it  is  a  proposed  treaty 
with  Spain  one  article  of  which  shuts  up  the  Mississippi  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years.  Passing  by  the  other  Southern  States,  figure 
to  yourself  the  effect  of  such  a  stipulation  on  the  Assembly  of 
Virginia,  already  jealous  of  Northern  politics  and  which  will  be 
composed  of  about  thirty  members  from  the  Western  waters,  of  a 
majority  of  others  attached  to  the  Western  Country  from  interests 
of  their  own,  of  their  friend  or  their  constituent,  and  of  man)- 
others  who  though  indifferent  to  Mississippi,  will  zealously  play 
off  the  disgust  of  its  friends  against  federal  measures.  Figure  to 
yourself  its  effect  on  the  people  at  large  on  the  western  waters, 
who  are  impatiently  waiting  for  a  favorable  result  to  the  negocia- 
tion  with  Gardoqui,  &  who  will  consider  themselves  as  sold  by 
their  Atlantic  brethren.  Will  it  be  an  unnatural  consequence  if 
they  consider  themselves  absolved  from  every  federal  tie  and 
court  some  protection  for  their  betrayed  rights.    This  protection 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  189 

will  appear  more  attainable  from  the  maritime  power  of  Britain 
than  from  any  other  ((uarter ;  and  Britain  will  be  more  ready 
than  any  other  nation  to  seize  an  opportunity  of  embroiling  our 
affairs.  What  may  be  the  motive  with  Spain  to  satisfy  herself 
with  a  temporary  occlusion  of  the  Mississippi  at  the  same  time 
that  she  holds  forth  our  claim  to  it  as  absolutely  inadmissible  is 
matter  for  conjecture  only.  The  patrons  of  the  measure  in  Con- 
gress contend  that  the  Minister,  who  at  present  governs  the 
Spanish  councils  means  only  to  disembarrass  himself  at  the  ex- 
pence  of  the  successors.  I  should  rather  suppose  he  means  to 
work  a  total  separation  of  interest  and  affection  between  western 
&  eastern  settlements  and  to  foment  the  jealousy  between  the 
Eastern  &  Southern  States.  By  the  former  the  population  of 
the  Western  Country  it  may  be  expected,  will  be  checked  and 
the  Mississippi  so  far  secured  ;  and  by  both  the  general  security 
of  Spanish  America  be  promoted.  As  far  as  I  can  learn  the  assent 
of  nine  States  in  Congress  will  not  at  this  time  be  got  to  the  pro- 
jected treaty  but  an  unsuccessful  attempt  by  six  or  seven  will  favor 
the  views  of  Spain  and  be  fatal  I  fear  to  an  augmentation  of  the 
federal  authority  if  not  to  the  little  now  existing.  My  personal 
situation  is  rendered  by  this  business  particularly  mortifying. 
Ever  since  I  have  been  out  of  Congress  I  have  been  inculcating 
on  our  Assembly  a  confidence  in  the  equal  attention  of  Congress 
to  the  rights  and  interests  of  eveiy  part  of  the  republic  and  on  the 
Western  members  in  particular,  the  necessity  of  making  the  Union 
respectable  by  new  powers  to  Congress  if  they  wished  Congress 
to  negociate  with  effect  for  the  Mississippi.  I  leave  to  Col.  Monroe 
the  giving  you  a  particular  account  of  the  Impost.  The  Acts  of 
Penn^,  Delaware  &  N.  York  must  be  revised  &  amended  in  material 
points  before  it  can  be  put  in  force,  and  even  then  the  fetters  put 
on  the  collection  by  some  other  States  will  make  it  a  very  awkward 
business. 

A  Quorum  of  the  deputies  appointed  by  the  Assembly  for  a 
commercial  convention  had  a  meeting  at  Richmond  shortly  after 
I  left  it,  and  the  Attorney  tells  me,  it  has  been  agreed  to  propose 
Annapolis,  for  the  place,  and  the  first  monday  in  Sep""  for  the  time 


IQO  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

of  holding  the  Convention.  It  was  thought  prudent  to  avoid  the 
neighborhood  of  Congress,  and  the  large  Commercial  towns,  in 
order  to  disarm  the  adversaries  to  the  object,  of  insinuations  of 
influence  from  either  of  these  quarters.  I  have  not  heard  what 
opinion  is  entertained  of  this  project  at  New  York,  nor  what  re- 
ception it  has  found  in  any  of  the  States.  If  it  should  come  to 
nothing,  it  will,  I  fear  confirm  G.  B.  and  all  the  world  in  the  belief 
that  we  are  not  to  be  respected,  nor  apprehended  as  a  nation  in 
matters  of  commerce.  The  States  are  every  day  giving  proofs  that 
separate  regulations  are  more  likely  to  set  them  by  the  ears,  than 
to  attain  the  common  object.  When  Mass^^set  on  foot  a  retaliation 
of  the  policy  of  G.  B.  Connecticut  declared  her  ports  free.  N.  Jersey 
served  N.  York  in  the  same  way.  And  Delaware  I  am  told  has 
lately  followed  the  example,  in  opposition  to  the  commercial  plans 
of  Penn^.  A  miscarriage  of  this  attempt  to  unite  the  States  in 
some  effectual  plan,  will  have  another  effect  of  a  serious  nature. 
It  will  dissipate  every  prospect  of  drawing  a  steady  revenue  from 
our  imposts  either  directly  into  the  federal  treasury,  or  indirectly 
thro'  the  treasuries  of  the  Commercial  States,  and  of  consequence 
the  former  must  depend  for  supplies  solely  on  annual  requisitions, 
and  the  latter  on  direct  taxes  drawn  from  the  property  of  the  Coun- 
try. That  these  dependencies  are  in  an  alarming  degree  fallacious 
is  put  by  experience  out  of  all  question.  The  payments  from  the 
States  under  the  calls  of  Congress  have  in  no  year  borne  any  pro- 
portion to  the  public  wants.  During  the  last  year,  that  is  from 
Nov"",  1784,  to  Nov"",  1785,  the  aggregate  payments,  as  stated  to 
the  late  Assembly  fell  short  of  400,000  doll'^^,  a  sum  neither  equal 
to  the  interest  due  on  the  foreign  debts,  nor  even  to  the  current 
expences  of  the  federal  Government.  The  greatest  part  of  this 
sum  too  went  from  Virg-'',  which  will  not  supply  a  single  shilling 
the  present  year.  Another  unhappy  effect  of  a  continuance  of  the 
present  anarchy  of  our  commerce  will  be  a  continuance  of  the  un- 
favorable balance  on  it,  which  by  draining  us  of  our  metals  furnishes 
pretexts  for  the  pernicious  substitution  of  paper  money,  for  indul- 
gences to  debtors,  for  postponements  of  taxes.  In  fact  most  of  our 
political  evils  may  be  traced  up  to  our  commercial  ones,  as  most 
of  our  moral  may  to  our  political.    The  lessons  which  the  mercantile 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  191 

interests  of  Europe  have  reeeived  from  late  experienee  will  probably 
cheek  their  propensity  to  credit  us  beyond  our  resources,  and  so 
far  the  evil  of  an  unfavorable  balance  will  correct  itself.  Ikit  the 
merchants  of  G.  B.  if  no  others  will  continue  to  credit  us  at  least 
as  far  as  our  remittances  can  be  strained,  and  that  is  far  enough 
to  perpetuate  our  difficulties  unless  the  luxurious  propensity  of  our 
own  people  can  be  otherwise  checked.  This  view  of  our  situation 
presents  the  proposed  Convention  as  a  remedial  experiment  which 
ought  to  command  every  assent ; '  but  if  it  be  a  just  view  it  is  one 
which  assuredly  will  not  be  taken  by  all  even  of  those  whose  in- 
tentions arc  good.  I  consider  the  event  therefore  as  extremely 
uncertain,  or  rather,  considering  that  the  States  must  first  agree 
to  the  proposition  for  sending  deputies,  that  these  must  agree  in 
a  plan  to  be  sent  back  to  the  States,  and  that  these  again  must 
agree  unanimously  in  a  ratification  ofjt.  I  almost  despair  of  suc- 
cess. It  is  necessary  however  that  something  should  be  tried  &  if 
this  be  not  the  best  possible  expedient,  it  is  the  best  that  could 
possibly  be  carried  thro'  the  Legislature  here.  And  if  the  present 
crisis  cannot  effect  unanimity,  from  what  future  concurrence  of 
circumstances  is  it  to  be  expected  ? 

The  arrival  of  Mr.  Gardoqui  will  turn  out  I  hope  an  auspicious 
step  towards  conciliating  explanations  &  overtures  with  regard  to 
the  Mississippi.  Besides  the  general  motives  for  expediting  an 
adjustment  of  this  matter  the  prodigious  effect  of  it  on  the  sale  of 
the  back  lands,  makes  it  of  peculiar  importance.  The  same  con- 
sideration presses  for  such  arrangements  with  G.  B.  as  will  give 
us  speedy  possession  of  the  Western  posts.  As  to  the  commercial 
arrangements  which  we  wish  from  her,  I  own  my  expectations  are 
far  from  being  sanguine.  In  fact  what  could  she  get  from  us  by 
concessions  which  she  is  unwilling  to  make,  which  she  does  not 
now  enjoy  ?  I  cannot  speak  with  certainty  as  to  all  the  States,  but 
sure  I  am  that  the  trade  of  this  was  never  more  compleatly  mo- 
nopolized by  her  when  it  was  under  the  direction  of  her  own  laws 
than  it  is  at  this  moment.  Our  present  situation  therefore  pre- 
cisely verifies  the  doctrine  held  out  in  Deanes'  intercepted  letters. 
The  revolution  has  robbed  us  of  our  trade  with  the  West  Indies 


192  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

the  only  one  which  yielded  us  a  favorable  balance,  without  opening 
any  other  channels  to  compensate  for  it.  What  makes  the  British 
monopoly  the  more  mortifying  is  the  abuse  which  they  make  of  it. 
Not  only  the  private  planters  who  have  resumed  the  practice  of 
shipping  their  own  Tob°,  but  many  of  the  Merchants  particularly 
the  natives  of  the  Countiy  who  have  no  connections  with  G.  B. 
have  rec'^  acc'^  of  sales  this  season,  which  carry  the  most  visible  & 
shameful  frauds  in  ever)'  article.  In  every  point  of  view  indeed  the 
trade  of  this  Country  is  in  a  deplorable  Condition.  A  comparison 
of  current  prices  here  with  those  in  the  Northern  States,  either  at 
this  timiC  or  at  any  time  since  the  peace,  will  shew  that  the  loss 
direct  on  our  produce  &  indirect  on  our  imports  is  not  less  than 
SO  per  ct.  Till  very  lately  the  price  of  our  Staple  has  been  down 
at  32  &  33s.  on  James  River  &  28s.  on  Rappahannock.  During 
the  same  period  the  former  was  selling  in  Philad^,  &  I  suppose  in 
other  Northern  ports,  at  44s.  of  this  Currency,  and  the  latter  in 
proportion  ;  tho'  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Tob°  in  the  Northern 
ports  is  intrinsically  worth  less  than  it  is  here,  being  at  the  same 
distance  from  its  ultimate  market,  &  burdened  with  the  freight 
from  this  to  the  other  States.  The  price  of  merchandize  here  is 
at  least  as  much  above  as  that  of  Tob°  is  below  the  Northern 
standard. 

The  machinations  of  G.  B.  with  regard  to  Commerce  have  pro- 
duced much  distress  and  noise  in  the  Northern  States,  particularly 
in  Boston,  from  whence  the  alarm  has  spread  to  New  York  & 
Phild^.  Your  correspondence  with  Cong^  will  no  doubt  have 
furnished  you  with  full  information  on  this  head.  I  only  know 
the  general  fact,  and  that  the  sufferers  are  ever)'where  calling  for 
such  augmentation  of  the  power  of  Congress  as  may  effect  relief. 
How  far  the  Southern  States  &  Virginia  in  particular  will  join  in 
this  proposition  cannot  be  foreseen.  It  is  easy  to  foresee  that  the 
circumstances  which  in  a  confined  view  distinguish  our  situation 
from  that  of  our  brethren,  will  be  laid  hold  of  by  the  partizans  of 
G.  B.,  by  those  who  are  or  affect  to  be  jealous  of  Congress,  and 
those  who  are  interested  in  the  present  course  of  business,  to  give 
a  wrong  bias  to  our  Councils.    If  an}1;hing  should  reconcile  Virg^ 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  1 93 

to  the  idea  of  giving  Congress  a  power  over  her  trade,  it  will  be 
that  this  power  is  likely  to  annoy  G.  I^.  against  whom  the  animosities 
of  our  Citizens  are  still  strong.  They  seem  to  have  less  sensibility 
to  their  commercial  interests  ;  which  they  very'  little  understand, 
and  which  the  mercantile  class  here  have  not  the  same  motives  if 
they  had  the  same  capacity  to  lay  open  to  the  public,  as  that  class 
have  in  the  States  North  of  us.  The  price  of  our  Staple  since  the 
peace  is  another  cause  of  inattention  in  the  planters  to  the  dark 
side  of  our  commercial  affairs.  Should  these  or  any  other  causes 
prevail  in  frustrating  the  scheme  of  the  Eastern  &  Middle  States 
of  a  general  retaliation  on  G.  B.,  I  tremble  for  the  event.  A 
majority  of  the  States  deprived  of  a  regular  remedy  for  their  dis- 
tresses by  the  "want  of  a  federal  spirit  in  the  minority  must  feel  the 
strongest  motives  to  some  irregular  experiments.  The  danger  of 
such  a  crisis  makes  me  surmise  that  the  policy  of  G.  B.  results  as 
much  from  the  hope  of  effecting  a  breach  in  our  Confederacy  as 
of  monopolizing  our  trade. 

Our  internal  trade  is  taking  an  arrangement  from  which  I  hope 
good  consequences.  Retail  Stores  are  spread  all  over  the  country, 
many  of  them  carried  on  by  native  adventurers,  some  of  them 
branched  out  from  the  principal  Stores  at  the  heads  of  navigation. 
The  distribution  of  the  business,  however  into  the  importing  &  the 
retail  departments  has  not  yet  taken  place.  Should  the  port  bill  be 
established  it  will  I  think  quickly  add  this  amendment  which  in- 
deed must  in  a  little  time  follow  of  itself.  It  is  the  more  to  be 
wished  for  as  it  is  the  only  radical  cure  for  credit  to  the  consumer 
which  continues  to  be  given  to  a  degree  which  if  not  checked  will 
turn  the  diffusive  retail  of  merchandize  into  a  nuisance.  When 
the  Shop  keeper  buys  his  goods  of  the  wholesale  merchant,  he 
must  buy  at  so  short  a  credit,  that  he  can  venture  to  give  none 
at  all. 

'^Letter  of  Jo  Jin  Adams  to  the  Marquis  of  CarmartJicn 

Grosvenor  Square,  29  July,  1785 
My  Lord,  —  The  course  of  commerce,  since  the  peace,  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America,  has  been  such  as 

1  Works  of  John  Adams,  VIII,  286-287. 


194  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

to  have  produced  many  inconveniences  to  the  persons  concerned 
in  it  on  both  sides,  which  become  every  day  more  and  more  sensible. 
The  zeal  of  Americans  to  make  remittances  to  British  merchants, 
has  been  such  as  to  raise  the  interest  of  money  to  double  its  usual 
standard,  to  increase  the  price  of  bills  of  exchange  to  eight  or  ten 
per  centum  above  par,  and  to  advance  the  price  of  the  produce  of 
the  country  to  almost  double  the  usual  rate.  Large  sums  of  the 
circulating  cash,  and  as  much  produce  as  could  be  purchased  at 
almost  any  rate,  have  been  remitted  to  England  ;  but  much  of  this 
produce  lies  in  store  here,  because  it  will  not  fetch,  by  reason  of 
the  duties  and  restrictions  on  it,  the  price  given  for  it  in  America. 
No  political  arrangements  having  been  made,  both  the  British  and 
American  merchants  expected  that  the  trade  would  'have  returned 
to  its  old  channels,  and  nearly  under  the  same  regulations,  found 
by  long  experience  to  be  beneficial ;  but  they  have  been  disappointed. 
The  former  have  made  advances,  and  the  latter  contracted  debts, 
both  depending  upon  remittances  in  the  usual  articles,  and  upon 
the  ancient  terms,  but  both  have  found  themselves  mistaken,  and 
it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  the  consequences  will  be  numerous 
failures.  Cash  and  bills  have  been  chiefly  remitted  ;  neither  rice, 
tobacco,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine,  ships,  oil,  nor  many  other  articles, 
the  great  sources  of  remittances  formerly,  can  now  be  sent  as  here- 
tofore, because  of  restrictions  and  imposts,  which  are  new  in  this 
commerce,  and  destructive  of  it ;  and  the  trade  with  the  British 
West  India  Islands,  formerly  a  vast  source  of  remittance,  is  at 
present  obstructed. 

.     The  FcdcTcxlist,  No.  XV 

We  may  indeed  with  propriety  be  said  to  have  reached  almost 
the  last  stage  of  national  humiliation.  There  is  scarcely  anything 
that  can  wound  the  pride  or  degrade  the  character  of  an  independ- 
ent nation  which  we  do  not  experience.  Are  there  engagements 
to  the  performance  of  which  we  are  held  by  every  tie  respectable 
among  men  }  These  are  the  subjects  of  constant  and  unblushing 
violation.  Do  we  owe  debts  to  foreigners  and  to  our  own  citizens 
contracted  in  a  time  of  imminent  peril  for  the  preservation  of  our 
political   existence }    These   remain  without  any  proper  or  satis- 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  1 95 

factory  jjiovision  ("or  ihcii"  dischar^v.  Have  \vc  valuable  territories 
and  important  posts  in  the  possession  of  a  foreign  power  which, 
by  express  stii)iilations,  ouj^ht  lon^- since  to  have  been  surren- 
dered? These  are  still  retained,  to  the  ])rejudice  of  our  interests, 
not  less  than  of  our  rights.  Are  we  in  a  condition  to  resent  or  to 
repel  the  aggression  ?  \Ve  haw  iK'ilher  troops,  nor  treasmy,  nor 
government.  Are  we  even  in  a  condition  to  remonstrate  with  dig- 
nity .''  The  just  imputations  on  oiu"  own  faith,  in  respect  to  the 
same  treaty,  ought  first  to  be  removed.  Are  we  entitled  by  nature 
and  compact  to  a  free  participation  in  the  navigation  of  the  Missis- 
sippi ?  Spain  excludes  us  from  it.  Is  public  credit  an  indispensable 
resource  in  time  of  public  danger }  We  seem  to  have  abandoned 
its  cause  as  desperate  and  irretrievable.  Is  commerce  of  impor- 
tance to  national  wealth  ?  Ours  is  at  the  lowest  point  of  declension. 
Is  respectability  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  powers  a  safeguard  against 
foreign  encroachments  }  The  imbecility  of  our  government  even 
forbids  them  to  treat  with  us.  Our  ambassadors  abroad  are  the 
mere  pageants  of  mimic  sovereignty.  Is  a  violent  and  unnatural 
decrease  in  the  value  of  land  a  symptom  of  national  distress  .-'  The 
price  of  improved  land  in  most  parts  of  the  country  is  much  lower 
than  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  quantity  of  waste  land  at  mai"ket, 
and  can  only  be  fully  explained  by  that  want  of  private  and  public 
confidence,  which  are  so  alarmingly  prevalent  among  all  ranks,  and 
which  have  a  direct  tendency  to  depreciate  property  of  every  kind. 
Is  private  credit  the  friend  and  patron  of  industry  ?  That  most 
useful  kind  which  relates  to  borrowing  and  lending  is  reduced 
within  the  narrowest  limits,  and  this  still  more  from  an  opinion  of 
insecurity  than  from  the  scarcity  of  money.  To  shorten  an  enu- 
meration of  particulars  which  can  afford  neither  pleasiu'e  nor  in- 
struction, it  may  in  general  be  demanded,  what  indication  is  there 
of  national  disorder,  poverty,  and  insignificance  that  could  befall  a 
community  so  peculiarly  blessed  with  natural  advantages  as  we  are, 
which  does  not  form  a  part  of  the  dark  catalogxie  of  our  public 
misfortunes  .'' 


196  THE  ECONOMIC   SITUATION 

II.    STRUGGLE  WITH   THE   MERCANTILE   SYSTEM 
OF  EUROPE 

A.    The  Policy  of  securing  Commercial  Treaties 

^  Letters  of  Jo  Jin  Adavis  to  Livingston 

Paris,  July  14,  1783 

Sir  :  A  jealousy  of  American  ships,  seamen,  carrying  trade,  and 
naval  power,  appears  every  day  more  and  more  conspicuous.  This 
jealousy,  which  has  been  all  along  discovered  by  the  French  min- 
ister, is  at  length  communicated  to  the  English.  The  following 
proclamation,  which  will  not  increase  British  ships  and  seamen  in 
any  proportion  as  it  will  diminish  those  of  the  United  States,  will 
contribute  effectually  to  make  America  afraid  of  England,  and 
attach  herself  more  closely  to  France.  The  English  are  the  dupes 
and  must  take  the  consequences. 

This  proclamation  is  issued  in  full  confidence  that  the  United 
States  have  no  confidence  in  one  another  ;  that  they  can  not  agree 
to  act  in  a  body  as  one  nation  ;  that  they  can  not  agree  upon  any 
navigation  act  which  may  be  common  to  the  thirteen  States.  Our 
proper  remedy  would  be  to  confine  our  exports  to  American  ships, 
to  make  a  law  that  no  article  should  be  exported  from  any  of  the 
States  in  British  ships,  nor  in  the  ships  of  any  nation,  which  will 
not  allow  us  reciprocally  to  import  their  productions  in  our  ships. 
I  am  much  afraid  there  is  too  good  an  understanding  upon  this 
subject  between  Versailles  and  St.  James. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  proper  for  Congress  to  be  silent  upon  this 
head  until  (New  York,  Penobscot,  &c.,  are  evacuated.  But  I  should 
think  that  Congress  would  never  bind  themselves  by  any  treaty 
built  upon  such  principles.  They  should  negociate,  however,  with- 
out loss  of  time,  by  a  minister  in  London.  A  few  weeks'  delay 
may  have  unalterable  effects. 

PROCLAMATIOX    AT    THE    CoUKT    OF    St.  JaMES,    THE     21)    OF    JULV,     1 783 

Present,  the  King's  most  excellent  majesty  in  council. 

Whereas  by  an  act  of  Parliament,  passed  this  session,  entitled  "  An  act  for 
preventing  certain  instruments  from  being  required  from  ships  belonging  to 

1  Wharton,  The  Kcvolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  VI,  540-542,  552-553. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  197 

the  United  States  of  America,  and  to  give  his  majesty,  for  a  limited  time,  cer- 
tain powers  for  the  better  carrying  on  trade  and  commerce  between  the  sub- 
jects of  his  majesty's  dominions  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  United  States,"' 
it  is  amongst  other  things  enacted,  that,  during  the  continuance  of  the  said  act, 
"  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for  his  majesty  in  council,  by  order  or  orders  to 
be  issued  and  published  from  time  to  time,  to  give  such  directions,  and  to  make 
such  regulations  with  respect  to  duties,  drawbacks,  or  otherwise,  for  carrying 
on  the  trade  and  commerce  between  the  people  and  territories  belonging  to 
the  crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  people  and  territories  of  the  said  United 
States,  as  to  his  majesty  in  council  shall  appear  most  expedient  and  salutary, 
any  law,  usage,  or  custom  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  "  his  majesty  doth, 
therefore,  by  and  with  the  advice  of  his  privy  council,  hereby  order  and  direct, 
that  pitch,  tar,  turpentine,  hemp  and  flax,  masts,  yards,  and  bowsprits,  staves, 
heading,  boards,  timber,  shingles,  and  all  other  species  of  lumber ;  horses,  neat 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  poultry,  and  all  other  species  of  live  stock  and  live  provi- 
sions ;  peas,  beans,  potatoes,  wheat,  flour,  bread,  biscuit,  rice,  oats,  barley,  and 
all  other  species  of  grain,  being  the  growth  or  production  of  any  one  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  may,  until  further  order,  be  imported  by  British  sub- 
jects in  British-built  ships,  owned  by  his  majesty's  subjects,  and  navigated  accord- 
ing to  law,  from  any  port  of  the  United  States  of  America  to  any  of  his  majesty's 
West  India  Islands  ;  and  that  rum,  sugar,  molasses,  coffee,  cocoa-nuts,  ginger, 
and  pimento,  may,  until  further  order,  be  exported  by  British  subjects,  in  Brit- 
ish-built ships,  owned  by  his  majesty's  subjects,  and  navigated  according  to  law, 
from  any  of  his  majesty's  West  India  Islands,  and  to  any  port  or  place  within 
the  said  United  States,  upon  payment  of  the  same  duties  on  exportation,  and 
subject  to  the  like  rules,  regulations,  securities,  and  restrictions,  as  the  same 
articles  by  law  are,  or  may  be  subject  and  liable  to,  if  exported  to  any  British 
colony  or  plantation  in  America.  And  the  right  honorable  the  lords  commis- 
sioners of  his  majesty's  treasury,  and  the  lords  commissioners  of  the  admiralty, 
are  to  give  the  necessary  directions  herein,  as  to  them  may  respectively  appertain. 

Stephen  Cottrell 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  in  this  proclamation  is  the 
omission  of  salt-fish,  an  article  which  the  islands  want  as  much  as 
any  that  is  enumerated.  This  is,  no  doubt,  to  encourage  their  own 
fishery,  and  that  of  Nova  Scotia,  as  well  as  a  blow  aimed  at  ours. 
There  was  in  a  former  proclamation  concerning  the  trade  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  an  omission  of  the  articles  of 
potash  and  pcarlasJi.  These  omissions  discover  a  choice  love  for 
New  England.  France,  I  am  afraid,  will  exclude  fish  too,  and 
imitate  this  proclamation  but  too  closely  ;  if,  indeed,  this  procla- 
mation is  not  an  imitation  of  their  system,  adopted,  as  I  believe 
it  is.  upon  their  advice  and  desire. 


198  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

These,  ho\vc\-er,  are  impotent  efforts.  Without  saying,  writing, 
or  resolving  anything  suddenly,  let  us  see  what  remedies  or  equiva- 
lents we  can  obtain  from  Holland,  Portugal,  and  Denmark.  Let  us 
bind  ourselves  to  nothing  —  reserve  a  right  of  making  navigation 
acts  when  we  please,  if  we  find  them  necessary  or  useful.  If  we 
had  been  defeated  of  our  fisheries,  we  should  ha\'e  been  wormed 
out  of  all  our  carPydng  trade,  too,  and  should  have  been  a  mere 
society  of  cultix'ators,  without  an\'  but  a  passive  trade.  The  policy 
of  France  has  succeeded,  and  laid,  in  these  proclamations,  if  per- 
sisted in,  the  sure  source  of  another  war  between  us  and  Great 
Britain.   .   .   . 

July  16,  1783 
We  asked  the  Comte  [Vergennes]  if  he  had  seen  the  British 
proclamation  of  the  2d  of  July.  He  answered  that  he  had.  I  asked 
him  if  the  King  had  determined  anything  on  the  subject  of  salt 
provisions  and  salt  fish,  whether  we  might  import  them  into  his 
islands.  He  said  we  might  depend  upon  it  they  could  not  supply 
their  islands  with  fish,  that  we  had  two  free  ports  in  their  islands, 
St.  Lucia  and  a  port  in  Martinique.  By  the  thirty-second  article  of 
the  treaty  of  commerce  these  free  ports  are  secured  to  us  ;  nothing, 
he  said,  was  determined  concerning  salt  beef  and  pork,  but  the 
greatest  difficulty  would  be  about  flour.  I  told  the  Comte  that  I 
did  not  think  it  would  be  possible  either  for  France  or  England  to 
carry  on  the  commerce  between  the  islands  and  the  continent ;  it 
was  profitable  to  us  only  as  it  was  a  part  of  a  system  ;  that  it  could 
not  be  carried  on  without  loss  in  large  vessels  navigated  by  many 
seamen,  which  could  sail  only  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  &c. 
Upon  the  whole,  I  was  much  pleased  with  this  conversation,  and 
conclude  from  it  that  we  shall  do  very  well  in  the  French  West 
India  Islands,  perhaps  the  better  in  them  the  worse  we  are  treated 
by  the  English. 

The  Dutch  and  Danes  will,  I  doubt  not,  avail  themselves  of 
every  error  that  may  be  committed  by  France  or  England.  It  is 
good  to  have  a  variety  of  strings  to  our  bow  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
wish  we  had  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  Denmark,  by  which  a  free 
admission  of  our  ships  into  their  ports  in  the  West  Indies  might 


STRUGGLE  WWII  MERCANTILF:  SYSTEM  199 

be  established,  l^y  means  of  the  Dutch,  Danes,  and  Portuj^uese, 
I  think  we  shall  be  able  to  ()l)tain  fnially  proper  terms  of  I'^'anee 
and  bLngland. 

The  l^ritish  proclamation  of  the  2d  of  this  month  is  the  result 
of  refugee  politics  ;  it  is  intended  to  encourage  Canada  and  Nova 
Scotia  in  their  fisheries,  to  support  still  the  ruins  of  their  naviga- 
tion act,  and  to  take  from  us  the  carriage  even  of  our  own  produc- 
tions. A  system  which  has  in  it  so  little  respect  for  us,  and  is  so 
obviously  calculated  to  give  a  blow  to  our  nurseries  of  ships  and 
seamen,  could  never  have  been  adopted  but  from  the  opinion  that 
we  had  no  common  legislature  for  the  government  of  commerce. 

All  America,  from  the  Chesapeake  to  St.  Croix,  I  know  love 
ships  and  sailors,  and  those  parts  to  the  southward  of  that  bay  have 
advantages  for  obtaining  them  when  they  will  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
hope  the  thirteen  States  will  unite  in  some  measures  to  counteract 
this  policy  of  Britain,  so  evidently  selfish,  unsocial,  and  I  had  almost 
said,  hostile.  The  question  is,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  I  answer,  per- 
haps it  will  be  most  prudent  to  say  little  about  it  at  present,  and 
until  the  definite  treaty  is  signed  and  the  States  evacuated  ;  but 
after  that,  I  think  in  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty  of  commerce  with 
Great  Britain,  Congress  should  tell  them  that  they  have  the  means 
of  doing  justice  to  themselves.  What  are  these  means  ?  I  answer, 
let  every  State  in  the  Union  lay  on  a  duty  of  five  per  cent,  on  all 
West  India  articles  imported  in  British  ships,  and  upon  all  their 
own  productions  exported  in  British  ships.  Let  this  impost  be 
limited  in  duration  until  Great  Britain  shall  allow  our  vessels  to 
trade  to  their  West  Lidies.  This  would  effectually  defeat  their 
plan  and  encourage  our  own  carr}dng  trade  more  than  they  can 
discourage  it. 

Another  way  of  influencing  England  to  a  reasonable  conduct  is 
to  take  some  measures  for  encouraging  the  growth  in  the  United 
States  of  West  India  articles  ;  another  is  to  encourage  manufac- 
tures, especially  of  wool  and  iron  among  ourselves.  As  tilt  ham- 
mers are  now  not  unlawful,  and  wool  may  be  water-borne,  much 
more  may  be  done  now  than  could  have  been  done  before  the 
war.  But  the  most  certain  method  is  to  lay  duties  on  exports  and 
imports  by  British  ships.    The  sense  of  a  common  interest  and 


200  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

common  danger,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  induce  a  perfect  unanimity 
among  the  States  in  this  respect.  There  are  other  ways  of  serving 
ourselves  and  making  impressions  upon  the  English  to  bring  them 
to  reason.  One  is  to  send  ships  immediately  to  China.  This  trade 
is  as  open  to  us  as  to  any  nation,  and  if  our  natural  advantages  at 
home  are  envied  us  we  should  compensate  ourselves  in  any  honest 
way  we  can. 

Our  natural  share  in  the  West  India  trade  is  all  that  is  now 
wanting  to  complete  the  plan  of  happiness  and  prosperity  of  our 
country.  Deprived  of  it  we  shall  be  straitened  and  shackled  in 
some  degree.  We  can  not  enjoy  a  free  use  of  all  our  limbs  with- 
out this  ;  with  it  I  see  nothing  to  desire,  nothing  to  vex  or  cha- 
grin our  people,  nothing  to  interrupt  our  repose,  or  keep  up  a 
dread  of  war. 

I  know  not  what  permission  may  be  expected  from  Spain  to 
trade  to  the  Havanna,  but  should  think  that  this  resource  ought 
not  to  be  neglected. 

Instnictions  to  the  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  appointed  to  negotiate 
Treaties  of  Conunerce  ivitJi  the  European  Nations,  Alay  y,  1^8^ 

Whereas,  instructions  bearing  date  the  29th  day  of  October, 
1783,  were  sent  to  the  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States  of  America  at  the  Court  of  Versailles,  empowered  to  ne- 
gotiate a  peace,  or  to  any  one  or  more  of  them,  for  concerting 
drafts  or  propositions  for  treaties  of  amity  and  commerce  with 
the  commercial  powers  of  Europe  :  .  .   . 

Resolved,  That  in  the  formation  of  these  treaties  the  following 
points  be  carefully  stipulated  : 

1.  That  each  party  shall  have  a  right  to  carry  their  own  prod- 
uce, manufactures,  and  merchandise,  in  their  own  bottoms  to  the 
ports  of  the  other,  and  thence  the  produce  and  merchandise  of 
the  other,  paying,  in  both  cases,  such  duties  only  as  are  paid  by  the 
most  favored  nation,  freely,  where  it  is  freely  granted  to  such  nation, 
or  paying  the  compensation  where  such  nation  does  the  same. 

2.  That  with  the  nations  holding  territorial  possessions  in 
America,  a  direct  and  similar  intercourse  be  admitted  between  the 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  20I 

United  States  and  such  possessions  ;  or  if  this  cannot  be  obtained, 
then  a  direct  and  similar  intercourse  between  the  United  States 
and  certain  free  ports  within  such  possessions  ;  that  if  this  neither 
can  be  obtained,  permission  be  stipulated  to  bring  from  such 
possessions,  in  their  own  bottoms,  the  produce  and  merchandise 
thereof  to  their  States  directly  ;  and  for  these  States  to  carry  in 
their  own  bottoms  their  produce  and  merchandise  to  such  posses- 
sions directly. 

3.  That  these  United  States  be  considered  in  all  such  treaties, 
and  in  every  case  arising  under  them,  as  one  nation,  upon  the 
principles  of  the  federal  constitution.   .   .   . 

8.  That  such  treaties  be  made  for  a  term  not  exceeding  ten 
years  from  the  exchange  of  ratification.   .   .   . 

Resolved,  That  treaties  of  amity,  or  of  amity  and  commerce,  be 
entered  into  with  Morocco,  and  the  Regencies  of  Algiers,  Tunis, 
and  Tripoli,  to  continue  for  the  same  term  of  ten  years,  or  for  a 
term  as  much  longer  as  can  be  procured.   .   .   . 

Resolved,  That  a  commission  be  issued  to  Mr.  J.  Adams,  Mr. 
B.  Franklin,  and  Mr.  T.  Jefferson,  giving  powers  to  them,  or  the 
greater  part  of  them,  to  make  and  receive  propositions  for  such 
treaties  of  amity  and  commerce,  and  to  negotiate  and  sign  the 
same,  transmitting  them  to  Congress  for  their  final  ratification  ; 
and  that  such  commission  be  in  force  for  a  term  not  exceeding 
two  years. 

1  Letters  of  TJiomas  Jefferson  to  James  Monroe,  I J  8^ 

.  .  .  The  effecting  treaties  with  the  powers  holding  positions  in 
the  West  Indies,  I  consider  as  the  important  part  of  our  business. 
It  is  not  of  great  consequence  whether  the  others  treat  or  not. 
Perhaps  trade  may  go  on  with  them  well  enough  without.  But 
Britain,  Spain,  Portugal,  France  are  consequent,  and  Holland, 
Denmark,  Sweden  may  be  of  service  too.  We  have  hitherto 
waited  for  favorable  circumstances  to  press  matters  with  France. 
We  are  now  about  to  do  it  tho  I  cannot  say  the  prospect  is  good. 
The  merchants  of  this  country  (France)  are  \Qxy  clamorous  against 

1  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson  [Ford  Edition],  IV,  31,  58. 


202  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

our  admission  into  the  West  Indies  and  ministers  are  afraid  for 
their  places.  .  .  . 

.  ,  ,  The  difficulty  which  arises  in  our  case  is,  with  the  nations 
having  American  territory.  Access  to  the  West  Indies  is  indis- 
pensably necessary  to  us.  Yet  how  to  gain  it,  when  it  is  the  estab- 
lished system  of  these  nations  to  exclude  all  foreigners  from  their 
colonies.  The  only  chance  seems  to  be  this,  our  commerce  to  the 
mother  countries  is  valuable  to  them.  We  must  endeavor  then  to 
make  this  the  price  of  an  admission  into  their  West  Indies,  and  to 
those  who  refuse  the  admission  we  must  refuse  our  commerce  or 
load  theirs  by  odious  discriminations  in  our  ports.  We  have  this 
circumstance  in  our  favour  too,  that  what  one  grants  us  in  their 
islands,  the  others  will  not  find  it  worth  their  while  to  refuse.  The 
misfortune  is  that  with  this  countiy  (France)  we  gave'  this  price  for 
their  aid  in  the  war,  and  we  have  now  nothing  more  to  offer.  She 
being  withdrawn  from  the  competition  leaves  Gr.  Britain  much 
more  at  liberty  to  hold  out  against  us.  This  is  the  difficult  part 
of  the  business  of  treaty,  and  I  own  it  does  not  hold  out  the  most 
flattering  prospect.   .   .  . 

B.    Relations  with  France 

^  Coiifct'cncc  of  Jefferson  ivitJi  the  Count  de  Vergennes  on  the  Sub- 
ject of  the  Coniniercc  of  the  United  States  with  France,  I'jS^ 

.  .  .  Our  conversation  began  with  the  usual  topic  ;  that  the 
trade  of  the  United  States  had  not  yet  learned  the  way  to  France, 
but  continued  to  centre  in  England,  though  no  longer  obliged  by 
law  to  go  there.  I  observed,  that  the  real  cause  of  this,  was  to  be 
found  in  the  difference  of  the  commercial  arrangements  in  the  two 
countries  ;  that  merchants  would  not,  and  could  not  trade  but  where 
there  was  to  be  some  gain  ;  that  the  commerce  between  two  coun- 
tries could  not  be  kept  up,  but  by  an  exchange  of  commodities  ; 
that,  if  an  American  merchant  was  forced  to  carry  his  produce  to 
London,  it  could  not  be  expected  he  would  make  a  voyage  from 
thence  to  France,  witli  the  money,  to  lay  it  out  here  ;  and,  in  like 

1  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson  [Ford  Edition],  IV,  117-121,  129-130. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  203 

manner,  ihat  if  he  could  bring  his  commodities,  witli  advantage, 
to  this  country,  he  would  not  make  another  voyage  to  l^ngland, 
with  the  money,  to  lay  it  out  there,  but  would  take  in  exchange 
the  merchandise  of  this  country.  The  Count  de  Vergennes  agreed 
to  this,  and  particularly  that  where  there  was  no  exchange  of  mer- 
chandise, there  could  be  no  durable  commerce  ;  and  that  it  was 
natural  for  merchants  to  take  their  returns  in  the  port  where  they 
sold  their  cargo.  I  desired  his  permission  then,  to  take  a  summary 
view  of  the  productions  of  the  United  States,  that  we  might  see 
which  of  them  could  be  brought  here  to  advantage. 

I.  Rice.  France  gets  from  the  Mediterranean  a  rice  not  so 
good  indeed,  but  cheaper  than  ours.  He  said  that  they  bought  of 
our  rice,  but  that  they  got  from  Egypt  also,  rice  of  a  very  fine 
quality.  I  observed  that  such  was  the  actual  state  of  their  com- 
merce, in  that  article,  that  they  take  little  from  us.  2.  Indigo. 
They  make  a  plenty  in  their  own  colonies.  He  obsei'ved  that  they 
did,  and  that  they  thought  it  better  than  ours.  3.  Flour,  fish,  and 
provisions  of  all  sorts,  they  produce  for  themselves.  That  these 
articles  might,  therefore,  be  considered  as  not  existing,  for  com- 
merce, between  the  United  States  and  the  kingdom  of  France. 

I  proceeded  to  those  capable  of  becoming  objects  of  exchange 
between  the  two  nations,  i .  Peltry  and  furs.  Our  posts  being  in 
the  hands  of  the  English,  we  are  cut  off  from  that  article.  I  am 
not  sure  even,  whether  we  are  not  obliged  to  buy  of  them,  for  our 
own  use.  When  these  posts  are  given  up,  if  ever  they  are,  we 
shall  be  able  to  furnish  France  with  skins  and  furs,  to  the  amount 
of  two  millions  of  livres,  in  exchange  for  her  merchandise  ;  but  at 
present,  these  articles  are  to  be  counted  as  nothing.  2.  Potash. 
An  experiment  is  making  whether  this  can  be  brought  here.  We 
hope  it  may,  but  at  present  it  stands  for  nothing.  He  observed 
that  it  was  much  wanted  in  P>ance,  and  he  thought  it  would  suc- 
ceed. 3.  Naval  stores.  Trials  are  also  making  on  these,  as  sub- 
jects of  commerce  with  France.  They  are  heavy,  and  the  voyage 
long.  The  result,  therefore,  is  doubtful.  At  present,  they  are  as 
nothing  in  our  commerce  with  this  country.  4.  Whale  oil.  I  told 
him  I  had  great  hopes  that  the  late  diminution  of  duty  would  en- 
able us  to  bring  this  article,  with  advantage,  to  France ;  that  a 


204  I^HE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

merchant  was  just  arrived  (Mr.  Barrett)  who  proposed  to  settle  at 
L'Orient,  for  the  purpose  of  selhng  the  cargoes  of  this  article,  and 
choosing  the  returns.  That  he  had  informed  me,  that  in  the  first 
year,  it  would  be  necessary  to  take  one-third  in  money,  and  the 
remainder  only  in  merchandise  ;  because  the  fishermen  require, 
indispensably,  some  money.  But  he  thought  that  after  the  first 
year,  the  merchandise  of  the  preceding  year,  would  always  produce 
money  for  the  ensuing  one,  and  that  the  whole  amount  would  con- 
tinue to  be  taken  annually  afterwards,  in  merchandise.  I  added, 
that  though  the  diminution  of  duty  was  expressed  to  be  but  for 
one  year,  yet  I  hoped  they  would  find  their  advantage  in  renewing 
and  continuing  it ;  for  that  if  they  intended  really  to  admit  it  for 
one  year  only,  the  fishermen  would  not  find  it  worth  while  to  re- 
build their  vessels,  and  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  business. 
The  Count  expressed  satisfaction  on  the  view  of  commercial  ex- 
change held  up  by  this  article.  He  made  no  answer  as  to  the  con- 
tinuance of  it ;  and  I  did  not  choose  to  tell  him,  at  that  time,  that 
we  should  claim  its  continuance  under  their  treaty  with  the  Hanse- 
atic  towns,  which  fixes  this  duty  for  them,  and  our  own  treaty, 
which  gives  us  the  rights  of  the  most  favored  nation.  5.  Tobacco. 
I  recalled  to  the  memory  of  the  Count  de  Vergennes,  the  letter  I 
had  written  to  him  on  this  article  ;  and  the  object  of  the  present 
conversation  being,  how  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  commerciable 
articles  between  the  two  countries,  I  pressed  that  of  tobacco,  in  this 
point  of  view  ;  observed  that  France,  at  present,  paid  us  two  mil- 
lions of  livres  for  this  article  ;  that  for  such  portions  of  it  as  were 
bought  in  London,  they  sent  the  money  directly  there,  and  for 
what  they  bought  in  the  United  States,  the  money  was  still  re- 
mitted to  London,  by  bills  of  exchange  ;  whereas,  if  they  would 
permit  our  merchants  to  sell  this  article  freely,  they  would  bring  it 
here,  and  take  the  returns  on  the  spot,  in  merchandise,  not  money. 
The  Count  observed,  that  my  proposition  contained  what  was  doubt- 
less useful,  but  that  the  King  received  on  this  article,  at  present,  a 
revenue  of  twenty-eight  millions,  which  was  so  considerable,  as  to 
render  them  fearful  of  tampering  with  it ;  that  the  collection  of 
this  revenue  by  way  of  Farm,  was  of  very  ancient  date,  and  that  it 
was  always  hazardous  to  alter  arrangements  of  long  standing,  and 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  205 

of  such  infinite  combinations  with  the  fiscal  system.  I  answered, 
that  the  simphcity  of  the  mode  of  collection  proposed  for  this 
article,  withdrew  it  from  all  fear  of  deranging  other  parts  of  their 
system  ;  that  I  supposed  they  would  confine  the  importation  to 
some  of  their  principal  ports,  probably  not  more  than  five  or  six ; 
that  a  single  collector  in  each  of  these,  was  the  only  new  officer 
requisite  ;  that  he  could  get  rich  himself  on  six  livres  a  hogshead, 
and  would  receive  the  whole  revenue,  and  pay  it  into  the  treasury, 
at  short  hand.  M.  de  Reyneval  entered  particularly  into  this  part 
of  the  conversation,  and  explained  to  the  Count,  more  in  detail, 
the  advantages  and  simplicity  of  it,  and  concluded  by  observing  to 
me,  that  it  sometimes  happened  that  useful  propositions,  though 
not  practicable  at  one  time,  might  become  so  at  another.  I  told 
him  that  that  consideration  had  induced  me  to  press  the  matter 
when  I  did,  because  I  had  understood  the  renewal  of  the  Farm 
was  then  on  the  carpet,  and  that  it  was  the  precise  moment  when 
I  supposed  that  this  portion  might  be  detached  from  the  mass  of 
the  Farms.  I  asked  Count  de  Vergennes  whether,  if  the  renewal 
of  the  Farm  was  pressing,  this  article  might  not  be  separated, 
merely  in  suspense,  till  government  should  have  time  to  satisfy 
themselves  on  the  expediency  of  renewing  it.  He  said  no  prom- 
ises could  be  made. 

In  the  course  of  this  conversation  he  had  mentioned  the  liberty 
we  enjoyed  of  carrying  our  fish  to  the  French  islands.  I  repeated 
to  him  what  I  had  hinted  in  my  letter,  of  November  the  20th, 
1785,  that  I  considered  as  a  prohibition  the  laying  such  duties  on 
our  fish,  and  giving  such  premiums  on  theirs,  as  made  a  difference 
between  their  and  our  fishermen  of  fifteen  livres  the  quintal,  in  an 
article  which  sold  for  but  fifteen  livres.  He  said  it  would  not  have 
that  effect,  for  two  reasons  :  i .  That  their  fishermen  could  not 
furnish  supplies  sufficient  for  their  islands,  and,  of  course,  the  in- 
habitants must,  of  necessity,  buy  our  fish.  2.  That  from  the  con- 
stancy of  our  fishery,  and  the  short  season  during  which  theirs 
continued,  and  also  from  the  economy  and  management  of  ours, 
compared  with  the  expense  of  theirs,  we  had  always  been  able  to 
sell  our  fish,  in  their  islands,  at  twenty-five  livres  the  quintal,  while 
they  were  obliged  to  ask  thirty-six  livres.    (I  suppose  he  meant  the 


2o6  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

livre  of  the  French  islands.)  That  thus,  the  duty  and  premium 
had  been  a  necessary  operation  on  their  side,  to  place  the  sale  of 
their  fish  on  a  level  with  ours,  and  that  without  this,  theirs  could 
not  bear  the  competition.   ,   .   . 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  efforts  to  improve  the  commerce 
of  the  United  States,  have  been  confined  to  that  branch  only  which 
respects  France  itself,  and  that  nothing  passed  on  the  subject  of 
our  commerce  with  the  West  Indies,  except  an  incidental  conver- 
sation as  to  our  fish.  The  reason  of  this,  was  no  want  of  a  due 
sense  of  its  importance.  Of  that,  I  am  thoroughly  sensible.  But 
efforts  in  favor  of  this  branch  would,  at  present,  be  desperate.  To 
nations  with  which  we  have  not  yet  treated,  and  who  have  posses- 
sions in  America,  we  may  offer  a  free  vent  of  their  manufactures 
in  the  United  States,  for  a  full  or  modified  admittance  into  those 
possessions.  But  to  France,  we  are  obliged  to  give  that  freedom 
for  a  different  compensation  ;  to  wit,  for  her  aid  in  effecting  our 
independence.  It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  say  what  we  have  now 
to  offer  to  her,  for  an  admission  into  her  West  Indies.  Doubtless, 
it  has  its  price.  But  the  question  is,  what  this  would  be,  and 
whether  worth  our  while  to  give  it.  Were  we  to  propose  to  give 
each  other's  citizens  all  the  rights  of  natives,  they  would,  of  course, 
count  what  they  should  gain  by  this  enlargement  of  right,  and  ex- 
amine whether  it  would  be  worth  to  them  as  much  as  their  mo- 
nopoly of  their  West  India  commerce.  If  not,  that  commercial 
freedom  which  we  wish  to  preserve,  and  which,  indeed,  is  so  valu- 
able, leaves  us  little  to  offer.  ...  If  we  can  obtain  from  Great 
Britain  reasonable  conditions  of  commerce,  (which,  in  my  idea, 
must  forever  include  an  admission  into  her  islands,)  the  freest 
ground  between  these  two  nations  would  seem  to  be  the  best.  But 
if  we  can  obtain  no  equal  terms  from  her,  perhaps  Congress  might 
think  it  prudent,  as  Holland  has  done,  to  connect  us  unequivocally 
with  France.  Holland  has  purchased  the  protection  of  France. 
The  price  she  pays,  is  aid  in  time  of  zvar.  It  is  interesting  for 
us  to  purchase  a  free  commerce  with  the  French  islands.  But 
whether  it  is  best  to  pay  for  it,  by  ai(/s  in  war,  or  by  privileges 
iti  commcirc,  or  not  to  purcJiasc  it  at  all,  is  the  question. 


STRUG(]LE  WITH   MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  207 

^  The  intercourse  between  the  United  States,  and  these  Islands 
[French  West  Indies]  was  regulated,  by  an  arret  of  the  French 
government,  bearing  date  the  30th  of  August,  1784. 

American  vessels  of  at  least  sixty  tons,  were  admitted  into  cer- 
tain ports  in  these  islands,  laden  with  timber  of  all  kinds,  dye 
woods,  live  stock,  salt  beef,  salt  fish,  rice,  liquors,  raw  or  untanned 
hides,  peltry,  resin,  pitch  and  tar ;  and  for  cargoes  of  this  descrip- 
tion, were  allowed  to  carry  away,  rum  and  molasses,  and  goods 
brought  from  France,  on  payment  of  the  local  duties,  and  one  per 
cent,  ad  valorem,  on  all  imports  and  exports.  A  further  duty,  of 
three  livres,  was  imposed  upon  ever)'  quintal  (of  one  hundred 
weight)  of  salt  beef,  cod  or  other  dried  fish  ;  to  form  a  fund,  for 
premiums,  to  be  given  on  cod  and  other  fish,  from  the  French 
fisheries  ;  but  salt  meat  from  France  was  not  subject  to  this  duty. 
The  colonial  legislatures,  however,  were  authorized,  in  times  of 
scarcity,  to  suspend  the  operation  of  this  law. 

Prior  to  the  French  revolution,  the  national  policy  of  France 
and  Great  Britain,  was  indicated,  by  their  different  regulations, 
respecting  the  trade  between  the  United  States,  and  their  West 
India  possessions.  With  respect  to  exports  from  the  United  States, 
both  nations  admitted  lumber  of  all  kinds,  live  provisions,  vege- 
tables, rice,  pitch  and  tar,  because  neither  could  easily  supply  its 
islands  with  these  articles.  Great  Britain  excluded  American  beef, 
pork  and  dried  fish  ;  while  France  admitted  beef  and  dried  cod 
fish,  subject  to  the  additional  duty  above  mentioned.  Great  Britain 
admitted  flour,  bread,  biscuit,  and  all  kinds  of  grain  —  France,  on 
the  other  hand,  by  a  general  law,  excluded  flour,  and  all  kinds  of 
grain,  except  Indian  corn.  With  respect  to  exports,  from  the 
islands,  France  allowed  rum  and  molasses  only,  to  be  carried  to 
the  United  States  ;  while  Great  Britain  allowed  not  only  these 
articles,  but  sugar,  coffee,  cocoa-nuts,  ginger  and  pimento  —  the 
latter,  however,  as  we  have  before  stated,  conflned  the  carriage 
both  of  the  exports  and  imports  to  her  own  vessels  ;  and  the 
former  permitted  the  exports  and  imports,  in  American  vessels. 
The   policy  of   Britain  was,    to   monopolize   the   carriage  of   the 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
pp. 216-217. 


2o8  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

articles  ;  that  of  France,  to  monopolize  the  articles  themselves,  par- 
ticularly the  colonial  productions  of  much  value.  Great  Britain  was 
willing  the  people  of  the  United  States,  should  have  the  articles  of 
sugar  and  coffee,  on  condition,  that  British  ships  might  carry  them. 
France,  on  the  other  hand,  was  willing  the  Americans  should  sup- 
ply her  sugar  and  coffee  plantations,  with  certain  articles,  which 
she  was  unable  to  furnish  herself  ;  but  would  not  allow  them  to 
receive  in  return,  the  most  valuable  productions  of  these  plan- 
tations ;  these  were  reserved,  for  her  own  consumption  at  home, 
and  to  augment  her  own  national  wealth.  Under  these  colonial 
regulations,  the  United  States,  furnished  the  French  Islands,  with 
the  greatest  part  of  their  supplies,  obtained  from  foreign  countries. 

C.    Relations  with  England 

1  In  March,  1783,  the  celebrated  William  Pitt,  then  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  brought  into  Parliament,  a  bill,  for  the  tempo- 
rary regulation  of  this  intercourse,  founded  upon  liberal  principles. 

With  respect  to  the  trade  now  in  question,  it  admitted  vessels, 
belonging  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  into  the  ports  of  the 
West  India  islands,  with  goods,  or  merchandize,  of  American 
growth  or  produce  ;  and  permitted  them,  to  export  to  the  United 
States,  any  merchandize  or  goods  whatever  ;  subject  only  to  the 
same  duties  and  charges,  as  if  they  had  been  the  property  of  Brit- 
ish natural  born  subjects,  and  had  been  imported  and  exported,  in 
British  vessels. 

Violent  opposition  was  made  to  this  bill,  by  the  navigating  inter- 
est, at  the  head  of  which  was  Lord  Sheffield  ;  and  the  administra- 
tion, of  which  Pitt  was  a  member,  being  soon  after  dissolved,  the 
bill  itself  was  laid  aside  ;  and  the  power  of  regulating  the  commer- 
cial intercourse,  between  the  two  countries,  was,  by  the  succeeding 
administration,  lodged  with  the  King  and  Council,  l^y  orders, 
soon  after  issued,  in  pursuance  of  this  authority,  American  ves- 
sels were  entirely  excluded,  from  the  British  West  Indies  ;  and 
some  of  the  staple  productions  of  the  United  States,  particularly, 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
pp.  189-191. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  209 

fish,  beef,  pork,  butter,  lard,  &e.  were  not  permitted  to  be  carried 
there,  even  in  British  Bottoms. 

This  order  was  the  commencement  of  that  system  of  policy,  re- 
specting this  trade,  which  the  British  government  has  ever  since 
pursued  ;  and  from  which,  it  has  never  relaxed,  except,  from  the 
pressure  of  the  long  wars  in  Europe,  the  necessities  of  the  colonies 
themselves,  or  from  the  proceedings  of  the  American  government. 
The  object  of  this  policy  has  been,  to  secure  to  British  shipping, 
a  monopoly  of  the  commerce,  between  the  United  States  and  the 
West  India  Islands.  This  policy,  to  which  it  has  so  uniformly  and 
tenaciously  adhered,  was  founded,  not  merely,  on  the  advantages 
of  this  direct  intercourse  ;  but,  for  the  additional  benefit  of  the  cir- 
cuitous trade,  from  the  British  European  dominions,  to  the  West 
Indies,  by  the  way  of  LJnited  States. 

The  reasons  of  this  policy  are  obvious,  —  Great  Britain  has  few 
articles  to  carry  from  Europe,  to  supply  her  West  India  posses- 
sions —  her  vessels,  therefore,  in  the  direct  voyages  to  these  Is- 
lands, must  necessarily  go  nearly  empty,  and  of  course,  can  earn 
little  freight.  But,  by  bringing  a  cargo,  or  even  a  part  of  a  cargo, 
to  the  United  States,  and  from  thence,  carrying  supplies  of  Amer- 
ican produce  to  the  West  Indies,  and  there  loading  with  colonial 
products  for  Europe,  her  vessels  can  earn  two  or  three  freights, 
instead  of  one. 

The  advantages  of  this  circuitous  trade,  are  particularly  noticed, 
by  the  committee  of  the  British  council,  acting,  as  a  board  of  trade, 
in  a  report  made,  as  early  as  1784. 

"  It  has  been  observed  to  them,"  say  the  committee,  "that  the 
owners  of  British  vessels,  concerned  in  the  West  India  trade,  have 
long  labored  under  great  disadvantages,  from  the  difficulty  of  pro- 
curing outward  freights,  for  their  vessels  ;  but  that  now,  by  first 
going  to  North  America,  and  from  thence,  to  the  West  Indies, 
and  so  home,  they  will  be  sure  of  two  freights,  and  perhaps  three, 
instead  of  little  more  than  one  :  and  it  is  alleged,  that  they  will 
reap  this  benefit,  with  ver)-  small  additional  charges,  in  the  pay- 
ment of  seamen's  wages,  and  port  charges." 


2IO  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

TJic  British  Viczv  of  the  Situation 

1  From  the  foregoing  state  of  the  imports  and  exports  of  Amer- 
ica, to  and  from  Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  a  judgement  may 
be  formed  of  their  natural  course  and  tendency  —  of  their  impor- 
tance,— and  of  the  measures  that  should  be  adopted  by  Great  Brit- 
ain ;  or  rather,  it  appears,  that  little  is  to  be  done,  and  our  great 
care  should  be,  to  avoid  doing  mischief.  The  American  States  are 
separated  from  us  and  independent,  consequently  foreign  ;  the  de- 
claring and  treating  them  as  such,  puts  them  in  the  only  situation, 
in  which  they  can  now  be  ;  friendly,  indeed,  we  may  yet  be,  and 
well  disposed  to  them,  but  we  should  wait  events  rather  than  en- 
deavour to  force  them  ;  and,  relying  on  those  commercial  princi- 
ples and  regulations  under  which  our  trade  and  navy  have  become 
so  great.  Great  Britain  will  lose  few  of  the  advantages  she  possessed 
before  these  States  became  independent,  and  with  prudent  manage- 
ment she  will  have  as  much  of  their  trade  as  it  will  be  her  interest 
to  wish  for,  without  any  expence  for  civil  establishment  or  protec- 
tion. The  States  will  suffer,  — they  have  lost  much  by  separation. 
—  We  shall  regret  the  money  that  has  been  squandered,  but  it  is 
not  probable  our  Commerce  will  be  much  hurt,  and  it  is  certain 
the  means  of  employing  and  adding  to  our  seamen  will  be  greatly 
increased,  if  we  do  not  throw  away  the  opportunity. 

The  Navigation  act  prevented  the  Dutch  from  being  the  carriers 
of  our  trade.  The  violation  of  relaxation  of  that  act  in  favour  of 
the  West-India  Islands,  or  of  the  American  States,  will  give  that 
advantage  to  the  New-Englanders,  and  encourage  to  the  greatest 
degree  the  marine  of  America,  to  the  ruin  of  our  own.  The  bill, 
in  its  present  state,  allowing  an  open  trade  between  the  American 
States  and  our  islands,  relinquishes  the  only  use  and  advantage  of 
American  Colonies,  or  West-India  Islands,  the  monopoly  of  their 
consumption,  and  the  carriage  of  their  produce  ;  for  that  object 
alone  we  could  be  tempted  to  support  the  vast  expence  of  their 
maintenance  and  protection.  Our  late  wars  have  been  for  the  ex- 
clusive trade  of  America,  and  our  enormous  debt  has  been  incurred 

1  Sheffield,  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  American  States  [1783],  pp. 
134-139.  150-15!'  198-207,  263-264. 


STRU(;(>LE  WITH   MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  21  I 

for  that  object.  Our  remaining  Colonics  on  the  Continent  and 
Islands,  and  the  favourable  state  of  I^nglish  manufactures,  may 
still  give  us,  almost  exclusively,  the  trade  of  America.  But  the 
bill  grants  the  West-India  trade  to  the  American  States  on  better 
terms  than  we  can  have  it  ourselves,  and  these  advantages  are  be- 
stowed, while  local  circumstances  insure  many  others,  which  it  is 
our  duty  to  guard  against,  rather  than  promote.  It  makes  it  the 
interest  of  our  merchants  to  trade  under  the  American  flag.  Ship- 
ping may  be  had  in  America  at  much  less  original  expence  than 
is  required  here,  but  the  quality  is  greatly  inferior.  It  also  makes 
it  the  interest  of  our  remaining  Colonies  in  North  America,  (for 
whom  no  advantages  are  reserved  by  the  bill  in  question,)  to  be  as 
independant  as  the  American' States,  in  order  to  have  their  trade 
as  open.   .   .   . 

The  French  depend  on  their  West  Indies  for  the  support  of 
their  marine  ;  all  their  writers  say  so.  Should  we  then  neglect  the 
same  opportunity  of  supporting  our  own  ?  It  is  well  known,  that 
the  French  settlements  at  St.  Domingo  alone,  employed  before  the 
late  war,  450  large  ships  in  their  commerce  with  France,  and  200 
smaller  vessels  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  two  Americas.  The 
French  Leeward  islands,  taken  collectively,  have  hitherto  kept 
pace  with  St.  Domingo,  or  ver}^  nearly  so  ;  and  it  is  certain  that 
the  trade  of  all  the  French  Colonies  put  together,  is  not  at  this 
time,  carried  on  by  less  than  1000  ships,  exclusive  of  coasters: 
the  number  of  seamen  raised  and  employed  by  this  means,  is  little, 
if  at  all,  short  of  20,000  men  :  the  total  produce  of  St.  Domingo, 
in  all  its  branches,  is  said  to  exceed  that  of  Jamaica  about  one 
third  ;  at  the  same  period  the  trade  of  the  latter  island  was  carried 
on  by  310  ships  only,  of  about  the  same  size,  of  which  233  were 
employed  between  Europe  and  Jamaica,  and  yy  of  this  number 
touched  upon  some  part  of  the  coast  of  Africa. 

If  the  system  is  adhered  to,  of  prohibiting  small  American  ves- 
sels from  trading  with  our  islands,  many  hundreds  of  sloops  and 
schooners  will  be  built  in  Bermuda  and  our  remaining  Northern 
Colonies,  and  our  discharged  seamen,  who  are  now  passing  over 
to  the  Americans,  will  be  employed ;  but  if  we  permit  small 
American  vessels,  limited  to   100,  or  even  60  tons,  to  come  to 


212  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

our  islands,  under  pretence  of  bringing  lumber  and  provisions,  and 
carrying  away  rum,  the  business  of  the  islands  will  be  done  prin- 
cipally by  them  ;  there  will  be  no  end  of  smuggling,  and  we  shall 
raise  a  most  numerous  marine  on  the  coasts  of  the  Southern  States, 
where  there  is  none  at  present,  at  the  expence  of  our  own.   .   .   . 

It  will  not  be  an  easy  matter  to  bring  the  American  States  to 
act  as  a  nation  ;  they  are  not  to  be  feared  as  such  by  us.  It  must 
be  a  long  time  before  they  can  engage,  or  will  concur,  in  any 
material  expence.  A  Stamp  act,  a  Tea  act,  or  such  act,  that  can 
never  again  occur,  could  alone  unite  them  ;  their  climate,  their 
staples,  their  manners,  are  different ;  their  interests  opposite  ;  and 
that  which  is  beneficial  to  one,  is  destructive  to  the  other.  We 
might  as  reasonably  dread  the  effects  of  combinations  among  the 
German  as  among  the  American  States,  and  depricate  the  resolves 
of  the  Diet,  as  those  of  Congress.  In  short,  every  circumstance 
proves,  that  it  will  be  extreme  folly  to  enter  into  any  engagements, 
by  which  ive  viav  not  luish  to  be  bojDid  hereafter.  It  is  impossible 
to  name  any  material  advantiige  the  American  States  will,  or  can 
give  us  in  return,  more  than  what  we  of  course  shall  have.  No 
treaty  can  be  made  with  the  American  States  that  can  be  binding 
on  the  whole  of  them.  The  act  of  Confederation  does  not  enable 
Congress  to  form  more  than  general  treaties  :  at  the  moment  of 
the  highest  authority  of  Congress,  the  power  in  question  was  with- 
held by  the  several  States.  No  treaty  that  could  be  made,  would 
suit  the  different  interests.  When  treaties  air  necessary,  they  must 
be  made  with  the  States  separately.  Each  State  has  reserved  every 
power  relative  to  imports,  exports ,  prohibitions ,  duties,  &c.  to  itself. 
But  no  treaty  at  present  is  necessary.  We  trade  with  several  very 
considerable  nations,  without  commercial  treaties.  The  novelty  of 
the  case,  and  the  necessity  of  enquiry  and  full  consideration,  make 
it  improper  for  us  to  hurry  into  any  engagements  that  may  possibly 
injure  our  navigation.  When  men  talk  of  liberality  and  reciprocity 
in  commercial  matters,  it  is  clear,  either  that  they  have  no  argu- 
ment, or  no  knowledge  of  the  subject,  that  they  are  supporting  a 
favourite  hypothesis,  or  that  they  are  interested.  It  is  not  friend- 
ship or  favour,  but  exactness  and  punctuality,  that  is  looked  for  in 
commerce.    Our  great  national  object  is  to  raise  as  many  sailors 


STRUGGLE  WITII   MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  213 

and  as  much  shipping  as  possible  ;  so  far  acts  of  parhament  may 
have  effect ;  but  neither  acts  of  parhament  nor  treaties,  in  matters 
merely  commercial,  will  have  any  force,  farther  than  the  interests 
of  individuals  coincide  ;  and  wherever  advantage  is  to  be  gotten, 
the  indi\'idual  will  pursue  it. 

At  least  four-fifths  of  the  importations  from  Europe  into  the 
American  States,  were  at  all  times  made  upon  credit ;  and  un- 
doubtedly the  States  are  in  greater  want  of  credit  at  this  time 
than  at  former  periods.  It  can  be  had  only  in  Great  l^ritain.  The 
French,  who  gave  them  credit,  are  all  bankrupts  :  French  mer- 
chants cannot  give  much  credit.  The  Dutch  in  general  have  not 
trusted  them  to  any  amount ;  those  who  did  have  suffered ;  and 
it  is  not  the  custom  of  the  Dutch  to  give  credit,  but  on  the  best 
security.  It  is  therefore  obvious,  from  this  and  the  foregoing  state 
of  imports  and  exports,  into  what  channels  the  commerce  of  the 
American  States  must  inevitably  flow,  and  that  nearly  four-fifths 
of  their  importations  will  be  from  Great  Britain  directly.  Where 
articles  are  nearly  equal,  the  superior  credit  afforded  by  England 
will  always  give  the  preference.  The  American  will,  doubtless, 
attempt  to  persuade  the  Britisli  merchant  to  be  his  security  with 
foreigners ;  but  it  is  certain  many  foreign  articles  will  go  to 
America  through  Great  Britain,  as  formerly,  on  account  of  the 
difficulty  the  American  merchant  would  find  in  resorting  to  every 
quarter  of  the  world  to  collect  a  cargo.  The  Americans  send  ships 
to  be  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  European  goods.  A  general  cargo 
for  the  American  market  cannot  be  made  up  on  such  advantageous 
terms  in  any  part  of  the  world  as  in  England.  In  our  ports,  all 
articles  may  be  got  with  dispatch  —  a  most  winning  circumstance 
in  trade  ;  but  wherever  they  carry  fish,  and  those  articles  for  which 
England  cannot  be  the  entrepot,  they  will  take  back  wine,  silk,  oil, 
&c.  from  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  the  Mediterranean.  But  if  we 
maintain  the  canying  trade,  half  the  commerce  of  the  American 
States,  or  less  than  half,  without  the  expence  of  their  government 
and  protection,  and  without  the  extravagance  of  bounties,  would  be 
infinitely  better  for  us  than  the  monopoly,  such  as  it  was.   .   .   . 

What  was  foretold  in  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  has  now 
actually  happened.    Every  account  from  America  says,  that  British 


H 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 


manufactures  are  selling  at  a  considerable  profit,  while  other 
European  goods  cannot  obtain  the  first  cost.  Every  day's  ex- 
perience shews,  that  this  country,  from  the  nature  and  quality  of 
its  manufactures,  and  from  the  ascendancy  it  has  acquired  in  com- 
merce, will  command  three-fourths  of  the  American  trade.  The 
American  merchants  solicit  a  correspondence,  and  beg  for  credit, 
because,  while  they  feel  their  own  want  of  capital,  they  know  that 
our  traders  are  more  liberal,  and  our  goods  cheaper  and  better, 
than  any  in  Europe.  And  the  only  danger  is,  not  that  the 
American  merchants  will  ask  for  too  few  manufactures,  but  that 
they  will  obtain  too  many.  The  American  consumers  have  been 
impoverished  by  an  expensive  war,  which  has  bequeathed  them 
many  taxes  to  pay  ;  and  they  will  not  be  more  punctual  in  their 
remittances  at  a  time  when  they  are  associating  against  the  pay- 
ment of  old  debts.  It  may  be  for  our  interest  to  run  some  hazard, 
however,  at  the  renewal  of  our  correspondence,  by  accepting  a 
trade  which  is  pressed  upon  us  by  willing  customers.  But  how  far 
it  may  be  prudent  for  the  British  merchant  to  comply  with  orders, 
till  the  several  States  hold  out  some  regulations,  that  will  give  them 
security,  is  a  question. 


TJic  Anicricmi  Vt'eiu  of  tJic  Situation 

1  This  nation  [England]  relies  upon  it,  that  our  States  can  never 
accomplish  such  a  concert,  either  by  giving  congress  the  power,  or 
by  complying  with  their  recommendations.  Proofs  of  this  are  in- 
numerable. Eord  Sheffield's  writings,  the  constant  strain  of  all 
the  writings  in  the  newspapers,  the  language  of  conversation,  the 
report  of  the  committee  of  council,  but  above  all,  the  system 
adopted  by  the  Duke  of  Portland's  administration,  and  uniformly 
pursued  by  him  and  his  successor,  Mr.  Pitt,  are  a  demonstration 
of  it.  Eor,  although  many  express  a  contempt  of  the  American 
commerce,  (and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  even  Lord  Camden  has 
lately  said,  that  while  they  had  a  monopoly  of  the  American  trade, 

1  Letters  of  John  Adams  to  Jay,  July  19-Octoher  21,  T7S5,  in  Works  of  John 
Adams,  VIII,  2S1-282,  282-2S3,  289-291,  322,  323,  324-325,  332. 


STRUGGLE  WITH   MKRCANTILK  SVSTF.M  215 

it  was  a  valuable  thing  ;  but  now  they  had  not,  he  thought  very 
little  of  it)  yet  those  of  the  ministry  and  nations  who  understand 
any  thing  of  the  subject,  know  better,  and  build  all  their  hopes 
and  schemes  upon  the  supposition  of  such  divisions  in  America  as 
will  for  ever  prevent  a  combination  of  the  States,  either  in  prohibi- 
tions or  retaliating  duties.  It  is  true  that  the  national  pride  is 
much  inflated  at  present  by  the  course  of  exchange,  which  is  much 
in  their  favor  with  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  disposes  them  to 
think  little  of  American  commerce.  They  say  that  the  progress  of 
the  fine  arts  in  this  kingdom  has  given  to  their  manufacturers 
a  taste  and  skill,  and  to  their  productions  an  elegance,  cheapness, 
and  utility,  so  superior  to  any  others,  that  the  demand  for  their 
merchandises  from  all  parts  of  Europe  is  greater  than  ever ;  that 
even  Lord  North's  prohibitory  bill  has  contributed  to  this  ad- 
vantage, by  occasioning  a  demand  among  foreign  merchants 
din-ing  the  war,  for  goods  to  supply  America.  The  knowledge 
and  taste  for  British  manufactures,  they  say,  has  been,  by  this 
means,  spread  all  over  Europe,  and  the  demands  for  them  multi- 
plied, which  has  turned  the  balance  so  much  in  their  favor,  and 
caused  such  an  extraordinary  influx  both  of  cash  and  bills  of  ex- 
change, into  these  kingdoms.  Those  who  reflect  more  maturely 
upon  this,  however,  see  that  this  advantage  is  but  temporaiy  (if  it 
is  one)  ;  they  say  that  the  long  stagnation  of  business  by  the  war, 
had  filled  the  country  with  manufactures  ;  that,  upon  the  peace, 
extraordinary  efforts  were  made  to  dispose  of  them,  by  sending 
factors  abroad,  not  only  to  America,  but  to  all  parts  of  Europe ; 
that  these  factors  have  not  only  sold  their  goods  at  a  low  price, 
but  have  sent  home  cash  and  bills  at  a  high  one,  so  that  their  own 
factors  have  turned  their  course  of  exchange  in  their  favor,  in 
appearance,  and  for  the  present  moment  only,  at  their  expense, 
for  the  loss,  both  upon  the  sale  of  goods  and  the  purchase  of  re- 
mittances, is  theirs.  If  these  conjectures  are  right,  the  present 
appearance  of  prosperity  will  be  succeeded  by  numerous  failures 
and  great  distress.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  present  appearance  has 
produced  a  self-sufficiency  which  will  prevent  for  some  time  any 
reasonable  arrangement  with  us. 


2i6  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

Their  attachment  to  their  navigation  act,  as  well  as  that  of  all 
other  parties  here,  is  grown  so  strong,  and  their  determination  to 
consider  us  as  foreigners,  and  to  undermine  our  navigation,  and  to 
draw  away  our  seamen,  is  so  fixed,  in  order  to  prevent  us  from 
privateering,  in  case  of  a  war,  that  I  despair  of  any  equal  treaty, 
and,  therefore,  of  any  treaty,  until  they  shall  be  made  to  feel  the 
necessity  of  it.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  too  earnestly  recommended 
to  all  the  States  to  concur  with  the  State  of  New  York,  in  giving 
to  congress  full  power  to  make  treaties  of  commerce,  and,  in 
short,  to  govern  all  our  external  commerce  ;  for,  I  really  believe,  it 
must  come  to  that.  Whether  prohibitions  or  high  duties  will  be 
most  politic,  is  a  great  question.  Duties  may  be  laid,  which  will 
give  a  clear  advantage  to  our  navigation  and  seamen,  and  these 
would  be  laid  by  the  States,  upon  the  recommendations  of  congress, 
no  doubt,  as  soon  as  the  principle  is  admitted,  that  it  is  necessary 
that  our  foreign  commerce  should  be  under  one  direction. 
•  You  will  easily  infer,  from  all  this,  that  I  have  no  hopes  of  a 
treaty  before  next  spring,  nor  then,  without  the  most  unanimous 
concurrence  of  all  our  States  in  vigorous  measures,  which  shall 
put  out  of  all  doubt  their  power  and  their  will  to  retaliate.   .   .   . 

I  find  the  spirit  of  the  times  very  different  from  that  which  you 
and  I  saw,  when  we  were  here  together,  in  the  months  of  November 
and  December,  1783. 

Then,  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  had  not  fully  returned 
to  these  kingdoms  ;  then,  the  nation  had  not  digested  its  system, 
nor  determined  to  adhere  so  closely  to  its  navigation  acts,  relatively 
to  the  United  States  ;  then,  it  was  common,  in  conversation,  to  hear 
a  respect  and  regard  for  America  professed  and  even  boasted  of. 

Now,  the  boast  is,  that  our  commerce  has  returned  to  its  old 
channels,  and  that  it  can  follow  in  no  other  ;  now,  the  utmost  con- 
tempt of  our  commerce  is  freely  expressed  in  pamphlets,  gazettes, 
coffee-houses,  and  in  common  street  talk.  I  wish  I  could  not  add 
to  this  the  discourses  of  cabinet  counsellors  and  ministers  of  state, 
as  well  as  members  of  both  houses  of  parliament. 

The  national  judgment  and  popular  voice  is  so  decided  in  favor 
of  the  navigation  acts,  that  neither  administration  nor  opposition 
dare  avow  a  thought  of  relaxing  them  farther  than  has  been  already 


STRUGGLE  WITH    MERCANTILE  SVS'l'EM  217 

done.  This  decided  cast  has  been  given  to  the  jxibHc  opinion  and 
the  national  councils  by  two  facts,  or  rather  presumptions.  The 
first  is,  that  in  all  events  this  country  is  sure  of  the  American 
commerce.  Even  in  case  of  war,  they  think  that  British  manu- 
factures will  find  their  way  to  the  United  States  through  France, 
Holland,  the  Austrian  low  countries,  Spain,  Portugal,  Sweden, 
the  French  and  Dutch  West  Indies,  and  even  through  Canada 
and  Nova  Scotia.  The  second  is,  that  the  American  States  are 
not,  and  cannot  be  united.  The  landed  interest  will  never  join 
with  the  commercial  nor  the  southern  States  with  the  northern,  in 
any  measures  of  retaliation  or  expressions  of  resentment.  These 
things  have  been  so  often  affirmed  to  this  people  by  the  refugees, 
and  they  have  so  often  repeated  them  to  one  another,  that  they 
now  fully  believe  them  ;  and,  I  am  firmly  persuaded,  they  will  try 
the  experiment  as  long  as  they  can  maintain  the  credit  of  their 
stocks.  It  is  our  part,  then,  to  tr}'  our  strength.  You  know  better 
than  I  do,  whether  the  States  will  give  congress  the  power,  and 
whether  congress,  when  they  have  the  power,  will  judge  it  necessary 
or  expedient  to  exert  it,  in  its  plenitude. 

You  were  present  in  congress,  sir,  in  1774,  when  many  members 
discussed  in  detail  the  commercial  relations  between  the  United 
States,  then  United  Colonies,  and  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  the  British 
West  Indies,  and  all  other  parts  of  the  British  empire,  and  showed 
to  what  a  vast  amount  the  wealth,  power,  and  revenue  of  Great 
Britain  would  be  affected  by  a  total  cessation  of  exports  and  im- 
ports. The  British  revenue  is  now  in  so  critical  a  situation,  that  it 
might  be  much  sooner  and  more  essentially  affected  than  it  could 
be  then.  You  remember,  however,  sir,  that  although  the  theory 
was  demonstrated,  the  practice  was  found  very  difficult. 

Britain  has  ventured  to  begin  commercial  hostilities.  I  call 
them  hostilities,  because  their  direct  object  is  not  so  much  the  in- 
crease of  their  own  wealth,  ships,  or  sailors,  as  the  diminution  of 
ours.  A  jealousy  of  our  naval  power  is  the  true  motive,  the  real 
passion  which  actuates  them  ;  they  consider  the  United  States  as 
their  rival,  and  the  most  dangerous  rival  they  have  in  the  world. 
I  see  clearly  they  are  less  afraid  of  an  augmentation  of  French 
ships  and  sailors  than  American. 


2i8  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

They  think  they  foresee,  that  if  the  Llnited  States  had  the  same 
fisheries,  the  same  carrying  trade,  and  the  same  market  for  ready 
built  ships,  which  they  had  ten  years  ago,  they  would  be  in  so  re- 
spectable a  posture,  and  so  happy  in  their  circumstances,  that  their 
own  seamen,  manufacturers,  and  merchants,  too,  would  hurry  over 
to  them. 

If  congress  should  enter  in  earnest  into  this  commercial  war,  it 
must  necessarily  be  a  long  one,  before  it  can  fully  obtain  the  vic- 
tory ;  and  it  may  excite  passions  on  both  sides  which  may  break 
out  into  a  military  war.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  the  peo- 
ple and  their  councils  will  proceed  with  all  the  temperance  and 
circumspection  which  such  a  state  of  things  recjuires.  I  would  not 
advise  to  this  commercial  struggle,  if  I  could  see  a  prospect  of  jus- 
tice without  it ;  but  I  do  not ;  every  appearance  is  on  the  contrary. 

It  has  been  the  general  sense  of  our  country  since  the  peace, 
that  it  was  their  duty  and  their  interest  to  be  impartial  between  the 
powers  of  Europe,  and  observe  a  neutrality  in  their  wars.  This 
principle  is  a  wise  one,  upon  the  supposition  that  those  powers 
will  be  impartial  to  us,  and  permit  us  to  remain  at  peace.  But  it  is 
natural  for  England  and  France  to  be  jealous  of  our  neutrality,  and 
apprehensive  that,  notwithstanding  our  professions,  we  may  be  in- 
duced to  connect  ourselves  with  one  against  the  other.  While  such 
uncertainties  and  suspicions  continue,  we  may  find  that  each  of 
these  rival  kingdoms  will  be  disposed  to  stint  our  growth  and 
diminish  our  power,  from  a  fear  that  it  will  be  employed  against 
itself,  and  in  favor  of  its  enemy.  If  France  could  be  sure  of  our 
perpetual  alliance,  it  is  to  be  supposed  she  would  favor  our  in- 
crease in  every  thing  which  could  be  reconciled  to  her  own  inter- 
est. If  England  could  obtain  such  an  alliance  with  us,  she,  for  the 
same  reason,  would  favor  our  interests  in  all  cases  compatible  with 
her  own. 

The  British  ministry,  therefore,  have  now  before  them  a  ques- 
tion as  important  to  the  British  empire  as  any  that  ever  was  agi- 
tated in  it ;  whether  by  evacuating  the  posts,  and  fulfilling  the  treaty 
of  peace  in  other  points,  and  by  opening  their  ports  in  the  West 


STRUGGLE  WITH  MERCANTILE  SYSTEM  219 

Indies  and  on  the  continent  of  America,  as  well  as  in  luirope, 
to  our  ships  and  produce,  upon  ec|ual  and  fair  terms,  they  shall 
insure  the  impartiality  and  neutrality  of  America  ;  or  whether,  by 
a  contrary  conduct,  they  shall  force  them  into  closer  connections  of 
alliance  and  commerce  with  France,  Spain,  and  Holland,  A  treaty 
of  defensive  alliance  with  France  would  deserve  a  long  and  careful 
deliberation,  and  should  comprehend  the  Fast  and  West  Indies. 
I  mean  our  right  to  trade  in  them,  as  well  as  many  other  consider- 
ations, too  numerous  to  hint  at  here.  A  new  treaty  of  commerce 
might  be  made  greatly  beneficial  to  both  countries.  If  we  once 
see  a  necessity  of  giving  preferences  in  trade,  great  things  may 
be  done. 

The  United  States  may  draw  many  useful  lessons  from  this  ex- 
ample [treaty  with  Portugal,  1704].  If,  from  the  blind  passions 
and  rash  councils  of  the  Britons,  they  should  be  compelled  to  devi- 
ate from  their  favorite  principle  of  impartiality  and  neutrality,  they 
might  make  a  new  commercial  treaty  with  France,  for  a  term  or 
forever  exempting  all  the  manufactures  of  France  from  one  third 
or  one  half,  or  all  the  duties  which  shall  be  stipulated  to  be  laid 
upon  the  English  manufactures.  In  this  case,  what  becomes  of  the 
manufactures  of  Britain  ?  what  of  their  commerce,  revenue,  and 
naval  power  ?   They  must  decline,  and  those  of  her  rival  must  rise, 

I  hint  only  at  these  things.  They  open  a  wide  field  of  inquiry, 
and  require  all  the  thoughts  of  the  people.  We  should  stipulate 
for  the  admission  of  all  our  produce,  and  should  agree  upon  a  tariff 
of  duties  on  both  sides.  We  should  insist  upon  entire  liberty  of 
trade  and  navigation,  both  in  the  East  and  West  Indies  and  in 
Africa,  and  upon  the  admission  of  our  oil  and  fish,  as  well  as  to- 
bacco, flour,  rice,  indigo,  potash,  &c.  &c. 

This  country  boasts  of  her  friends  and  partisans  in  this  and  the 
other  assemblies,  particularly  in  New  York  and  Virginia,  and  is 
confident  we  can  do  nothing,  neither  exclude  their  ships  from 
our  exports,  nor  lay  on  duties  upon  their  imports  into  our  States, 
neither  raise  a  revenue,  nor  build  a  fleet.  If  their  expectations  are 
not  disappointed,  we  shall  be,  and  that  in  a  few  months,  not  only 
a  despised,  but  a  despicable  people.    With  the  power  in  our  own 


220  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

hands  of  doing  as  we  please,  we  shall  do  nothing  with  the  means 
of  making  ourselves  respected  by  the  wise,  we  shall  become  the 
scorn  of  fools. 

This  being  the  state  of  things,  you  may  depend  upon  it,  the 
commerce  of  America  will  have  no  relief  at  present,  nor,  in  my 
opinion,  ever,  until  the  United  States  shall  have  generally  passed 
navigation  acts.  If  this  measure  is  not  adopted,  we  shall  be  de- 
rided ;  and  the  more  we  suffer,  the  more  will  our  calamities  be 
laughed  at.  My  most  earnest  exhortations  to  the  States,  then,  are, 
and  ought  to  be,  to  lose  no  time  in  passing  such  acts  ;  they  will 
raise  our  reputation  all  over  the  world,  and  will  avail  us  in  treating 
with  France  and  Holland,  as  well  as  England  ;  for,  when  these  na- 
tions once  see  us  in  the  right  way,  and  united  in  such  measures, 
they  will  estimate  more  highly  our  commerce,  our  credit,  and  our 
alliances.  The  question  has  been  asked  in  France  as  often  as  in 
England,  What  have  you  to  give  in  exchange  for  this  and  that .-' 
particularly,  it  was  a  constant  question  of  the  Marechal  de  Castries, 
What  have  you  to  give  as  a  reciprocity  for  the  benefit  of  going  to 
our  islands .?  When  we  have  once  made  a  navigation  act,  or  shown 
that  we  can  unite  in  making  one,  we  may  answer,  we  can  repeal 
our  act  or  our  imposts  in  return  for  your  repealing  yours. 

With  regard  to  this  country,  I  confess  to  you,  I  never  should 
have  believed,  nor  could  have  imagined  the  real  situation  of  it,  if 
I  had  not  been  here  and  resided  here  some  time.  I  never  could 
have  conceived  such  an  union  of  all  parliamentaiy  factions  against 
us,  which  is  a  demonstration  of  the  unpopularity  of  our  cause.  If 
the  States  do  not  make  haste  to  confine  their  exports  to  their  own 
ships,  and  lay  duties  upon  British  merchandise  which  shall  give  a 
decided  advantage  to  our  own  manufactures  and  those  of  Germany, 
France,  and  other  nations,  it  will  be  to  no  purpose  to  continue  a 
minister  here  ;  and  I  am  sure  I  shall  wish  myself  anywhere  else 
rather  than  here.  These  are  remedies  which  congress  and  the 
States  can  apply.  I  should  hope  they  will  not  proceed  farther  at 
present ;  but,  if  these  are  found  insufficient,  I  hope  they  will 
think  of  proceeding  farther  in  commercial  treaties  with  other  na- 
tions, and  reserve  the  resource,  of  further  alliances  as  a  last  resort. 


REASONS  FOR  A  MORE  PERFECT  UNION  22 1 

III.    COMMERCIAL  AND   FINANCIAL  REASONS   FOR  A 
MORE  PERFECT   UNION 

^  An  Enq2iiry  into  the  J  Principles  on  ivhieh  a  Commercial  System 
for  the  United  States   of  America  sJionld  be  Founded . 
Read  before  the  Society  for  Political  Engnij'ies,  Con- 
vened at  the  House  of  Betijaniin  Franklin,  in 
Philadelphia,  May  II,  IjS'J 

The  foundations  of  national  wealth  and  consequence  are  so 
firmly  laid  in  the  United  States,  that  no  foreign  power  can  under- 
mine or  destroy  them.  But  the  enjoyment  of  these  substantial  bless- 
ings is  rendered  precarious  by  domestic  circumstances.  Scarcely 
held  together  by  a  weak  and  half  formed  federal  constitution,  the 
powers  of  our  national  government,  are  unequal  to  the  complete 
execution  of  any  salutary  purpose,  foreign  or  domestic.  The  evils 
resulting  from  this  unhappy  state  of  things  have  again  shocked 
our  reviving  credit,  produced  among  our  people  alarming  instances 
of  disobedience  to  the  laws,  and  if  not  remedied,  must  destroy  our 
property,  liberties  and  peace.  Foreign  powers,  however  disposed 
to  favor  us,  can  expect  neither  satisfaction  nor  benefit  from  treaties 
with  Congress,  while  they  are  unable  to  enforce  them.  We  can 
therefore  hope  to  secure  no  privileges  from  them,  if  matters  are 
thus  conducted.  We  must  immediately  remedy  this  defect  or  suffer 
exceedingly.  Desultory  commercial  acts  of  the  legislatures,  formed 
on  the  impression  of  the  moment,  proceeding  from  no  uniform  or 
permanent  principles,  clashing  with  the  laws  of  other  states  and 
opposing  those  made  in  the  preceding  year  by  the  enacting  state, 
can  no  longer  be  supported,  if  we  are  to  continue  one  people.  A 
system  ivhieh  will  promote  the  general  interests  ivitJi  the  smallest 
injury  to  particidar  ones  has  become  indispensibly  necessary.  Com- 
merce is  more  affected  by  the  distractions  and  evils  arising  from 
the  uncertainty,  opposition  and  errors  of  our  trade  laws,  than  by 
the  restrictions  of  any  one  power  in  Europe.  A  negative  upon  all 
commercial  acts  of  the  legislatures,  if  granted  to  Congress  wold 
(would })  be  perfectly  safe,  and  must  have  an  excellent  effect.  If 
thought  expedient  it  should  be  given  as  well  with  regard  to  those 

1  Tench  Coxe,  A  View  of  the  United  States  of  America,  pp.  28-33. 


222  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

that  exist,  as  to  those  that  may  be  devised  in  future.  Congress 
would  thus  be  enabled  to  prevent  every  regulation,  that  might 
oppose  the  general*  interests,  and  by  restraining  the  states  from 
impolitic  laws,  would  gradually  bring  our  national  commerce  to 
order  and  perfection. 

We  have  ventured  to  hint  at  prohibitory  powers,  but  shall  leave 
that  point  and  the  general  power  of  regulating  trade  to  those  who 
may  undertake  to  consider  the  political  objects  of  the  Convention, 
suggesting  only  the  evident  propriety  of  enabling  Congress  to  pre- 
vent the  importation  of  foreign  commodities,  such  as  can  be  made 
from  our  own  raw  materials.  When  any  article  of  that  kind  can 
be  supplied  at  home,  upon  as  low  terms  as  those  on  which  it  can 
be  imported,  a  manufacture  of  our  own  produce,  so  well  established, 
ought  not  by  any  means  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  interests  of  foreign 
trade,  or  subjected  to  injury  by  the  wild  speculations  of  ignorant 
adventurers.  In  all  cases  careful  provision  should  be  made  for 
refunding  the  duties  on  exportation,  which  renders  the  impost  a 
virtual  excise  without  being  liable  to  any  of  the  objections  which 
have  been  made  against  an  actual  one,  and  is  a  great  encourage- 
ment to  trade. 

The  restoration  of  public  credit  at  home  and  abroad  should  be 
the  first  wish  of  our  hearts,  and  requires  every  economy,  every  ex- 
ertion we  can  make.  The  wise  and  virtuous  axioms  of  our  political 
constitutions,  resulting  from  a  lively  and  perfect  sense  of  what  is 
due  from  man  to  man,  should  prompt  us  to  the  discharge  of  debts 
of  such  peculiar  obligation.  We  stand  bound  to  no  common  cred- 
itors. The  friendly  foreigner,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  the  trus- 
tees of  charity  and  religion,  the  patriotic  citizen,  the  war-worn 
soldier  and  a  magnanimous  ally— these  are  the  principal  claimants 
upon  the  feelings  and  justice  of  America.  Let  her  apply  all  her 
resources  to  this  great  duty,  and  wipe  away  the  darkest  stain,  that 
has  ever  fallen  upon  her.  The  general  impost  —  the  sale  of  the 
lands  and  every  other  unnecessary  article  of  public  property  —  re- 
straining with  a  firm  hand  every  needless  expence  of  government 
and  private  life  —  steady  and  patient  industry,  with  proper  dispo- 
sitions in  the  people,  would  relieve  us  of  part  of  the  burden,  and 
enable  Congress  to  commence  their  payments,  and  with  the  aid  of 


REASONS  FOR  A  MORK  PERFECT  UNION 


--J 


taxation,  would  ])ut  tlic  sinkinL^  and  funding-  of  our  debts  within 
the  power  of  the  United  States. 

The  violence  committed  on  the  rights  of  propert)-  under  the 
authority  of  tender  laws  in  some  of  the  states,  the  familiarity  with 
which  that  pernicious  measure  has  been  recurred  to,  and  the 
shameless  perseverance  with  which  it  has  been  persisted  in  after 
the  value  of  the  paper  was  confessedly  gone,  call  aloud  for  some 
remedy.  This  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  justice  between  man  and 
man.  It  dishonors  our  national  character  abroad,  and  the  engine 
has  been  employed  to  give  the  coup  de  grace  to  public  credit.  It 
would  not  be  difficult  perhaps  to  form  a  new  article  of  confeder- 
ation to  prevent  it  in  future,  and  a  question  may  arise  whether 
fellowship  with  any  state,  that  would  refuse  to  admit  it,  can  be 
satisfactoiy  or  safe.  To  remove  difficulties  it  need  not  be  retro- 
spective. The  present  state  of  things  instead  of  inviting  emigrants, 
deters  all  who  have  the  means  of  information,  and  are  capable  of 
thinking.  The  settlement  of  our  lands,  and  the  introduction  of 
manufactories  and  branches  of  trade  yet  unknown  among  us  or 
requiring  a  force  of  capital',  which  are  to  make  our  country  rich 
and  powerful,  are  interrupted  and  suspended  by  our  want  of  pub- 
lic credit  and  the  numerous  disorders  of  our  government. 

^  TJic  Federalist 

With  France  and  with  Britain  we  are  rivals  in  the  fisheries,  and 
can  supply  their  markets  cheaper  than  they  can  themselves,  not- 
withstanding any  efforts  to  prevent  it  by  bounties  on  their  own  or 
duties  on  foreign  fish. 

With  them  and  with  most  other  European  nations  we  are  rivals 
in  navigation  and  the  carrying  trade  ;  and  we  shall  deceive  our- 
selves if  we  suppose  that  any  of  them  will  rejoice  to  see  it  flourish  ; 
for,  as  our  carrying  trade  cannot  increase  without  in  some  degree 
diminishing  theirs,  it  is  more  their  interest,  and  will  be  more  their 
policy,  to  restrain  than  to  promote  it. 

In  the  trade  to  China  and  India,  we  interfere  with  more  than 
one  nation,  inasmuch  as  it  enables  us  to  partake  in  advantages 

■I  jS'os.  IV,  XI,  y.\\  (Lodge  Edition),  pp.  iS-19,  60-73. 


2  24  I^HE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

which  they  had  in  a  manner  monopohzed,  and  as  we  thereby 
supply  ourselves  witii  commodities  which  we  used  to  purchase 
from  them. 

The  extension  of  our  own  commerce  in  our  own  vessels  cannot 
give  pleasure  to  any  nations  who  possess  territories  on  or  near 
this  continent,  because  the  cheapness  and  excellence  of  our  pro- 
ductions, added  to  the  circumstance  of  vicinity,  and  the  enterprise 
and  address  of  our  merchants  and  navigators,  will  give  us  a  greater 
share  in  the  advantages  which  those  territories  afford,  than  con- 
sists with  the  wishes  or  policy  of  their  respective  sovereigns. 

Spain  thinks  it  convenient  to  shut  the  Mississippi  against  us 
on  the  one  side,  and  Britain  excludes  us  from  the  St.  Lawrence 
on  the  other  ;  nor  will  either  of  them  permit  the  other  waters 
which  are  between  them  and  us  to  become  the  means  of  mutual 
intercourse  and  traffic. 

From  these  and  such  like  considerations,  which  might,  if  con- 
sistent with  prudence,  be  more  amplified  and  detailed,  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  jealousies  and  uneasinesses  may  gradually  slide  into  the 
minds  and  cabinets  of  other  nations,  and  that  we  are  not  to  ex- 
pect that  they  should  regard  our  advancement  in  union,  in  power 
and  consequence  by  land  and  by  sea,  with  an  eye  of  indifference 
and  composure.  .  .   . 

The  importance  of  the  Union,  in  a  commercial  light,  is  one  of 
those  points  about  which  there  is  least  room  to  entertain  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion,  and  which  has,  in  fact,  commanded  the  most 
general  assent  of  men  who  have  any  acquaintance  with  the  sub- 
ject. This  applies  as  well  to  our  intercourse  with  foreign  countries 
as  with  each  other. 

There  are  appearances  to  authorize  a  supposition  that  the  ad- 
venturous spirit,  which  distinguishes  the  commercial  character  of 
America,  has  already  excited  uneasy  sensations  in  several  of  the 
maritime  powers  of  Europe.  They  seem  to  be  apprehensive  of 
our  too  great  interference  in  that  carrying  trade,  which  is  the  sup- 
port of  their  navigation  and  the  foundation  of  their  naval  strength. 
Those  of  them  which  have  colonies  in  America  look  forward  to 
what  this  country  is  capable  of  becoming,  with  painful  solicitude. 


REASONS   l-'OR  A  M()R1<:   PKRI<KCT  UNION  225 

They  foresee  the  dangers  llial  may  threaten  their  Ameriean  do- 
minions from  the  neighbourhood  of  States,  which  have  all  the  dis- 
positions, and  would  possess  all  the  means,  rec|uisite  to  the  creation 
of  a  powx^rful  marine.  Impressions  of  this  kind  will  naturally  indi- 
cate the  policy  of  fostering  divisions  among  us,  and  of  depriving 
us,  as  far  as  possible,  of  an  ACTIVE  COMMERCE  in  our  own 
bottoms.  This  would  answer  the  threefold  purpose  of  preventing 
our  interference  in  their  navigation,  of  monopolizing  the  profits  of 
our  trade,  and  of  clipping  the  wings  by  which  we  might  soar  to  a 
dangerous  greatness.  Did  not  prudence  forbid  the  detail,  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  trace,  by  facts,  the  workings  of  this  policy  to  the 
cabinets  of  ministers. 

If  we  continue  united,  we  may  counteract  a  policy  so  unfriendly 
to  our  prosperity  in  a  variety  of  ways.  By  prohibitoiy  regulations, 
extending,  at  the  same  time,  throughout  the  States,  we  may  oblige 
foreign  countries  to  bid  against  each  other,  for  the  privileges  of 
our  markets.  This  assertion  will  not  appear  chimerical  to  those 
who  are  able  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  markets  of  three 
millions  of  people  —  increasing  in  rapid  progression,  for  the  most 
part  exclusively  addicted  to  agriculture,  and  likely  from  local  cir- 
cumstances to  remain  so — to  any  manufacturing  nation  ;  and  the 
immense  difference  there  would  be  to  the  trade  and  navigation  of 
such  a  nation,  between  a  direct  communication  in  its  own  ships, 
and  an  indirect  conveyance  of  its  products  and  returns,  to  and 
from  America,  in  the  ships  of  another  country.  Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, we  had  a  government  in  America,  capable  of  excluding 
Great  Britain  (with  whom  we  have  at  present  no  treaty  of  com- 
merce) from  all  our  ports  ;  what  would  be  the  probable  operation 
of  this  step  upon  her  politics  ?  Would  it  not  enable  us  to  nego- 
tiate, with  the  fairest  prospect  of  success,  for  commercial  privileges 
of  the  most  valuable  and  extensive  kind,  in  the  dominions  of  that 
kingdom  ?  When  these  questions  have  been  asked,  upon  other 
occasions,  they  have  received  a  plausible,  but  not  a  solid  or  satis- 
factory answer.  It  has  been  said  that  prohibitions  on  our  part 
would  produce  no  change  in  the  system  of  Britain,  because  she 
could  prosecute  her  trade  with  us  through  the  medium  of  the 
Dutch,  who  would  be  her  immediate  customers  and  paymasters 


2  26  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

for  those  articles  which  were  wanted  for  the  supply  of  our  mar- 
kets, l^ut  would  not  her  navigation  be  materially  injured  by  the 
loss  of  the  important  advantage  of  being  her  own  carrier  in  that 
trade  ?  Would  not  the  principal  part  of  its  profits  be  intercepted 
by  the  Dutch,  as  a  compensation  for  their  agency  and  risk  ?  Would 
not  the  mere  circumstance  of  freight  occasion  a  considerable  de- 
duction ?  Would  not  so  circuitous  an  intercourse  facilitate  the 
competitions  of  other  nations,  by  enhancing  the  price  of  British 
commodities  in  our  markets,  and  by  transferring  to  other  hands  the 
management  of  this  interesting  branch  of  the  British  commerce  ? 

A  mature  consideration  of  the  objects  suggested  by  these  ques- 
tions will  justify  a  belief  that  the  real  disadvantages  to  Britain 
from  such  a  state  of  things,  conspiring  with  the  prepossessions  of 
a  great  part  of  the  nation  in  favor  of  the  American  trade,  and  with 
the  importunities  of  the  West  India  islands,  would  produce  a  re- 
laxation in  her  present  system,  and  would  let  us  into  the  enjoyment 
of  privileges  in  the  markets  of  those  islands  and  elsewhere,  from 
which  our  trade  would  derive  the  most  substantial  benefits.  Such 
a  point  gained  from  the  l^ritish  government,  and  which  could  not 
be  expected  without  an  equivalent  in  exemptions  and  immunities 
in  our  markets,  would  be  likely  to  have  a  correspondent  effect  on 
the  conduct  of  other  nations,  who  would  not  be  inclined  to  see 
themselves  altogether  supplanted  in  our  trade. 

A  further  resource  for  influencing  the  conduct  of  European  na- 
tions towards  us,  in  this  respect,  would  arise  from  the  establishment 
of  a  federal  navy.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  continuance  of 
the  Union  under  an  efficient  government,  would  put  it  in  our  power, 
at  a  period  not  very  distant,  to  create  a  navy  which,  if  it  could  not 
vie  with  those  of  the  great  maritime  powers,  would  at  least  be  of 
respectable  weight  if  thrown  into  the  scale  of  either  of  two  con- 
tending parties.  This  would  be  more  peculiarly  the  case  in  relation 
to  operations  in  the  West  Indies.  A  few  ships  of  the  line,  sent 
opportunely  to .  the  reinforcement  of  either  side,  would  often  be 
sufficient  to  decide  the  fate  of  a  campaign,  on  the  event  of  which 
interests  of  the  greatest  magnitude  were  suspended.  Our  position 
is,  in  this  respect,  a  most  commanding  one.  And  if  to  this  consid- 
eration we  add  that  of  the  usefulness  of  supplies  from  this  country, 


REASONS  FOR  A  MOR]<:   PERFECT  UNION  227 

in  the  prosecution  of  military  operations  in  the  West  Inches,  it  vvih 
readily  be  perceived  that  a  situation  so  favorable  would  enable  us 
to  bargain  with  great  advantage  for  commercial  privileges.  A  price 
would  be  set  not  only  upon  our  friendship,  but  upon  our  neutrality. 
By  a  steady  adherence  to  the  Union,  we  may  hope,  erelong,  to  be- 
come the  arbiter  of  Europe  in  America,  and  to  be  able  to  incline 
the  balance  of  European  competitions  in  this  part  of  the  world  as 
our  interest  may  dictate.   .   .   . 

There  are  rights  of  great  moment  to  the  trade  of  America  which 
are  rights  of  the  Union  —  I  allude  to  the  fisheries,  to  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  Western  lakes,  and  to  that  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
dissolution  of  the  Confederacy  would  give  room  for  delicate  ques- 
tions concerning  the  future  existence  of  these  rights  ;  which  the 
interest  of  more  powerful  partners  would  hardly  fail  to  solve  to  our 
disadvantage.  The  disposition  of  Spain  with  regard  to  the  Missis- 
sippi needs  no  comment.  France  and  Britain  are  concerned  with 
us  in  the  fisheries,  and  view  them  as  of  the  utmost  moment  to  their 
navigation.  They,  of  course,  would  hardly  remain  long  indifferent 
to  that  decided  mastery,  of  which  experience  has  shown  us  to  be 
possessed  in  this  valuable  branch  of  traflfic,  and  by  which  we  are 
able  to  undersell  those  nations  in  their  own  markets.  What  more 
natural  than  that  they  should  be  disposed  to  exclude  from  the  lists 
such  dangerous  competitors  .-* 

This  branch  of  trade  ought  not  to,  be  considered  as  a  partial 
benefit.  All  the  navigating  States  may,  in  different  degrees,  ad- 
vantageously participate  in  it,  and  under  circumstances  of  a  greater 
extension  of  mercantile  capital,  would  not  be  unlikely  to  do  it. 
As  a  nursery  of  seamen,  it  now  is,  or,  when  time  shall  have  more 
nearly  assimilated  the  principles  of  navigation  in  the  several  States, 
will  become,  a  universal  resource.  To  the  establishment  of  a  navy, 
it  must  be  indispensable. 

To  this  great  national  object,  a  NAVY,  union  will  contribute  in 
various  ways.  Every  institution  will  grow  and  flourish  in  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  and  extent  of  the  means  concentrated  towards 
its  formation  and  support.  A  navy  of  the  United  States,  as  it  would 
embrace  the  resources  of  all,  is  an  object  far  less  remote  than  a 
navy  of  any  single  State  or  partial  confederacy,  which  would  only 


2  28  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

embrace  the  resources  of  a  single  part.  It  happens,  indeed,  that 
different  portions  of  confederated  America  possess  each  some  pe- 
cuHar  advantage  for  this  essential  establishment.  The  more  south- 
ern States  furnish  in  greater  abundance  certain  kinds  of  naval  stores 
—  tar,  pitch,  and  turpentine.  Their  wood  for  the  construction  of 
ships  is  also  of  a  more  solid  and  lasting  texture.  The  difference  in 
the  duration  of  the  ships  of  which  the  navy  might  be  composed,  if 
chiefly  constructed  of  Southern  wood,  would  be  of  signal  impor- 
tance, either  in  the  view  of  naval  strength  or  of  national  economy. 
Some  of  the  Southern  and  of  the  Middle  States  yield  a  greater 
plenty  of  iron,  and  of  better  quality.  Seamen  must  chiefly  be  drawn 
from  the  Northern  hive.  The  necessity  of  naval  protection  to  ex- 
ternal or  maritime  commerce  does  not  require  a  particular  elucida- 
tion no  more  than  the  conduciveness  of  that  species  of  commerce 
to  the  prosperity  of  a  navy. 

An  unrestrained  intercourse  between  the  States  themselves  will 
advance  the  trade  of  each  by  an  interchange  of  their  respective 
productions,  not  only  for  the  supply  of  reciprocal  wants  at  home, 
but  for  exportation  to  foreign  markets.  The  veins  of  commerce  in 
every  part  will  be  replenished,  and  will  acquire  additional  motion 
and  vigor  from  a  free  circulation  of  the  commodities  of  every  part. 
Commercial  enterprise  will  have  much  greater  scope,  from  the  di- 
versity in  the  productions  of  different  States.  When  the  staple  of 
one  fails  from  a  bad  harvest  or  unproductive  crop,  it  can  call  to  its 
aid  the  staple  of  another.   .   .   . 

It  may  perhaps  be  replied  to  this,  that  whether  the  States  are 
united  or  disunited,  there  would  still  be  an  intimate  intercourse 
between  them  which  would  answer  the  same  ends  ;  but  this  inter- 
course would  be  fettered,  interrupted,  and  narrowed  by  a  multi- 
plicity of  causes,  which  in  the  course  of  these  papers  have  been 
amply  detailed.  A  unity  of  commercial,  as  well  as  political,  inter- 
ests, can  only  result  from  a  unity  of  government.   .   ,   . 

The  effects  of  Union  upon  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the 
States  have  been  sufficiently  delineated.  Its  tendency  to  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  revenue  will  be  the  subject  of  our  present 
inquiry. 


REASONS   FOR  A   MORK   I'KRFECT   1:NI()N  229 

■  The  prosperity  of  commerce  is  now  perceived  and  acknowled^^ed 
by  all  enlightened  statesmen  to  be  the  most  useful  as  well  as  the 
most  productive  source  of  national  wealth,  and  has  accordingly  be- 
come a  primary  object  of  their  political  cares.  J^y  multiplying  the 
means  of  gratification,  by  promoting  the  introduction  and  circu- 
lation of  the  precious  metals,  those  darling  objects  of  human  ava- 
rice and  enterprise,  it  serves  to  vivify  and  invigorate  the  channels 
of  industry,  and  to  make  them  flow  with  greater  activity  and 
copiousness.   ... 

The  ability  of  a  country  to  pay  taxes  must  always  be  propor- 
tioned, in  a  great  degree,  to  the  quantity  of  money  in  circulation, 
and  to  the  celerity  with  which  it  circulates.  Commerce,  contrib- 
uting to  both  these  objects,  must  of  necessity  render  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes  easier,  and  facilitate  the  requisite  supplies  to  the 
treasury.   .   .   . 

But  it  is  not  in  this  aspect  of  the  subject  alone  that  Union  will 
be  seen  to  conduce  to  the  purpose  of  revenue.  There  are  other 
points  of  view,  in  which  its  influence  will  appear  more  immediate 
and  decisive.  It  is  evident  from  the  state  of  the  countiy,  from  the 
habits  of  the  people,  from  the  experience  we  have  had  on  the  point 
itself,  that  it  is  impracticable  to  raise  any  very  considerable  sums 
by  direct  taxation.  Tax  laws  have  in  vain  been  multiplied  ;  new 
methods  to  enforce  the  collection  have  in  vain  been  tried  ;  the 
public  expectation  has  been  uniformly  disappointed,  and  the  treas- 
uries of  the  States  have  been  empty.  The  popular  system  of 
administration  inherent  in  the  nature  of  popular  government,  co- 
inciding with  the  real  scarcity  of  money  incident  to  a  languid  and 
mutilated  state  of  trade,  has  hitherto  defeated  eveiy  experiment 
for  extensive  collections,  and  has  at  length  taught  the  different 
legislatures  the  folly  of  attempting  them.   .   .   . 

In  America,  it  is  evident  that  we  must  a  long  time  depend  for 
the  means  of  revenue  chiefly  on  such  duties.  In  most  parts  of  it, 
excises  must  be  confined  within  a  narrow  compass.  The  genius  of 
the  people  will  ill  brook  the  inquisitive  and  peremptory  spirit  of 
excise  laws.  The  pockets  of  the  farmers,  on  the  other  hand,  will 
reluctantly  yield  but  scanty  supplies,  in  the  unwelcome  shape  of 
impositions  on  their  houses  and  lands  ;  and  personal  property  is  too 


230  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

precarious  and  invisible  a  fund  to  be  laid  hold  of  in  any  other  way 
than  by  the  imperceptible  agency  of  taxes  on  consumption. 

If  these  remarks  have  any  foundation,  that  state  of  things  which 
will  best  enable  u^  to  improve  and  -extend  so  valuable  a  resource 
must  be  best  adapted  to  our  political  welfare.  And  it  cannot  admit 
of  a  serious  doubt,  that  this  state  of  things  must  rest  on  the  basis 
of  a  general  Union.  As  far  as  this  would  be  conducive  to  the  in- 
terests of  commerce,  so  far  it  must  tend  to  the  extension  of  the 
revenue  to  be  drawn  from  that  source.  As  far  as  it  would  contrib- 
ute to  rendering  regulations  for  the  collection  of  the  duties  more 
simple  and  efficacious,  so  far  it  must  serve  to  answer  the  purposes 
of  making  the  same  rate  of  duties  more  productive,  and  of  putting 
it  into  the  power  of  the  government  to  increase  the  rate  without 
prejudice  to  trade. 

The  relative  situation  of  these  States  ;  the  number  of  rivers  with 
which  they  are  intersected,  and  of  bays  that  wash  their  shores  ;  the 
facility  of  communication  in  every  direction  ;  the  affinity  of  language 
and  manners  ;  the  familiar  habits  of  intercourse  ;  —  all  these  are 
circumstances  that  would  conspire  to  render  an  illicit  trade  between 
them  a  matter  of  little  difficulty,  and  would  insure  frequent  eva- 
sions of  the  commercial  regulations  of  each  other.  The  separate 
States  or  confederacies  would  be  necessitated  by  mutual  jealousy  to 
avoid  the  temptations  to  that  kind  of  trade  by  the  lowness  of  their 
duties.  The  temper  of  our  governments,  for  a  long  time  to  come, 
would  not  permit  those  rigorous  precautions  by  which  the  European 
nations  guard  the  avenues  into  their  respective  countries,  as  well 
by  land  as  by  water  ;  and  which,  e\'en  there,  are  found  insufficient 
obstacles  to  the  adventurous  sti;atagems  of  avarice.   .   .   . 

What  will  be  the  consequence,  if  we  are  not  able  to  avail  our- 
selves of  the  resource  in  question  in  its  full  extent .''  A  nation 
cannot  long  exist  without  revenues.  Destitute  of  this  essential 
support,  it  must  resign  its  independence,  and  sink  into  the  de- 
graded condition  of  a  province.  This  is  an  extremity  to  which  no 
government  will  of  choice  accede.  Revenue,  therefore,  must  be 
had  at  all  events.  In  this  country,  if  the  principal  part  be  not 
drawn  from  commerce,  it  must  fall  with  oppressive  weight  upon 
land.     It  has  been  already  intimated   that  excises,   in   their  true 


TIIK  UF/rURN  OF  PROSPKRfTY  231 

signification,  are  too  little  in  unison  with  the  feelings  of  the  peo[)le, 
to  admit  of  great  use  !)eing  made  of  that  mode  of  taxation  ;  nor, 
indeed,  in  the  States  where  almost  the  sole  employment  is  agri- 
culture, are  the  objects  proper  for  excise  sufficiently  numerous  to 
permit  very  ample  collections  in  that  way.  Personal  estate  (as  has 
been  before  remarked),  from  the  difficulty  in  tracing  it,  cannot  be 
subjected  to  large  contributions,  by  any  other  means  than  by  taxes 
on  consumption.  In  populous  cities,  it  may  be  enough  the  subject 
of  conjecture,  to  occasion  the  oppression  of  individuals,  without 
much  aggregate  benefit  to  the  State  ;  but  beyond  these  circles, 
it  must,  in  a  great  measure,  escape  the  eye  and  the  hand  of  the 
tax-gatherer.  .  .   . 

IV.  THE  RETURN  OF  PROSPERITY  —  INFLUENCE  OF 
THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT 

'^  Letter  of  Washington  to  La  Fayette,  June  iS,  lySS 

In  a  letter  I  wrote  you  a  few  clays  ago  by  Mr.  Barlow,  but  which 
might  not  possibly  have  reached  New  York  until  after  his  departure, 
I  mentioned  the  accession  of  Maryland  to  the  proposed  government, 
and  gave  you  the  state  of  politics  to  that  period.  Since  which  the 
convention  of  South  Carolina  has  ratified  the  constitution  by  a  great 
■majority.  That  of  this  State  has  been  sitting  almost  three  weeks  ; 
and,  so  nicely  does  it  appear  to  be  balanced,  that  each  side  asserts 
it  has  a  preponderancy  of  votes  in  its  favor.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, the  majority  will  be  small,  let  it  fall  on  whichever  part  it  may. 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  it  will  be  in  favor  of  the  adoption.  The 
conventions  of  New  York  and  New  Hampshire  both  assemble  this 
week.  A  large  proportion  of  members,  with  the  governor  at  their 
head,  in  the  former,  are  said  to  be  opposed  to  the  government  in 
contemplation.  New  Hampshire,  it  is  thought,  will  adopt  it  with- 
out much  hesitation  or  delay.    It  is  a  little  strange,  that  the  men 

1  The  Writings  of  George  Washington  (Sparks  Edition),  IX,  3S1-383.  This  and 
the  following  letters  of  Washington  are  very  significant  and  important  because 
they  show  that  the  recovery  of  the  country  from  economic  depression  was 
apparent  to  a  careful  observer  long  before  the  new  government  was  established, 
and  even  while  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  by  the  states  was  still  in  doubt. 


232 


THE  ECONOMIC   SITITATION 


of  large  property  in  the  soutli  should  be  more  afraid  that  the  con- 
stitution will  produce  an  aristocracy  or  a  monarchy,  than  the  genuine 
democratical  people  of  the  east.  Such  are  our  actual  prospects. 
The  accession  of  one  State  more  will  complete  the  number,  which, 
by  the  constitutional  provision,  will  be  sufficient  in  the  first  instance 
to  carry  the  government  into  effect. 

And  then,  I  expect,  that  many  blessings  will  be  attributed  to 
our  new  government,  which  are  now  taking  their  rise  from  that 
industry  and  frugality,  into  the  practice  of  which  the  people  have 
been  forced  from  necessity.  I  really  believe,  that  there  never  was 
so  much  labor  and  economy  to  be  found  before  in  the  country  as 
at  the  present  moment.  If  they  persist  in  the  habits  they  are  ac- 
quiring, the  good  effects  will  soon  be  distinguishable.  When  the 
people  shall  find  themselves  secure  under  an  energetic  government, 
when  foreign  nations  shall  be  disposed  to  give  us  equal  advantages 
in  commerce  from  dread  of  retaliation,  when  the  burdens  of  war 
shall  be  in  a  manner  done  away  by  the  sale  of  western  lands,  when 
the  seeds  of  happiness  which  are  sown  here  shall  begin  to  expand 
themselves,  and  when  everyone,  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree, 
■shall  begin  to  taste  the  fruits  of  freedom,  then  all  these  blessings 
(for  all  these  blessings  will  come)  will  be  referred  to  the  fostering 
influence  of  the  new  government.  Whereas  many  causes  will  have 
conspired  to  produce  them.  .  .  . 

^  Letter  of  WasJiiiigton  to  Jefferson,  August  JI ,  I 'J  88 

The  merits  and  defects  of  the  proposed  constitution  have  been 
largely  and  ably  discussed.  For  myself,  I  was  ready  to  embrace 
any  tolerable  compromise,  that  was  competent  to  save  us  from 
impending  ruin  ;  and  I  can  say  there  are  scarcely  any  of  the 
amendments,  which  have  been  suggested,  to  which  I  have  much 
objection,  except  that  which  goes  to  the  prevention  of  direct  taxa- 
tion. And  that,  I  presume,  will  be  more  strenuously  advocated  and 
insisted  upon  hereafter,  than  any  other.  I  had  indulged  the  expecta- 
tion, that  the  new  government  would  enable  those  entrusted  with 
its  administration  to  do  justice  to  the  public  creditors,  and  retrieve 

1  The  Writings  of  George  Washington,  IX,  426-427. 


THE   RKTIIRN   ()V   I'KOSl'KK  I'I'Y  233 

the  national  character.  Hut,  if  no  means  are  to  be  employed  but 
requisitions,  that  expectation  was  vain,  and  we  may  as  well  recur 
to  the  old  confederation.  If  the  system  can  be  put  in  operation, 
without  touching  much  the  pockets  of  the  people,  perhaps  it  may 
be  done  ;  but,  in  my  judgement,  infinite  circumspection  and  pru- 
dence are  yet  necessary  in  the  experiment.  It  is  nearly  impossible 
for  any  one,  who  has  not  been  on  the  spot,  to  conceive  what  the 
delicacy  and  danger  of  our  situation  have  been.  Though  the  peril  is 
not  past  entirely,  thank  God  the  prospect  is  somewhat  brightening. 

You  will  probably  have  heard,  before  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
that  the  general  government  has  been  adopted  by  eleven  States, 
and  that  the  actual  Congress  have  been  prevented  from  issuing 
their  ordinance  for  carrying  it  into  execution,  in  consequence  of  a 
dispute  about  the  place  at  which  the  future  Congress  shall  meet. 
It  is  probable,  that  Philadelphia  or  New  York  will  soon  be  agreed 
upon. 

I  will  just  touch  on  the  bright  side  of  our  national  state,  before 
I  conclude  ;  and  we  may  perhaps  rejoice,  that  the  people  have 
been  ripened  by  misfortune  for  the  reception  of  a  good  govern- 
ment. They  are  emerging  from  the  gulf  of  dissipation  and  debt, 
into  which  they  had  precipitated  themselves  at  the  close  of  the 
war.  Economy  and  industry  are  evidently  gaining  ground.  Not 
only  agriculture,  but  even  manufactures,  are  much  more  attended 
to  than  formerly.  Notwithstanding  the  shackles  under  which  our 
trade  in  general  labors,  commerce  to  the  East  Indies  is  prosecuted 
with  considerable  success.  Salted  provisions  and  other  produce, 
particularly  from  Massachusetts,  have  found  an  advantageous 
market  there.  The  voyages  are  so  much  shorter,  and  the  vessels 
are  navigated  at  so  much  less  expense,  that  we  may  hope  to  rival 
and  supply,  at  least  through  the  West  Indies,  some  part  of  Europe 
with  commodities  from  thence.  This  year  the  exports  from  Massa- 
chusetts have  amounted  to  a  great  deal  more  than  their  imports. 
I  wish  this  was  the  case  everywhere. 


2  34  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

^  Letter  of  Was}ii)igton  to  Lex  Fayette,  January  2g,  IjSg 

...  If  I  know  my  own  heart,  nothing  short  of  a  conviction  of 
duty  will  induce  me  again  to  take  an  active  part  in  public  affairs  ; 
and,  in  that  case,  if  I  can  form  a  plan  for  my  own  conduct,  my 
endeavours  shall  be  unremittingly  exerted,  even  at  the  hazard  of 
former  fame  or  present  popularity,  to  extricate  my  country  from 
the  embarrassments  in  which  it  is  entangled  through  want  of  credit ; 
and  to  establish  a  general  system  of  policy,  which  if  pursued  will 
ensure  permanent  felicity  to  the  commonwealth.  I  think  I  see  a 
path  as  clear  and  as  direct  as  a  ray  of  light,  which  leads  to  the  at- 
tainment of  that  object.  Nothing  but  harmony,  honesty,  industry, 
and  frugality  are  necessary  to  make  us  a  great  and  happy  people. 
Happily  the  present  posture  of  affairs,  and  the  prevailing  disposi- 
tion of  my  countrymen,  promise  to  cooperate  in  establishing  those 
four  great  and  essential  pillars  of  public  felicity. 

What  has  been  considered  at  the  moment  as  a  disadvantage,  will 
probably  turn  out  for  our  good.  While  our  commerce  has  been 
considerably  curtailed,  for  want  of  that  extensive  credit  formerly 
given  in  Europe,  and  for  a  default  of  remittances,  the  useful  arts 
have  been  almost  imperceptibly  pushed  to  a  considerable  degree  of 
perfection. 

Though  I  would  not  force  the  introduction  of  manufactures,  by 
extravagant  encouragements,  and  to  the  prejudice  of  agriculture, 
yet  I  conceive  much  might  be  done  in  that  way  by  women,  chil- 
dren, and  others,  without  taking  one  really  necessary  hand  from 
tilling  the  earth.  Certain  it  is,  great  savings  are  already  made  in 
many  articles  of  apparel,  furniture,  and  consumption.  Equally  cer- 
tain it  is,  that  no  diminution  in  agriculture  has  taken  place,  at  the 
time  when  greater  and  more  substantial  improvements  in  manu- 
factures were  making,  than  were  ever  before  known  in  America. 
In  Pennsylvania  they  have  attended  particularly  to  the  fabrication 
of  cotton  cloths,  hats,  and  all  articles  in  leather.  In  Massachusetts, 
they  are  establishing  factories  of  duck,  cordage,  glass,  and  several 
other  extensive  and  useful  branches.  The  number  of  shoes  made 
in  one  town,  and  nails  in  another,  is  incredible.    In  that  State  and 

^  The  Writings  of  George  Washington,  IX,  463-465. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PROSPERITY  235 

Connecticut  are  also  factories  of  superfine  and  other  broadcloths. 
I  have  been  writing  to  our  friend  General  Knox  this  day  to  pro- 
cure me  homespun  broadcloth  of  the  Hartford  fabric,  to  make  a 
suit  of  clothes  for  myself.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  a  great  while  be- 
fore it  will  be  unfashionable  for  a  gentleman  to  appear  in  any  other 
dress.  Indeed,  we  have  already  been  too  long  subject  to  British 
prejudices.  I  use  no  porter  or  cheese  in  my  family  but  such  as  is 
made  in  America.  Ikjth  those  articles  may  now  be  purchased  of 
an  excellent  quality. 

'^Letter  of  TJiomas  Jefferson  to  C.  W.  F.  Dtivias,  Jlfay,  //p/ 

In  general,  our  affairs  are  proceeding  in  a  train  of  unparalleled 
prosperity.  This  arises  from  the  real  improvements  of  our  govern- 
ment, from  the  unbounded  confidence  reposed  in  it  by  the  people, 
their  zeal  to  support  it,  and  their  conviction  that  a  solid  Union  is 
the  best  rock  of  their  safety,  from  the  favorable  seasons  which  for 
some  years  past  have  co-operated  with  a  fertile  soil  and  a  genial 
climate  to  increase  the  productions  of  agriculture,  and  from  the 
growth  of  industry,  economy  and  domestic  manufactures  ;  so  that 
I  believe  I  may  say  with  truth,  that  there  is  not  a  nation  under  the 
sun  enjoying  more  present  prosperity,  nor  with  more  in  prospect. 

2  This  act  for  increasing  the  army  closed  the  labors  of  the  first 
Congress  —  a  body,  next  to  the  Convention  that  framed  the  Con- 
stitution, by  far  the  most  illustrious  and  remarkable  in  our  post- 
Revolutionary  annals.  On  coming  together  two  years  before,  the 
new  Congress  had  found  the  expiring  government  of  the  Con- 
federation without  revenue,  without  credit,  without  authority,  in- 
fluence, or  respect  at  home  or  abroad  ;  the  state  governments 
suffering  under  severe  pecuniary  embarrassments  ;  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  individuals  who  composed  the  nation  overwhelmed 
by  private  debts.  Commerce  and  industry,  without  protection  from 
foreign  competition,  and  suffering  under  all  the  evils  of  a  depre- 
ciated and  uncertain  currency,  exposed,  also,  to  serious  embarrass- 
ments from   local  jealousies  and  rivalries,  were   but  slowly  and 

1  The  Writings  of  Jefferson  (Memorial  Association  Edition),  VIII,  197. 

2  Hildreth,  History  of  the  United  States  of  America,  IV,  273-277. 


236  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

painfully  recovering  from  the  severe  dislocations  to  which  first 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  and  then  the  peace  had  subjected 
them.  Even  the  practicability  of  carrying  the  new  Constitution 
into  effect,  at  least  without  making  the  remedy  worse  than  the 
disease,  was  seriously  doubted  and  stoutly  denied  by  a  powerful 
party,  having  many  able  men  among  its  leaders,  and,  numerically 
considered,  including,  perhaps,  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States. 

In  two  short  years  a  competent  revenue  has  been  provided,  the 
duties  imposed  to  produce  it  operating  also  to  give  to  American 
producers  a  preference  in  the  home  market,  and  to  secure  to 
American  shipping  a  like  preference  in  American  ports.  The 
public  debt,  not  that  of  the  Confederation  only,  but  the  great  bulk 
of  the  state  debts,  had  been  funded  and  the  interest  provided  for, 
the  public  credit  being  thus  raised  from  the  lowest  degradation  to 
a  most  respectable  position.  The  very  funding  of  this  debt,  and 
the  consequent  steady  and  increasing  value  thus  conferred  upon 
it,  had  given  a  new  character  to  the  currency,  composed  as  it  was, 
in  a  great  measure,  of  public  securities  ;  while  steps  had  been 
taken  to  improve  it  still  further  by  the  establishment  of  a  national 
bank.  A  national  judiciary  had  been  organized,  vested  with  powers 
to  guard  the  sanctity  of  contracts  against  stop-laws,  tender  laws, 
and  paper  money.  The  practicability  and  efficiency  of  the  new 
system  had  been  as  fully  established  as  the  experience  of  only  two 
years  would  admit,  and  the  nation  thereby  raised  to  a  respectable 
position  in  its  own  eyes  and  in  those  of  foreign  countries.   .   .   . 

The  funding  of  the  public  debt,  however  in  particular  instances 
it  might  have  redounded  to  the  enrichment  of  cunning  and  sordid 
speculators,  or  however  deserving  sufferers  by  former  public  in- 
solvency might  have  been  overlooked,  yet  in  its  general  operation 
promoted,  to  a  great,  and,  indeed,  unexpected  degree,  the  public 
prosperity.  By  furnishing  a  capital  almost  or  quite  as  available  as 
cash,  of  which  enterprise  knew  how  to  take  advantage,  and  by  the 
new  and  powerful  impulse  thus  given  to  industry,  it  went  far  to- 
ward relieving  that  private  pecuniary  embarrassment  which  had 
constituted  one  of  the  greatest  evils  of  the  times.  The  newly 
funded  stocks  had  all  the  advantages  of  the  old  paper  money 


THE  RETURN  OF  PROSPERITY  237 

issues,  without  any  of  their  dangers,  and  with  the  additional  ad- 
vantage of  having  a  value  abroad  as  well  as  at  home  —  the  sale  of 
stocks  abroad,  urged  as  one  of  the  great  objections  to  the  funding 
system,  being,  in  fact,  one  of  its  chief  recommendations  —  the 
holders  being  thus  enabled  to  convert  these  paper  obligations  into 
actual  cash. 

The  great  secret  of  the  beneficial  operation  of  the  funding 
system  was  the  re-establishment  of  confidence  ;  for  commercial 
confidence,  though  political  economists  may  have  omitted  to 
enumerate  it  among  the  elements  of  production,  is  just  as  much 
one  of  those  elements  as  labor,  land,  or  capital  —  a  due  infusion 
of  it  increasing  in  a  most  rem.arkable  degree  the  productive 
activity  of  those  other  elements,  and  the  want  of  it  paralyzing 
their  power  to  a  corresponding  extent.  By  the  restoration  of  con- 
fidence in  the  nation,  confidence  in  the  states,  and  confidence  in 
individuals,  the  funding  system  actually  added  to  the  labor,  land, 
and  capital  of  the  country  a  much  greater  value  than  the  amount 
of  the  debt  thereby  charged  upon  them.  Commerce  and  industry, 
thus  buoyed  up,  had  taken  a  great  start.  Favorable  seasons,  the 
attention  given  of  late  to  domestic  manufactures,  the  natural  reac- 
tion from  a  period  of  embarrassment  and  depression,  concurred 
with  the  revival  of  confidence,  and  the  new  arrangements  in  favor 
of  trade  and  industiy,  to  produce  a  sudden  influx  of  prosperity. 
The  exports  rose  at  once  to  twenty  millions  a  year,  and  shipping 
was  increased  so  rapidly  as  already  to  have  solved  the  doubt 
whether  America  could  supply  vessels  enough  to  transport  her  own 
productions.  To  the  profitable  trade  recently  opened  with  India 
and  China  had  been  added  another  lucrative  traffic  to  the  north- 
west coast  of  America,  a  region  then  almost  unknown,  now  so 
familiar  as  California  and  Oregon.  Between  this  trade  and  that 
to  China  there  was  a  close  connection,  the  great  attraction  to  this 
coast  being  the  rich  furs  of  the  sea  otter,  purchased  for  trinkets 
and  sold  in  China  at  an  immense  profit.  The  ship  Columbia, 
Captain  Gray,  of  Boston,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  this  traffic,  after 
exploring  with  her  consort,  the  sloop  Washington,  the  coast  north 
and  south  of  Nootka  Sound,  had  returned  home  by  the  way  of 
Canton  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  thus  completing  the  first 


238  THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

American  voyage  round  the  world.  Already  on  almost  every  sea 
the  stripes  and  stars  began  to  wave.  In  a  second  voyage  Captain 
Gray  entered  for  the  first  time  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  or 
Oregon  River,  an  exploration  relied  upon  by  the  United  States, 
in  their  controversy  with  Great  Britain  many  years  afterward  as 
to  the  ownership  of  that  region,  as  affording  a  claim  of  title  by 
discovery. 


CHAPTER   VI 

FOREIGN    INFLUENCES 

INTRODUCTION 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  from  an  economic  point  of  view  the 
colonial  period  of  American  history  did  not  end  with  the  Revolution,  but  con- 
tinued for  more  than  a  generation  after  that  event.  The  chief  characteristic  of 
colonial  economy,  as  explained  in  the  introduction  to  the  second  chapter,  is  the 
dominance  of  foreign  trade  in  the  economic  affairs  of  a  community.  The  political 
separation  from  Great  Britain  scarcely  affected  this  feature  of  our  economic 
situation.  After  the  Revolution,  as  well  as  before,  prosperity  depended  upon 
our  ability  to  exchange  the  products  of  certain  industries  based  upon  our  natural 
resources  with  other  countries  for  all  other  forms  of  wealth.  Whatever  interfered 
with  that  exchange  brought  hard  times ;  whatever  promoted  it  brought  prosperity. 

Two  events  after  the  establishment  of  the  new  government  profoundly 
affected  this  important  element  in  our  economic  life.  One  was  the  European 
wars  which  followed  the  political  revolution  in  France  ;  the  other  was  that 
series  of  improvements  in  the  arts  of  production  which  pass  under  the  name 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  The  first  was  much  greater  than  the  second  in 
its  immediate  effect,  but  was  temporary  and  came  to  an  end  in  1S15.  The 
second  was  slower  in  its  operation,  but  steadily  increased  in  importance  and 
has  continued  to  the  present  day. 

The  chief  effect  of  the  European  wars  was  to  throw  into  our  hands  the 
greater  part  of  the  colonial  carrying  trade  of  the  world  —  an  economic  prize 
for  which  European  nations  had  been  fiercely  struggling  for  nearly  two 
centuries.  A  secondary  effect  was  to  create  a  European  market  for  the  food 
products  of  the  northern  states.  The  effect  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  upon 
colonial  communities  generally  was  to  create  a  demand  in  older  communities 
for  those  extractive  products  which  the  new  communities  could  easily  produce. 
The  first  commodities  for  which  a  demand  arose  were  the  raw  materials  of  the 
textile  industries,  cotton  and  wool.  Later  on  food  supplies  in  the  form  of  meat 
and  breadstuff  were  required.  This  country  at  once  took  the  leading  part  in 
supplying  cotton,  as  the  demand  for  it  arose,  and  has  held  it  without  interruption  , 
to  the  present  time.  Half  a  century  later  it  was  able  to  secure  the  first  place 
in  the  supply  of  food  products  also. 

Until  the  close  of  the  European  wars  in  1815  put  an  end  to  the  first  in- 
fluence, the  economic  life  of  this  country  continued  as  in  colonial  times  to 
be  concerned  almost  entirely  with  the  extractive  industries  and  the  foreign 

239 


240  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

commerce  upon  which  they  depended.  After  that  date  the  South  continued  in 
that  situation  until  the  Civil  War,  while  the  North  was  compelled  to  diversify 
its  industry  and  to  depend  upon  internal  rather  than  foreign  commerce  for 
its  prosperity.  This  internal  commerce  was,  however,  as  we  shall  see,  closely 
connected  with  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  South. 


I.  THE   EUROPEAN   WARS   AND   THE    NEUTRAL  TRADE 
A.  Growth  of  Neutral  Trade 

1  The  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain,  which  commenced 
in  1793,  and  which  continued,  with  but  a  short  interval,  for  many 
years  ;  and  until  it  involved  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  prin- 
cipally, on  the  side  of  France,  against  Great  Britain,  threw  into 
the  hands  of  the  Americans,  no  small  portion,  of  the  trade  of  the 
world.  The  vast  superiority  of  the  naval  force  of  England,  rendered 
the  intercourse  of  the  European  nations,  with  their  colonies,  ex- 
tremely difficult.  These  nations,  therefore,  were  obliged  to  depend 
upon  neutrals,  to  carry  on  this  trade,  between  them  and  their  dis- 
tant possessions.  The  valuable  productions  of  the  French,  Spanish, 
and  Dutch  colonies,  could  find  their  way  to  Europe,  in  no  other 
mode,  than  under  a  neutral  flag. 

The  local  situation  of  the  United  States,  in  relation  to  the  West 
India  Islands,  naturally  threw  a  great  proportion  of  the  trade  of 
those  Islands,  into  the  hands  of  the  American  merchants  ;  and  the 
great  increase  of  the  tonnage  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  the 
spirit  and  enterprise  of  their  citizens,  led  them,  also,  in  the  progress 
of  the  war,  to  engage  in  the  more  distant  trade  of  the  East  Indies, 
and  every  other  part  of  the  world.  The  valuable  articles  of  colonial 
produce,  such  as  sugar,  coffee,  spirits,  cocoa,  indigo,  pepper,  and 
spices  of  all  kind,  were  carried  by  them,  either  directly  to  Europe, 
or  brought  to  the  United  States,  and  from  thence  exported  in 
American  vessels.  These  and  other  articles  imported,  were  allowed, 
under  certain  regulations,  to  be  exported  with  a  drawback  of  the 
duties  upon  them.  The  manufactures  of  Europe,  and  particularly 
those  of  Great  Britain,  as  well  as  the  manufactures  and  produce 
of  the  East  Indies  and  China,  were,  also,  imported,  and  again 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America 
[1835].  PP-  i45-'47'  150-152- 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AND  THE  NEirFRAE  TRADE    241 


exported  in  large  quantities,  to  the  West  Indies,  South  America 
and  elsewhere.  This  trade,  called  the  carrying  trade,  in  some  years, 
exceeded  in  value,  the  trade  of  the  United  States,  in  articles  of 
domestic  produce  ;  and  was  the  means,  not  only  of  increasing  the 
American  tonnage,  but  of  adding,  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  as 
well  as  to  that  of  individuals. 

The  value  of  the  exports  of  the  United  States,  both  of  foreign 
and  domestic  origin,  are  presented  in  Chapter  III.  In  the  years 
1805,  1806  and  1807,  the  value  of  domestic  exports  was  $134,590,- 
552,  on  an  average  $44,863,5 17  per  year,  while  the  value  of  foreign 
exports  was  $173,105,813,  being,  on  an  average,  each  year  $57,- 
701,937,  making  a  difference,  in  favor  of  the  latter,  of  $3^,5  I5r 
261,  or  $12,838,420  per  year. 

The  following  quantities  of  sugar,  coffee,  pepper,  cocoa,  and 
manufactures  principally  paying  duties  ad  valorem,  were  exported 
from  1 79 1  to  1 8 16. 


Years 

Sugar 
(Lbs.) 

Coffee 
(Lbs.) 

Pepper 
(Lbs.) 

Cocoa 
(Lbs.) 

Goods  mostly 
paying  Ad  Valo- 
rem Duties 

1791  .  .  .  . 

74,504 

962,977 

492 

8,322 

$2,840,310 

1792 

1,176,156 

2,134,742 

5,046 

6,000 

3,560,119 

1793 

4,539,809 

17,580,049 

14,361 

234,875 

4,110,240 

1794 

20,721,761 

33,720,983 

23,884 

1,188,302 

4,976,120 

1795 

21,377,747 

47,443,179 

301,692 

525,432 

5,670,260 

1796 

34,848,644 

62,385,117 

491,330 

928,107 

6,794,346 

1797 

38,366,262 

44,521,887 

1,901,130 

875,334 

7,835,456 

1798 

51,703,963 

49,580,927 

501,982 

3,146,445 

8,967,828 

1799 

78,821,751 

31,987,088 

441,312 

5,970,590 

18,718,477 

1800 

56,432,516 

38,597,479 

635,849 

4,925,518 

16,076,848 

1801 

97>565'732 

45,106,494 

3,153,139 

7,012,155 

17,159,016 

1802 

61,061,820 

36,501,998 

5,422,144 

3,878,526 

14,906,081 

1803 

23,223.849 

10,294,693 

2,991,430 

367,177 

5,351,524 

1804 

74,964,366 

48,312,713 

5,703,646 

695,135 

9,377,805 

1805 

123,031,272 

46,760,294 

7,559,224 

2,425,680 

15,201,483 

1806 

145,832,320 

47,001,662 

4,111,983 

6,846,758 

19,016,909 

1807 

143,136,905 

42,122,573 

4,207,166 

8,540,524 

18,971,539 

1808 

28,974,927 

7,325,448 

1,709,978 

1,896,990 

4,765,737 

1809 

45,248,128 

24,364,099 

4,722,098 

2,029,336 

5,889,669 

1810 

47,038,125 

31,423,477 

5,946,336 

1,286,010 

8,438,349 

1811 

18,381,673 

10,261,442 

3,057,456 

2,221,462 

8,815,291 

1812 

13,927,277 

10,073,722 

2,521,003 

752,148 

3,591,755 

1813 

7,347,038 

6,568,527 

99,660 

1 08, 1 88 

368,603 

1814 

762 

220,594 

none 

27,386 

41,409 

1815 

3,193,908 

7,501,384 

746,349 

1,065,582 

3,486,178 

1S16  .  .  .  . 

17,536,416 

8,948,713 

769,329 

531,571 

8,103,734 

242  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

This  trade,  brought  the  United  States,  into  colhsion  with  some 
of  the  European  powers,  and  particularly  Great  Britain  and  France  ; 
and  in  consequence  of  the  celebrated  decrees  and  orders  of  those 
two  nations,  (some  notice  of  which  will  be  taken,  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,)  the  embargo  was  laid  and  commercial  restrictions  com- 
menced with  these  nation'^ ;  and  which  finally  ended  in  a  war  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  l^ritain.  During  the  war,  this 
trade  was  annihilated.  On  the  return  of  peace  in  Europe,  as  well 
as  in  America,  this  trade  in  foreign  articles,  was,  of  course,  greatly 
diminished.   .   .   . 

While  the  Americans  were  thus  carrying  to  Europe  the  rich 
products  of  the  East  and  West  Indies,  they  brought  back  in  re- 
turn, great  quantities  of  manufactured  goods,  principally  from 
Great  Britain,  which  they  again  exported,  to  different  parts  of  the 
world,  especially,  to  the  West  Indies  and  South  America. 

The  amount  of  goods,  free  of  duty,  and  paying  duties  ad 
valorem,  embracing  woollens  and  cottons,  exported  in  1806,  was 
^18,571,477;  and  in  1807,  $18,564,507. 

The  whole  amount  of  goods,  paying  ad  valorem  duties,  imported 
the  same  years,  was, 

In  1806 $54,461,957 

1807 58,655,917 

Between  one  third  and  three  quarters,  therefore,  of  all  the 
goods,  paying  those  duties,  imported  in  these  two  years,  were 
again  exported.  These  goods  came  from  different  quarters  of  the 
world,  in  1807,  in  the  following  proportions,  viz. 

From  Europe I'SOjQiS'iSS 

Africa 108,607 

Asia 6,392,592 

West  India  Islands,  and  American  Colonies    .    .    .         1,239,583 

$58,655,917 

Of  which  $43,525,320  came  from  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  and  dependencies;  $3,812,065  from  France 
and  dependencies;  and  the  residue,  being  $11,318,532,  from 
other  countries  and  places. 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AND  THE  NPXITRAL    I  RADl-:    243 

The  other  articles  of  foreign  produce  and  manufacture,  of  con- 
siderable value,  exported,  prior  to  1808,  were  wines,  teas,  spices 
of  all  kinds,  paints,  lead,  and  manufactures  of  lead,  iron,  fish,  and 
many  others  of  minor  importance.  On  an  average  of  the  years 
1805,  1806,  and  1807,  the  annual  quantities,  spirits,  teas,  cocoa, 
and  pepper,  exported,  were. 

Wines 3'423'485  gals. 

Spirits 1,600,301      " 

Teas 2,151,385  lbs. 

Cocoa 5'937'654     " 

Pepper 5,292,791     " 

That  this  extensive  foreign  commerce,  usually  called  the  carry- 
ing trade,  was  highly  beneficial,  and  added  much  to  the  wealth  of 
the  United  States,  cannot  be  doubted.  While  it  greatly  increased 
their  commercial  tonnage,  it  enriched  the  public  treasury,  as  well 
as  individuals. 

Many  of  the  goods,  thus  exported,  had  paid  the  duties,  and  were 
not  entitled  to  a  drawback,  in  consequence  of  the  exporters  not 
having  complied  with  the  law,  on  that  subject.  The  amount  of 
duties  thus  paid,  on  articles  exported,  without  the  benefit  of  draw- 
back, during  the  years  1805,  1806,  and  1807,  amounted  to  the 
following  sums,  viz. 

In  1805 $1,531,618 

1806 i>297.535 

1S07 i,393>877 

Making $4,223,003 

When  we  add  to  this,  the  amount  of  three  and  a  half  per  cent, 
retained,  on  all  the  drawbacks,  and  which,  during  these  three 
years,  was  $1,030,677,  we  find,  that  the  whole  amount  received, 
into  the  public  treasury,  in  these  three  years,  for  duties,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  trade,  and  which  was  not  paid,  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  was  $5,253,697,  being  about  one  ninth  of  all  the 
duties  collected,  during  the  same  period.  The  amount  this  trade 
added,  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  and  to  individuals,  cannot  be 
ascertained,  with  precision  :  it  must  have  been  many  millions  a 
year. 


244 


FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 


^Annual  Exports  of  Domestic  and  Foreign  Merchandise,  and 
THE  Tonnage  employed  in  the  Foreign  and  Coasting  Trades 


Years 

(ending 

30th 

Sept.) 

Articles,  the  Growth,  Produce, 
or  Manufacture 

Total  Value  of 
Exports  from 
United  States 

Years 

(ending 

31st 

Dec.) 

Registered 

Tonnage 

employed  in 

Foreign 
Trade  (Tons) 

Enrolled 
Tonnage 

Of  the  United 
States 

Of  Foreign 

Countries 

Re-exported 

employed  in 

Coast-Trade 

(Tons) 

1790 

$20,205,156 

1790 

346,254 

103,775 

1791 

19,012,041 

1791 

363,110 

106,494 

1792 

20,753,098 

1792 

411,438 

120,957 

1793 

26,109,572 

1793 

367.734 

114.853 

1794 

33,026,233 

1794 

438,862 

167,227 

1795 

47,989,472 

1795 

529.470 

164,795 

1796 

$40,764,097 

$26,300,000 

67,064,097 

1796 

576.733 

195,423 

1797 

29,850,206 

27,000,000 

56,850,206 

1797 

597.777 

214,077 

1798 

28,527,097 

33,000,000 

61,527,097 

1798 

603,376 

227,343 

1799 

33-142,522 

45,523,000 

78,665,522 

1799 

669,197 

220,904 

1800 

31,840,903 

39,130,877 

70,971,780 

1800 

669,921 

245.295 

1801 

47,473,204 

46,642,721 

94,115.925 

iSor 

718.549 

246,255 

1802 

36,708,189 

35.774,971 

72,483,160 

1802 

560,380 

260,543 

1803 

42,205,961 

13,594,072 

55.800,033 

1803 

597.157 

268,676 

1804 

41,467,477 

36,231,597 

77,699,074 

1804 

672,530 

286,840 

1S05 

42,387,002 

53.179.019 

95,566,021 

1805 

749.341 

301,366 

1806 

41,253,727 

60,283,236 

101,536,963 

1806 

808,284 

309.977 

1807 

48,699,592 

59,643,558 

108,343,150 

1807 

848,306 

318,189 

1808 

9433.546 

12,997,414 

22,430,960 

1808 

769.053 

387,684 

1809 

31,405,702 

20,797.531 

52,203,233 

1809 

910,059 

371.500 

1810 

42,366,675 

24,391,295 

66,757,970 

1810 

984,269 

371. "4 

181 1 

45,294,043 

16,022,790 

61,316,833 

iSii 

768,852 

386,258 

1812 

30,032,109 

8,495,127 

38.527.236 

1S12 

760,624 

443,180 

18.3 

25,008,152 

2,847,845 

27.855.997 

1S13 

674.853 

433.404 

1814 

6,782,272 

145,169 

6,927,441 

1814 

674,632 

425.713 

.815 

45.974,403 

6,583.350 

52,557.753 

1815 

854,294 

435.066 

1816 

64,781,896 

17.138.556 

81,920,452 

1816 

800,759 

479.979 

1817 

68,313,500 

19,358,069 

87,671,569 

In  1790,  the  total  value  of  the  exports,  was  in  the  proportion  of 
4.84  dollars  for  each  inhabitant. 

In  .1800,  the  domestic  produce  exported  amounted  to  8.92 
dollars,  the  foreign  merchandise  re-exported  to  8.76  dollars,  and 
the  exports  of  every  description  to  17.68  dollars  for  each  inhabitant. 

In  1 8 10,  the  domestic  exports  amounted  to  6.25  dollars,  the 
foreign  merchandise  re-exported  to  2.21  dollars,  and  the  exports 

1  Seybert,  Statistical  Annals  [1S19],  pp.  93,  317,  87. 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AND  THE  NEUTRAL  I  RADI':  245 

of  every  description  to  8.46  dollars  for  each  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  United  States. 

During  the  year,  which  commenced  on  the  first  of  October, 
1806,  and  terminated  on  the  30th  of  September,  1807,  the  export 
trade  arrived  at  the  maximum,  viz.  108,343,1  50  dollars  ;  if  we  ad- 
mit that  the  population  then  amounted  to  6,300,000  persons,  the 
domestic  exports  were  in  the  proportion  of  7.73  dollars,  the  foreign 
merchandise  re-exported  9.46  dollars,  and  the  exports  of  every 
description  17.19  dollars  for  each  inhabitant. 

B.    Influence  upon  the  Country 

^  The  great  demand  for  American  agricultural  productions,  and 
the  consequent  increase  in  their  price,  as  well  as  the  demand  for 
shipping  for  transporting  these,  as  well  as  colonial  and  other  pro- 
ductions, to  various  places  in  Europe  and  elsewhere,  naturally 
turned  the  attention  of  the  Americans  almost  exclusively,  to  agri- 
culture, commerce  and  navigation.   .   .   . 

The  increase  of  American  tonnage,  during  the  period  under  re- 
view, has  no  parallel,  in  the  commercial  annals  of  the  world.  In 
1700,  the  commercial  tonnage  of  England  was  estimated,  at  two 
hundred  and  seventy-three  thousand  six  hundred  and  ninety-three, 
and  in  1750,  at  six  hundred  and  nine  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-eight,  an  increase,  in  half  a  centuiy,  of  about  three 
hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand;  and  the  increase,  in  the  next 
half  century,  was  onl\-  about  six  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  tons. 
This  tonnage  included  the  repeated  voyages,  and  is  much  greater 
than  the  actual  tonnage.   .   .   . 

The  increased  demand  for  the  agricultural  productions  of  this 
country,  during  the  period  under  review,  raised  their  price  to 
a  height  before  unknown.  This,  as  well  as  the  trade  in  foreign 
productions,  necessarily  created  a  demand  for  shipping ;  and  agri- 
culture, commerce  and  navigation,  became  the  most  lucrative  em- 
ployments, and  almost  exclusive  objects  of  pursuit  in  the  United 
States.  We  have  before  us,  a  table  giving  the  price  of  flour  at 
Philadelphia,  from  1785  to  1828,  a  period  of  forty-four  years,  the 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
PP-  369-  370.  37--j71>- 


246  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

accuracy  of  which,  we  beheve,  may  be  rehed  on.  The  average 
price  of  flour,  from  1785  to  1793,  according"  to  this  table,  was 
$5.41  per  barrel,  while  the  price,  from  1793  to  1807,  (excluding 
the  years  1802  and  1803,  when  Europe  was  at  peace  under  the 
treaty  of  Amiens,)  being  twelve  years  of  the  war,  was  $9.12,  mak- 
ing a  difference  of  $4.71  per  barrel.  This  difference,  during  these 
two  periods,  may  be  attributed  by  some,  to  the  depressed  state  of 
commerce,  and  a  want  of  an  efficient  government,  during  a  part 
of  the  first  period.  By  adverting,  however,  to  the  price,  from  1820 
to  1828,  after  Europe  had  settled  down  in  peace,  and  again  returned 
to  her  old  systems  of  policy,  it  was  reduced,  to  $5.46,  being  only 
five  cents  more  than  in  the  first  mentioned  period.  The  advanced 
price  of  agricultural  productions,  during  the  long  wars  in  Europe, 
was  accompanied  by  a  great  advance  in  the  price  of  lands  in  the 
United  States.  The  difference  in  the  valuations  of  lands,  made, 
under  the  authority  of  the  general  government,  between  1799,  and 
1 8 14  and  181 5,  was,  as  we  have  before  stated,  $950,293,806. 
Taking  into  view,  all  other  causes,  which  contributed  to  produce 
this  —  such  as  the  increase  of  population,  clearing  of  new  lands, 
improvement  of  the  old,  depreciation  of  money,  &c.,  yet  no  small 
part  of  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  increase  of  the  profits  of  the 
lands  themselves  ;  as  it  is  well  known,  that,  except  in  the  new 
states,  the  price  of  lands  has  diminished,  since   181 5. 

^ .  .  ,  A  new  era  was  established  in  our  commercial  history  ;  the 
individuals,  who  partook  of  these  advantages,  were  numerous  ;  our 
catalogue  of  merchants  was  swelled  much  beyond  what  it  was  en- 
titled to  be  from  the  state  of  our  population.  Many  persons,  who 
had  secured  moderate  capitals,  from  mechanical  pursuits,  soon  be- 
came the  most  adventurous.  The  predominant  spirit  of  that  time 
has  had  a  powerful  effect  in  determining  the  character  of  the  rising 
generation  in  the  United  States.  The  brilliant  prospects  held  out 
by  commerce,  caused  our  citizens  to  neglect  the  mechanical  and 
manufacturing  branches  of  industry  ;  fallacious  views,  founded  on 
temporaiy  circumstances,  carried  us  from  these  pursuits,  which 
must  ultimately  constitute  the  resources,  wealth  and  power  of  this 

1  Scybert,  Statistical  Annals  [1819],  pp.  5<;-6o. 


EUROl'MVN  WARS  AND  'I'lIK  NEUTRAL  TR ADi:    247 

nation.  lA-mporary  benefits  were  mistaken  for  permanent  advan- 
tages ;  so  certain  were  the  profits  on  the  foreign  voyages,  that 
commerce  was  only  pursued  as  an  art ;  all  the  knowledge,  which 
former  experience  had  considered  as  essentially  necessary,  was 
now.  unattended  to  ;  the  philosophy  of  commerce,  if  I  am  allowed 
the  expression,  was  totally  neglected  ;  the  nature  of  foreign  pro- 
ductions was  but  little  investigated  by  the  shippers  in  the  United 
States  ;  the  demand  in  Europe  for  foreign  merchandise,  especially 
for  ^hat  of  the  West  Indies  and  South  America,  secured  to  all 
these  cargoes  a  ready  sale,  with  a  great  profit.  The  most  adven- 
turous became  the  most  wealthy,  and  that  without  the  knowledge 
of  any  of  the  principles  which  govern  commerce  under  ordinary 
circumstances.  No  one  was  limited  to  any  one  branch  of  trade  ; 
the  same  individual  was  concerned  in  voyages  to  Asia,  South 
America,  the  West  Indies  and  Europe.  Our  tonnage  increased  in 
a  ratio,  with  the  extended  catalogue  of  the  exports ;  we  seemed  to 
have  arrived  at  the  maximum  of  human  prosperity ;  in  proportion 
to  our  population  we  ranked  as  the  most  commercial  nation  ;  in 
point  of  value,  our  trade  was  only  second  to  that  of  Great  Britain. 
By  our  extended  intercourse  with  other  nations  we  not  only  aug- 
mented our  pecuniary  resources,  but  we  thereby  became  acquainted 
with  their  habits,  manners,  science,  arts,  resources,  wealth  and 
power.  At  home  we  imitated  them  in  much  that  was  useful  and 
adapted  to  our  condition  ;  fixed  and  permanent  improvements  were 
established  throughout  the  United  States  ;  the  accumulated  capital 
of  our  merchants,  enabled  them  to  explore  new  sources  of  wealth  ; 
our  cities  were  augmented  and  embellished,  our  agriculture  was 
improved,  our  population  was  increased,  and  our  debt  was  dimin- 
ished. The  merchants  who  had  been  long  engaged  in  trade,  were 
confounded  by  the  changes  which  were  so  suddenly  effected  ;  the 
less  experienced  considered  the  newly  acquired  advantages  as  mat- 
ters of  right,  and  that  they  would  remain  to  us  ;  they  did  not  con- 
template a  period  of  general  peace,  when  each  nation  will  carry  its 
own  productions,  when  discriminations  will  be  made  in  favour  of 
domestic  tonnage,  when  foreign  commerce  will  be  limited  to  enu- 
merated articles,  and  when  much  circumspection  will  be  necessary 
in  all  our  commercial  transactions. 


248  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

C.    Depredations  of  the  Belligerents 

^  The  American  commerce,  during  this  period,  was  often  inter- 
rupted, by  depredations,  committed  under  illegal  orders,  decrees 
and  blockades  of  the  two  great  belligerents,  France  and  Great 
Britain.  These  depredations  commenced,  under  the  French  de- 
cree of  May  9th,  1793,  and  others  which  followed,  and  under  the 
British  order  of  the  8th  of  June,  1793,  prohibiting  flour  and  meal 
from  being  carried  to  France,  or  to  any  port  occupied  by  French 
armies.  This  was  followed,  by  other  British  orders,  in  relation 
to  neutral  trade  with  the  French  West  Indies.  The  proceedings 
of  the  British  government,  under  these  illegal  orders,  as  well  as 
other  acts  strongly  indicating  hostile  intentions,  would,  probably, 
have  brought  the  United  States,  into  open  war  with  Great  Britain, 
as  early  as  1794,  had  not  President  Washington  interposed  a  peace- 
ful mission  to  that  country,  and  which  ended  in  a  treaty,  concluded 
by  Mr.  Jay,  on  the  19th  of  November  of  that  year;  and  under 
which,  the  merchants  of  the  United  States,  received  more  than 
ten  millions  of  dollars,  as  a  compensation  for  property  illegally 
taken,  under  the  British  orders  referred  to. 

France  considered  this  treaty  as  a  violation  of  prior  engage- 
ments made  with  her,  on  the  part  of  the  Americans ;  and  its  final 
ratification  in  1 796,  was  immediately  followed,  by  a  general  seizure 
and  condemnation  of  American  vessels,  under  several  illegal  de- 
crees of  the  Executive  Directory. 

This  brought  the  United  States  into  partial  hostilities  with 
France,  and  which  ended  by  a  treaty  made  with  the  first  consul 
in  1800.  The  treaty  of  Amiens,  in  1801,  gave  a  short  respite  to 
Europe.  The  war,  however,  was  renewed  in  1803,  with  more  de- 
termined animosity,  than  before  ;  and  the  law  of  nations  was  dis- 
regarded, not  only  between  the  belligerents  themselves,  but  between 
them  and  neutrals.  In  this  renewed  cojitest,  such  was  the  maritime 
superiority  of  Great  Britain,  that  the  commercial  vessels  of  France, 
Holland  and  Spain,  were  almost  driven  from  the  ocean  ;  and  these 
nations  were  dependent  upon  a  neutral  flag,  for  their  colonial,  as 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
PP-  373-376. 


KrROPKAN   WARS   AND    11  IE  NEUTRAL  I'RADE    249 

well  as  other  supplies  ;  and  the  United  States  heeame  their  sole 
carriers.  This  interference  of  neutrals,  in  the  commerce  of  her 
enemies,  Great  Britain  considered,  as  unjustly  depriving  her  of  the 
only  means  she  had,  of  annoying  them  and  as  pre\-enting  her  from 
bringing  them,  to  just  terms  of  peace  ;  and  was  at  last  carried  to 
such  an  extent,  that  in  1805,  she  considered  it  as  a  cover  of  ene- 
my's property  ;  and  denominated  it  "  war  in  disguise."  A  pam- 
phlet, under  this  imposing  name,  was  published  in  Great  Britain, 
in  that  year,  well  calculated  to  excite,  not  merely  the  jealousy,  but 
the  hostility  of  that  country,  against  neutrals.  In  this  celebrated 
pamphlet,  the  American  people,  were  referred  to,  as  "a  new  power 
that  had  arisen  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Atlantic,  whose  posi- 
tion, and  maritime  spirit,  were  calculated  to  give  new  and  vast  im- 
portance, to  every  question  of  neutral  rig/its,  especially  in  the 
American  seas."  And  the  author,  also,  declares,  "  that  not  a  single 
merchant  ship,  under  a  flag  inimical  to  Great  Britain,  now  crosses 
the  equator,  or  traverses  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 

Under  impressions,  which  such  language  as  this,  would  naturally 
produce,  the  British  government  and  the  admiralty  courts,  were 
confirmed  and  supported,  in  the  revival  of  the  rule  of  1756,  by 
which,  it  was  claimed,  that  neutrals,  in  time  of  war,  could  carry 
on  no  trade,  which  they  had  not  been  accustomed  to  carry  on,  in 
time  of  peace. 

Great  Britain  had  not  before  objected  to  the  Americans  bringing 
colonial  and  other  produce  into  the  ports  of  the  United  States, 
there  securing  the  duties,  and  then  again  reshipping  it,  with  a 
drawback  of  most  of  the  duties,  to  any  foreign  country.  She  now, 
claimed  that  the  allowance  of  this,  was  only  a  relaxation  of  the  rule 
of  1756;  and,  on  the  22nd  of  May,  1805,  an  American  vessel, 
called  the  Essex,  Orme  master,  was  condemned,  together  with  her 
cargo,  under  the  rule  before  mentioned,  now,  for  the  first  time,  ap- 
plied during  this  war.  In  consequence  of  this  admiralty  decision, 
many  American  vessels,  in  the  same  situation  as  the  Essex,  were 
seized  and  brought  into  British  ports.  This  immediately  became  a 
subject  of  complaint,  on  the  part  of  the  American  merchants.  It 
will  be  remembered,  that,  at  this  time,  the  United  States  had  no 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  in  relation  to  commerce ;  the  commercial 


250  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

part  of  that  concluded  by  Mr.  Jay,  having  expired  in  1804.  The 
British  government,  however,  proposed  in  that  year,  a  renewal  of 
this  treaty,  to  continue,  until  two  years  after  the  close  of  the  new 
war  —  but  this  was  declined,  by  the  American  Executive. 

In  this  peculiar  state  of  things,  a  new  negotiation  was  set  on 
foot ;  and  Mr.  William  Pinckney,  who  had  been  one  of  the  com- 
missioners under  Mr.  Jay's  treaty,  to  adjust  the  claims  of  the  Amer- 
ican merchants,  was  associated  with  Mr.  Munroe,  in  conducting  it. 
The  important  subject  of  impressment,  as  well  as  the  colonial  trade 
was,  also,  to  claim  the  attention  of  the  American  negotiators. 

On  the  3 1st  of  December,  1806,  Messrs.  Munroe  and  Pinckney, 
during  the  short  period  of  the  Fox  administration,  with  much  diffi- 
culty concluded  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain.  With  respect  to  the 
colonial  and  otiier  trade,  the  eleventh  article  provided,  in  substance, 
that,  during  the  then  existing  war,  European  products,  might  be 
carried  to  any  port  of  any  colony,  belonging  to  the  enemy  of  Great 
Britain,  provided  they  had  been  entered  and  landed  in  the  United 
States,  and  paid  the  ordinary  duties  ;  and  on  re-exportation,  should, 
after  the  drawback,  have  been  subject  to  a  duty,  equivalent  to  not 
less  than  one  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  and  were  bona  fide  the  property 
of  American  citizens.  And  the  produce  of  the  colonies  of  the  ene- 
mies, might,  also,  be  brought  to  the  United  States,  there  entered, 
landed,  and  having  paid  the  duties,  might  be  re-exported,  to  any 
part  of  Europe,  subject  to  a  duty,  after  the  drawback,  of  not  less 
than  two  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  This  treaty,  it  is  well  known,  was 
rejected  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  without  even  consulting  his  constitu- 
tional advisers  ;  principally,  for  the  want  of  an  express  stipulation, 
against  future  impressments  —  a  stipulation  which,  after  immense 
sacrifices,  from  commercial  restrictions,  for  four  years,  and  a  war 
of  two  and  a  half  years  more,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  was 
unable  to  obtain.  And  we  beg  leave  here  to  remark,  that,  although 
the  American  commissioners  could  not  procure  a  treaty  stipula- 
tion, on  this  important  subject,  in  strict  accordance  with  their 
instructions  ;  }'ct  the  British  commissioners,  in  a  written  communi- 
cation, gave  such  assurances  of  security,  against  the  future  abuse 
of  the  practise  of  impressment,  as  satisfied  the  American  commis- 
sioners, on  this  point. 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AXD  THE  NEUTRAL  IRADI'.  25 1 

Mr.  Munroe,  in  his  letter  to  the  I'rcsidcnt,  of  the  28th  of  Vch- 
ruary,  1808,  giving  his  reasons,  for  assenting"  to  the  treaty,  on  tliis 
point,  says  — "'  We  were,  therefore,  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  the 
paper  of  the  British  commissioners,  placed  the  interest  of  impress- 
ment, on  ground,  which  it  was  both  safe  and  honorable  for  the 
United  States,  to  admit ;  tliat,  in  short,  it  gave  their  government 
the  command  of  the  subject,  for  every  necessary  and  useful  pur- 
pose. Attached  to  the  treaty,  it  was  the  basis  or  condition,  on 
which  the  treaty  rested."  The  consequences  of  the  failure  of  the 
negotiation,  are,  by  Mr.  Munroe,  described  in  the  following  lan- 
guage—  "War,  therefore,  seemed  to  be  the  inevitable  consequence 
of  such  a  state  of  things  ;  I  was  far  from  considering  it  an  alterna- 
tive, which  ought  to  be  preferred,  to  the  arrangement,  which  was 
offered  to  us.  When  I  took  into  view  the  prosperous  and  happy 
condition  of  the  United  States,  compared  with  that  of  other  na- 
tions ;  that,  as  a  neutral  power  they  were  almost  the  exclusive  car- 
riers of  the  whole  world  ;  and  that,  in  commerce,  they  flourished 
beyond  example,  notwithstanding  the  losses,  which  they,  occasion- 
ally suffered,  I  was  strong  in  the  opinion,  that  these  blessings 
ought  not  to  be  hazarded,   in  such  a  question." 

The  hasty  rejection  of  this  treaty,  (the  best,  no  doubt,  that  could 
have  been  made,  at  that  time,  as  Mr.  Jay's  was,  in  1794,)  ultimately 
led,  as  Mr.  Munroe  had  predicted,  to  a  war  with  Great  l^ritain. 

In  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the  situation  of  the  United 
States,  during  the  second  period,  commencing  at  the  close  of  1807, 
when  their  whole  external  commerce  was,  at  once,  withdrawn  from 
the  ocean  —  a  commerce,  which  in  the  three  years  immediatel)' 
preceding,  in  imports  and  exports,  exceeded  three  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  for  each ;  we  deem  it  not  improper  to  advert  to 
some  of  the  immediate  causes,  which  led  to  this  proceeding  on 
the  part  of  the  American  government. 

D.    Continental  System,  Orders  in  Council,  and  Embargo 

^  The  French  emperor.  Napoleon,  was  at  this  period  in  the  full 
tide  of  success  and  conquest,  having  subdued  and  brought  under 

1  Williams,  Statesman's  Manual,  I,  254-257,  25S-259,  262-263. 


252 


FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 


his  control  a  large  part  of  continental  Europe.  But  the  English 
navy  had  nearly  destroyed  the  French  power  at  sea.  The  battle  of 
Trafalgar  annihilated  the  united  fleets  of  France  and  Spain  ;  and 
all  the  principal  ports  of  the  French  empire,  with  a  long  extent  of 
seacoast,  were  held  in  vigorous  blockade  by  the  British  squadrons. 

To  retaliate  on  the  British,  the  Emperor  Napoleon  devised  a 
new  plan  of  attack,  which  he  called  the  Continental  System.  The 
object  of  this  scheme  was  to  cut  off  all  intercourse  between  the 
continent  of  Europe  and  Great  Britain,  and  thus  weaken  England 
by  destroying  this  portion  of  her  commerce. 

On  the  2ist  of  November,  1806,  Napoleon,  having  defeated 
the  Prussians,  and  entered  Berlin,  the  capital  of  that  kingdom, 
issued  from  the  royal  palace  of  that  city  his  celebrated  Berlin  de- 
cree ;  by  which  he  declared  the  British  isles  in  a  state  of  blockade  ; 
and,  consequently,  that  every  American  or  other  neutral  vessel  go- 
ing to,  or  coming  from,  these  isles,  was  subject  to  capture.  The 
same  decree  provided  that  all  merchandise  belonging  to  England, 
or  coming  from  its  manufactories,  or  colonies,  although  belonging 
to  neutrals,  should  be  lawful  prize  on  land.  This  provision  was 
carried  into  effect. 

General  Armstrong,  American  minister  at  Paris,  regarded  the 
Berlin  decree  at  first  as  inapplicable  to  American  commerce,  on 
account  of  the  treaty  then  existing  between  the  United  States  and 
France,  but  in  October,  1807,  in  answer  to  his  inquiry  as  to  the 
effect  of  the  decree  the  French  minister  of  foreign  relations  in- 
formed him  of  his  mistake.  The  condemnation  of  American  ves- 
sels commenced  in  November  following. 

The  British  government,  in  retaliation  of  Napoleon's  Berlin  de- 
cree, issued  their  famous  orders  in  council,  dated  November  1 1 , 
1807.  By  these  orders,  all  direct  trade  from  America  to  any  part 
of  Europe  at  war  with  Great  Britain,  or  which  excluded  the  British 
flag,  was  totally  prohibited.  Goods,  however,  were  allowed  to  be 
landed  in  England,  and,  after  paying  duties,  might  be  re-exported 
to  Europe.  On  the  17th  of  December  succeeding,  the  orders  in 
council  were  followed  by  the  Milan  decree  of  Napoleon,  which 
declared  that  every  vessel  that  should  submit  to  be  searched  by  a 
British  man-of-war,  or  which  should  touch  at  a  British  port,  or 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AND  THE  NEUTRAL  TRADE  253 

should  pay  any  impost  whatc\-cr  to  tlic  British  government,  should 
be  dciiatioiialirscd,  and  subject  to  seiziu-c  and  condemnation. 

These  edicts  of  the  two  belligerent  powers  were,  of  course, 
destructive  to  the  principal  part  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  the 
United  States.  American  vessels  trading  directly  with  French 
ports  were  liable  to  capture  by  British  cruisers ;  and  if  they 
touched  at  a  British  port,  the)'  were  confiscated  on  arriving  in 
France.  The  British  orders  in  council  operated  with  the  most 
severity  on  American  commerce,  as  through  their  powerful  navy 
the  English  possessed  the  means  of  enforcing  them. 

The  critical  situation  of  our  foreign  relations  induced  the  presi- 
dent to  call  the  tenth  Congress  together  on  the  25  th  of  October, 
1807.  The  democratic  majority  continued  large  in  both  branches. 
Joseph  B.  Varnum,  a  friend  of  the  administration  from  Massachu- 
setts, was  chosen  speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives. 

In  consequence  of  the  hostile  edicts  of  France  and  England, 
the  president,  in  a  confidential  special  message,  on  the  i8th  of 
December,  recommended  to  Congress  the  passage  of  an  act  lay- 
ing an  embargo  on  all  vessels  of  the  United  States.  The  message 
did  not  allude  to  the  British  order  in  council,  although  Mr.  Tucker 
informs  us  in  his  life  of  Jefferson,  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Madison, 
then  secretary  of  state,  that  the  government  had  received  informa- 
tion, through  an  authentic  private  channel,  that  the  British  minis- 
try had  issued  an  order  against  neutral  commerce,  in  retaliation  of 
the  Berlin  decree  ;  which  information  was  confirmed  by  a  minis- 
terial English  newspaper  received  at  the  same  time. 

The  subject  was  immediately  discussed  in  both  houses  of  Con- 
gress, in  secret  session  ;  and  a  bill  laying  an  embargo  was  passed 
on  the  22nd  of  December,  1807,  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  by  a 
vote  of  82  to  44.  A  similar  bill  had  passed  the  senate  on  the  very 
day  the  subject  was  introduced,  by  a  vote  of  22  to  6.  According 
to  this  bill,  all  American  vessels  were  prohibited  from  sailing  for 
foreign  ports  ;  all  foreign  vessels  from  taking  out  cargoes  ;  and  all 
coasting  vessels  were  required  to  give  bond  to  land  their  cargoes 
in  the  United  States. 

The  embargo  was  violently  opposed  by  the  federal  party  and 
their  few  democratic  associates  in  Congress.    It  was  also  extremely 


254  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

unpopular  among  a  large  portion  of  the  people,  particularly  in  the 
states  most  interested  in  commerce  and  navigation. 

The  federalists  throughout  the  United  States,  denounced  the 
restrictive  measures  of  the  administration,  but  the  democratic  party 
generally  approved  of  and  sustained  them.  There  were,  however, 
some  exceptions  even  among  that  party ;  and  in  the  city  of  New  York 
a  public  meeting  was  held,  soon  after  the  passage  of  the  embargo 
act  by  Congress,  at  which  De  Witt  Clinton,  then  a  leading  demo- 
crat in  the  state  of  New  York,  presided  ;  and  at  this  meeting  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  disapproving  of  the  embargo.  The  American 
Citizen,  a  democratic  paper  published  in  the  city  by  James  Cheet- 
ham,  came  out  decidedly  against  the  measure,  Mr,  Clinton  shortly 
afterward  renounced  his  opposition,  and  sustained  this  and  other 
measures  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration. 

Those  who  opposed  the  embargo  policy  believed  it  would  prove 
unavailing  in  its  influence  to  induce  the  British  ministry  to  adjust 
existing  disputes  with  the  United  States  ;  another  objection  to  the 
embargo  was,  that  the  act  contained  no  provision  for  limiting  it  to 
a  definite  period.  An  embargo  had  been  laid  by  the  continental 
Congress  early  in  the  war  of  the  revolution,  and  again  in  1794, 
during  the  administration  of  Washington  ;  but  these  were  limited 
to  thirty  or  sixty  days.  The  act  of  1807  was  unlimited  as  to  the 
term  of  its  operation,  and  it  could  not  be  repealed  by  a  majority 
vote  of  Congress,  as  the  act  of  repeal  would  be  subject  to  the  presi- 
dent's veto,  after  which  a  two-third  vote  would  be  necessary  in 
Congress.  If  it  were  intended  as  a  measure  of  annoyance  and  in- 
jury to  a  foreign  nation,  it  was  putting  it  in  the  power  of  the  presi- 
dent to  make  war ;  and  if  it  were  designed  chiefly  as  a  means  of 
safety,  it  was  said,  the  merchants  were  the  best  judges  as  to  the 
risks  and  the  dangers.  And  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  the 
measure  had  been  recommended  and  adopted  at  the  secret  instance 
of  the  French  emperor,  who  sought  to  destroy  the  commerce  of 
Great  Britain  ;  and  who  insisted  on  the  co-operation  of  the  United 
States,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  his  plans  to  subjugate  his  enemy. 
The  letters  of  the  American  envoys  in  Paris,  afterward  published, 
stated  various  conversations  and  facts  which  showed  that  the 
emperor  expected  an  embargo  would   be   laid  by  the  American 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AND  THE  NEU'l-RAL    I'KADK    255 

government,  and  that  it  would  meet  his  approbation.  Napoleon  had 
said  that  there  should  he  no  neutrals  ;  that  the  United  States  should 
be  decided  friends,  or  he  must  treat  them  as  enemies.  And  he  pre- 
dicted in  October  that  an  embargo  would  be  laid  in  America,  which 
was  done  in  December  following.  Mr.  Jefferson  used  the  following 
language  in  a  confidential  letter  to  the  American  minister  in  Paris, 
in  October,  1808  :  "  Bonaparte  does  not  wish  us  to  go  to  war  with 
England  ;  knowing  we  have  not  ships  sufficient  to  carry  on  such  a 
war.  And  to  submit  to  pay  Itngland  the  tribute  on  our  commerce, 
which  she  demands  by  her  orders  in  council,  would  be  to  aid  her 
in  the  war  against  France  and  would  give  the  emperor  just  ground 
to  declare  war  on  us." 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  in  which  American  commerce 
was  involved  by  the  conduct  of  both  luigland  and  h'rance,  it  was 
the  opinion  of  men  entitled  to  respect  and  confidence  for  their 
good  judgment,  that  negotiations  conducted  in  a  proper  spirit 
would  have  prevented  the  difficulties  and  evils  which  occurred  to  the 
United  States  ;  and  that  more  decision  and  firmness  would  have 
prevented  war  and  preserved  commercial  prosperity.  In  PYance, 
the  American  envoys  expressed  surprise  that  some  resentment 
was  not  manifested  against  the  PYench  government  by  that  of  the 
United  States.  And  the  American  ministers  in  England  expressly 
declared,  that  a  treaty  might  have  been  made  with  that  government 
which,  if  not  in  all  respects  such  as  was  desired,  might  have  been 
accepted  without  injury  or  dishonor  to  the  United  States. 

The  embargo  question,  and  subjects  connected  with  it,  occupied 
much  of  the  time  of  this  session  of  Congress,  which  closed  on  the 
25th  of  April,  1808.  The  president,  on  the  2nd  of  P^bruary, 
communicated  to  Congress  the  British  orders  in  council  of  the 
nth  of  November,  and  on  the  17th  of  March  he  sent  to  that 
body  the  Milan  decree  of  Napoleon.  Spain  issued  similar  decrees 
soon  after  the  latter,  ... 

The  operation  of  the  embargo  law,  although  the  measure  was 
sustained  by  a  majority  of  the  American  people,  was  the  occasion 
of  great  distress,  particularly  among  the  commercial  community, 
throughout  the  United  States,  and  put  the  patriotism  and  firmness 
of  all  to  a  severe  test.    Dependent  as  we  were  on  foreign  markets 


256  FORKKIN  INFLUENCES 

for  the  sale  of  our  redundant  products,  now  that  we  were  not  per- 
mitted to  export  them,  they  fell  to  half  their  wonted  price,  and 
even  less.  To  many  of  the  producers  they  did  not  repay  the  cost 
of  production.  The  supply  of  foreign  merchandise,  too,  which 
habit  had  made  necessary,  and  of  which  there  was  no  domestic 
supply,  or  an  insufficient  one,  being  cut  off,  its  price  rose  propor- 
tionally high,  and  thus  the  expenses  of  the  agricultural  classes  in- 
creased in  the  same  proportion  that  their  means  of  defraying  them 
diminished.  It  bore  still  harder  on  the  sailors  and  ship-owners, 
who  were  thrown  entirely  out  of  employment — and  here  the  pres- 
sure was  most  severely  felt  in  the  states  that  were  most  addicted 
to  navigation.  It  is  true  it  operated  as  a  bounty  on  manufactures, 
by  making  them  scarcer  and  dearer,  but  this  at  first  benefited  but 
a  small  proportion  of  the  community. 

The  embargo  was  also  severely  felt  by  the  belligerents,  and 
especially  by  England.  The  United  States  were  the  most  exten- 
sive and  profitable  of  all  the  customers  of  Great  Britain,  and  the 
loss  of  our  trade  must  be  grievously  felt  by  her  manufacturers. 
Thus  it  was  a  trial  between  the  two  nations,  England  and  the 
United  States,  who  could  suffer  longest.  In  this  contest,  however, 
we  lay  under  a  disadvantage  ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  we  deprived 
Great  Britain  of  the  trade  of  only  one  nation,  while  we  deprived 
ourselves  of  the  trade  of  all  ;  and  in  the  next,  our  adversaries  could 
procure  cotton  from  Brazil,  Eg}'pt,  and  the  East  Indies,  tobacco 
from  South  America,  naval  stores  from  Sweden,  lumber  from 
Nova  Scotia,  and  grain  from  the  Baltic,  though  at  a  greater  cost ; 
but  we,  exporting  nothing,  were  unable  to  import  the  woollens, 
linens,  silks,  hardware,  and  pottery,  to  which  we  were  accustomed 
and  which  we  had  not  yet  learned  to  make. 

Another  disadvantage  (noticed  by  the  same  writer)  attending 
this  policy,  was  the  change  of  trade  from  the  United  States,  by 
being  forced  into  new  channels.  Thus  it  was  long  after  the  peace 
before  the  West  Indies  furnished  as  extensive  a  market  for  Amer- 
ican products  as  before  the  embargo.  Whatever  were  the  hazards 
of  capture,  from  the  edicts  of  the  belligerents,  they  could  be  fairly 
estimated  by  the  merchants,  and  to  prohibit  them  from  employing 
their  capital  in  this  way  was  to  withhold  from  them  a  profit  within 


KUROPEAiN   WARS  AND  THE  NEUTRAE  TRADE    257 

their  rcacli,  and  was  an  injury,  not  only  to  them,  but  to  the  whole 
class  of  their  customers, whether  producer:;  oi'  tonsumers.  It  was 
further  injurious  in  increasing  the  profits  of  illicit  trade,  and,  con- 
sequent!)', the  temptations  to  engage  in  violations  of  the  embargo 
law,  and  smuggling,  to  the  injury  of  jxitriotic  merchants  and  the 
benefit  of  those  who  disregarded  the  laws. 

The  violent  opposition  to  this  measure  of  the  administration, 
gradually  weakened  the  democratic  party  and  strengthened  the 
federalists,  particularly  in  the  middle  and  eastern  states.  Still  the 
administration  were  enabled  to  sustain  themselves  with  a  majority 
of  the  people.  In  reference  to  the  operation  of  the  embargo,  Mr. 
Jefferson  remarks,  in  a  letter  to  Doctor  Leib  on  the  23rd  of  June, 
1808  :  "  The  federalists  are  now  playing  a  game  of  the  most  mis- 
chievous tendency,  without,  perhaps,  being  themselves  aware  of  it. 
They  are  endeavoring  to  convince  PLngland  that  we  suffer  more 
by  the  embargo  than  they  do,  and  that,  if  they  will  but  hold  out 
awhile,  we  must  abandon  it.  It  is  true,  the  time  will  come  when 
we  must  abandon  it.  But  if  this  is  before  the  repeal  of  the  orders 
in  council,  we  must  abandon  it  only  for  a  state  of  war.  The  day  is 
not  distant  when  that  will  be  preferable  to  a  longer  continuance  of 
the  embargo.  But  we  can  never  remove  that,  and  let  our  vessels 
go  out  and  be  taken  under  these  orders,  without  making  reprisal. 
I  think  that  in  two  or  three  months  we  shall  know  what  will  be 
the  issue.   .   .   ." 

In  the  meanwhile  the  embargo  was  pressing  with  increasing- 
severity  on  every  class  of  the  connnunity,  whether  producers  or 
consumers,  and  this  pressure  drove  the  people  of  New  England, 
where  the  embargo  was  most  felt,  to  a  point  of  disaffection  which 
had  never  before  been  witnessed  in  the  United  States.  Many, 
therefore,  entertained  strong  hopes  that  some  course  would  be 
taken  during  the  present  session,  by  which  the  industry  and  enter- 
prise of  the  country  might  be  again  put  into  activity,  its  vessels  be 
once  more  suffered  to  venture  on  the  ocean,  and  perhaps  be  per- 
mitted to  arm  in  their  own  defence,  if  not  to  make  reprisals. 
Among  the  many  objections  to  the  embargo,  there  was  one  which 
operated  strongly  on  its  friends,  and  that  was  the  frequency  with 
which  it  was  violated.    There  were  also  many  cases  in  which  the 


258  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

law  was  clandestinely  ■  evaded.  Theilfc^ority  of  Congress  who 
were  willing  to  try  it  longer,  rather  th^|BJj|sort  to  war,  passed  a 
law  during  this  session,  which  armed  ^j^fcjiecutive  with  new 
powers  for  enforcing  it.  ^H^k 

The  administration  and  the  majority  who  su]^orted,it  were,  be- 
fore Congress  rose,  turned  from  the  purpose  of  trjiMMitie  embargo 
a  few  months  longer,  from  fear  of  the  growing  disau^tion  of  the 
New  England  states. 

It  has  appeared  by  subsequent  disclosures,  that  in  the  month  of 
February,  Mr.  John  Ouincy  Adams,  who  had  supported  the  admin- 
istration in  the  embargo  and  other  measures  of  policy,  ever  since 
the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  who,  finding  his  course  was  not 
approved  by  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  had  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  made  to  the  president  a  com- 
munication to  the  following  effect,  namely  :  that  from  information 
received  by  him,  and  which  might  be  relied  on,  it  was  the  deter- 
mination of  the  ruling  party  in  Massachusetts,  and  even  New  Eng- 
land (federalists),  if  the  embargo  was  persisted  in,  no  longer  to 
submit  to  it,  but  to  separate  themselves  from  the  Union  ;  at  least 
until  the  existing  obstacles  to  commerce  were  removed  ;  that  the 
plan  was  already  digested,  and  that  such  was  the  pressure  of  the 
embargo  on  the  community,  that  they  would  be  supported  by 
the  people. 

The  danger  thus  threatening  the  Union  was  deemed  paramount 
to  all  other  considerations,  and  the  president,  with  his  cabinet, 
concluded  that  it  would  be  better,  to  modify  their  interdiction  of 
commerce  in  such  a  way  that,  while  employment  was  afforded  to 
American  vessels,  Great  Britain  and  France  should  still  feel  the 
loss  of  American  commerce.  Congress  accordingly  passed  a  law 
for  repealing  the  embargo  after  the  1 5  th  of  March,  as  to  all  nations 
except  France  and  Great  Britain,  and  interdicting  with  them  all 
commercial  intercourse  whatever,  whether  by  exporting  or  import- 
ing, either  directly  or  circuitously.  This  measure  has  always  since 
gone  under  the  name  of  the  non-inteixoiirse  law.  It  passed  the 
house  of  representatives  on  the  27th  of  February,  by  81  votes  to 
40,  and  became  a  law  on  the  ist  of  March,  1809.  The  repeal  of 
the  embargo  took  effect  on  the  15th  of  the  same  month. 


EUROPEAN  WARS  AN^^'IIE  NEUTRAL  TRADI':  259 

^  Having"  thus  brictiy^^^tcd  to  the  causes  wliich  led  to  the 
interruption  of  the  eijM^Bn  commerce  of  the  country,  durin<^  the 
period  now  iindc  r  I'^MBr^by  embargo,  non-intercourse  and  war,  it 
is  time  to  call  the  ^jj^ii lion  of  tlie  reader  to  the  extent  of  that 
commerce,  when  iljHB  sufi'ered  to  leave  the  American  ports. 

During"  the  erriTOrgo,  the  coasting  trade  was  subjected  to  very 
rigorous  exactions,  lest  it  should  find  its  way  to  foreign  nations. 
Notwithstanding  this,  mcmy  vessels,  either  by  real  or  pretended 
stress  of  weather,  or  from  other  causes,  were  driven  into  foreign 
ports  ;  and  the  courts  of  the  United  States  were  filled  with  suits 
for  breaches  of  the  original  embargo  act,  and  the  various  subse- 
quent acts,  made  to  enforce  it.  On  the  removal  of  the  embargo, 
trade  in  some  degree  revived,  though  still  embarrassed  by  the 
non-intercourse  acts  before  noticed.  The  value  of  the  exports  of 
domestic  and  foreign  origin,  from  September  30th,  1807,  to  Sep- 
tember 30th,  1 8 1 2,  was  in  each  year  as  follows  :  — 

Years                                       Domestic  exports  Foreign  exports 

1808 $9,433,546 $18,997,414 

1809 31,405,702 20,797,531 

1810 42,366,675 24,391,295 

181 1 45,294,043  .......  16,022,790 

1812 30,032,075 8,495,127 

$158,532,075  $82,704,157 

From  September  30th,  1812,  to  September  30th,  18 14,  when 
the  United  States  were  at  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  value  of 
the  exports  was  greatly  diminished  — 

Years                                           Domestic  exports  Foreign  exports 

1813 $25,008,153 $2,847,845 

1814 6.782,272 1 4  5' 1 69 

$31,790,424  ■  $2,993,014 

Much  the  greatest  part  of  the  domestic  exports  in  18 13,  con- 
sisted of  flour,  w^heat,  corn,  rye  and  rice  shipped  to  Spain  and 
Portugal,  not  only  for  the  supply  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  coun- 
tries, then  desolated  by  the  invading  armies  of  Bonaparte,  but  for 
the  support  of  the  British  troops,  then  assisting  in  the  defence  of 
those  countries  against  their  invaders.    This  commerce  was  carried 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  tlie  United  States  of  America, 
pp.  407-409. 


26o  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

on,  with  the  connivance  of  the  I^ritish  government ;  and  the  most 
of  it,  no  doubt,  in  a  manner  justifiable,  by  special  licences  from 
that  government.  The  value  of  the  above  articles,  carried  to  Spain 
and  Portugal  in  1813,  exceeded  nineteen  millions.  Taking  this 
sum  from  the  whole  value  of  the  exports  for  these  two  years,  will 
leave  only  about  sixteen  millions  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  long  embargo,  the  non-intercourse  acts,  and  the  war  which 
followed,  against  a  nation  on  which  the  United  States  had  been  so 
long  dependent,  for  no  small  proportion  of  their  principal  articles 
of  consumption,  proved  the  great  want  of  their  own  internal  re- 
sources. Notwithstanding  the  short  period  of  the  war,  the  American 
armies  suffered  severely  for  the  want  of  blankets,  and  other  neces- 
sary clothing.  And  the  great  want  of  facilities  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  provisions  and  baggage  necessary  for  their  armies,  as  well 
as  of  their  military  stores,  through  such  an  extensive  country, 
greatly  enhanced  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  increased  the 
national  debt.  This  in  addition  to  the  new  state  of  things  in 
Europe,  in  consequence  of  the  general  peace,  necessarily  directed 
the  attention  of  the  Americans,  at  the  close  of  their  war  with 
Great  Britain,  to  the  subject  of  their  own  internal  resources  —  a 
subject  for  a  long  time,  for  reasons  already  stated,  almost  entirely 
neglected. 

II.  THE   INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  1 

^  Kisr  and  Progress  of  the  Ihitis/i  C  otton  Maiuifactiirc 

The  rapid  growth  and  prodigious  magnitude  of  the  cotton 
manufacture  of  Great  l^ritain  are  be\'ond  all  question  the  most 
extraordinary  phenomena  in  the  history  of  industry.  Our  com- 
mand of  the  finest  wool  naturally  attracted  our  attention  to  the 
woollen  manufacture,  and  paved  the  way  for  that  superiority  in  it 
to  which  we  have  long  since  attained  :  but  when  we  undertook 
the  cotton  manufacture,  we  had  comparatively  few  facilities  for  its 

1  For  an  account  of  the  great  inventions,  see  Walpole's  History  of  England 
from  181 5,  I,  52-76,  reprinted  in  ISullock's  Selected  Readings  in  Economics  and 
Rand's  Economic  History  since  1763. 

'■^  McCulloch,  Commercial  Dictionary,  I,  519-522. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  261 

prosecution,  and  had  to  struggle  with  tlie  greatest  difficulties.  The 
raw  material  was  produced  at  an  immense  distance  from  our 
shores  ;  and  in  Hindostan  and  China  the  inhabitants  had  arrived 
at  such  perfection  in  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weaving,  that  the 
lightness  and  delicacy  of  their  finest  cloths  emulated  the  web  of 
the  gossamer,  and  seemed  to  set  competition  at  defiance.  Such, 
however,  has  been  the  influence  of  the  stupendous  discoveries  and 
inventions  of  Hargraves,  Arkwright,  Crompton,  Cartwright,  and 
others,  that  we  have  overcome  all  these  difficulties  —  that  neither 
the  extreme  cheapness  of  labour  in  Hindostan,  nor  the  excellence 
to  which  the  natives  had  attained,  has  enabled  them  to  withstand 
the  competition  of  those  who  buy  their  cotton  ;  and  who,  after 
cam-ing  it  5,000  miles  to  be  manufactured,  carry  back  the  goods 
to  them.  This  is  the  greatest  triumph  of  mechanical  genius  :  and 
what  perhaps  is  most  extraordinaiy,  our  superiority  is  not  the  late 
result  of  a  long  series  of  successive  discoveries  and  inventions  ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  has  been  accomplished  in  a  very  few  years. 
Little  more  than  half  a  centur)^  has  elapsed  since  the  British  cotton 
manufactory  was  in  its  infancy  ;  and  it  noiv  forms  the  principal 
business  carried  on  in  the  country,  —  affording  an  advantageous 
field  for  the  accumulation  and  employment  of  millions  upon 
millions  of  capital,  and  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  work- 
men 1  The  skill  and  genius  by  which  these  astonishing  results 
have  been  achieved,  have  been  one  of  the  main  sources  of  our 
power  :  they  have  contributed  in  no  common  degree  to  raise  the 
British  nation  to  the  high  and  conspicuous  place  she  now  occupies. 
Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  it  was  the  wealth  and  energy  de- 
rived from  the  cotton  manufacture  that  bore  us  triumphantly 
through  the  late  dreadful  contest  [the  Napoleonic  wars],  at  the 
same  time  that  it  gives  us  strength  to  sustain  burdens  that  would 
have  crushed  our  fathers,  and  could  not  be  supported  by  any  other 
people.   .  .  . 

From  the  first  introduction  of  the  cotton  manufacture  into 
Great  Britain  down  to  the  comparatively  late  period  of  1773,  the 
weft  or  transverse  threads  of  the  web,  only,  were  of  cotton  ;  the 
warp,  or  longitudinal  threads,  consisting  wholly  of  linen  yarn, 
principally    imported    from    Germany  and   Ireland.    In   the   first 


262  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

stiige  of  the  manufacture,  the  weavers  dispersed  in  cottages 
throughout  the  countr)-,  furnished  themselves,  as  well  as  they 
could  with  the  warp  and  weft  for  their  webs,  and  carried  them  to 
market  when  they  were  finished  :  but  about  1 760,  a  new  system 
was  introduced.  The  Manchester  merchants  began  about  that 
time  to  send  agents  into  the  country,  who  employed  weavers, 
whom  they  supplied  with  foreign  or  Irish  linen  yarn  for  warp, 
and  with  raw  cotton,  which  being  carded  and  spun,  by  means  of 
a  common  spindle  or  distaff,  in  the  weaver's  own  family,  was  then 
used  for  weft.  A  system  of  domestic  manufacture  was  thus  estab- 
lished ;  the  junior  branches  of  the  family  being  employed  in  the 
carding  and  spinning  of  the  cotton,  while  its  head  was  employed 
in  weaving,  or  in  converting  the  linen  and  cotton  yarn  into  cloth. 
This  system,  by  relieving  the  weaver  from  the  necessity  of  pro- 
viding himself  with  linen  yarn  for  warp  and  raw  cotton  for  weft, 
and  of  seeking  customers  for  his  cloth  when  finished,  and  enabling 
him  to  prosecute  his  employment  with  greater  regularity,  was  an 
obvious  improvement  on  the  system  that  had  been  previously 
followed  ;  but  it  is  at  the  same  time  clear  that  the  impossibility  of 
making  any  considerable  division  among  the  different  branches  of 
a  manufacture  so  conducted,  or  of  prosecuting  them  on  a  large 
scale,  added  to  the  interruption  given  to  the  proper  business  of 
the  weavers,  by  the  necessity  of  attending  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
patches  of  ground  which  they  generally  occupied,  opposed  invinci- 
ble obstacles  to  its  progress,  so  long  as  it  was  conducted  in  this 
mode. 

It  appears  from  the  Custom-house  returns,  that  the  total  quantity 
of  cotton  wool  annually  imported  into  Great  Britain,  at  an  average 
of  th<d  Ji7'r  years  ending  with  1705,  amounted  to  only  1,170,881 
lbs.  The  accounts  of  the  imports  of  cotton  from  1720  to  1770 
have  not  been  preserved  ;  but  until  the  last  2  or  3  )ears  of  that 
period  the  manufacture  increased  very  slowly,  and  was  of  very 
trifling  amount.  Dr.  Percival,  of  Manchester,  who  had  the  best 
means  of  being  accurately  informed  on  the  subject,  states  that  the 
entire  value  of  all  the  cotton  goods  manufactured  in  Great  Britain, 
at  the  accession  of  George  III.  in  1760,  was  estimated  to  amount 
to  only  200,000 1.  a  year,  and  the  number  of  persons  employed 


THE  INDl  S'IRIAL   RKVOLimoN  263 

was  quite  inconsiderable:  but  in  1767,  a  most  ingenious  jx-rson, 
James  Hargraves,  a  carpenter  at  IMackburn  in  Lancashire,  invented 
the  spinning  jenny.  At  its  first  invention,  this  admirable  machine 
enabled  eigJit  threads  to  be  spun  with  the  same  facility  as  one  ; 
and  it  was  subsequently  brought  to  such  perfection,  that  a  little 
girl  was  able  to  work  no  fewer  than  from  eighty  to  one  Jnnidred 
and  tivcnty  spindles. 

The  jenny  was  applicable  only  to  the  spinning  of  cotton  for 
weft,  being  unable  to  give  to  the  yarn  that  degree  of  firmness  and 
hardness  which  is  required  in  the  longitudinal  threads  of  warp  : 
but  this  deficiency  was  soon  after  supplied  by  the  introduction  of 
the  spinning-franic,  —  that  wonderful  piece  of  machinery  which 
spins  a  vast  number  of  threads  of  any  degree  of  fineness  and  hard- 
ness, leaving  to  man  merely  to  feed  the  machine  with  cotton,  and 
to  join  the  threads  when  they  happen  to  break.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  understand  the  principle  on  which  this  machine  is  constructed, 
and  the  mode  of  its  operation.  It  consists  of  two  pairs  of  rollers, 
turned  by  means  of  machinery.  The  lower  roller  of  each  pair  is 
furrowed  or  fluted  longitudinally,  and  the  upper  one  is  covered 
with  leather,  to  make  them  take  a  hold  of  the  cotton.  If  there 
were  only  one  pair  of  rollers,  it  is  clear  that  a  carding  of  cotton 
passed  between  theaji  would  be  drawn  forward  by  the  revolution 
of  the  rollers,  but  it  would  merely  undergo  a  certain  degree  of 
compression  from  their  action.  No  sooner,  however  has  the  card- 
ing, or  roving,  as  it  is  technically  termed,  begun  to  pass  through 
the  first  pair  of  rollers,  than  it  is  received  by  the  second  pair, 
which  are  made  to  revolve  with  (as  the  case  may  be)  3,  4,  or  5 
times  the  velocity  of  the  first  pair.  By  this  admirable  contrivance, 
the  roving  is  drawn  out  into  a  thread  of  the  desired  degree  of 
tenuity  ;  a  twist  being  given  to  it  by  the  adaptation  of  the  spindle 
and  fly  of  the  common  flax-wheel  to  the  machinery. 

Such  is  the  principle  on  which  Sir  Richard  Arkwright  con- 
structed his  famous  spinning  frame.  It  is  obvious  that  it  is 
radically  and  completely  different  from  the  previous  methods  of 
spinning,  either  by  the  common  hand-wheel  or  distaff,  or  by  the 
jenny,  which  is  only  a  modification  of  the  common  wheel.  Spinning 
by  rollers  was  an  entirely  original  idea ;  and  it  is  difficult  which  to 


264 


FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 


admire  most  —  the  profound  and  fortunate  sagacity  which  led  to 
so  great  a  discovery,  or  the  consummate  sl<ill  and  address  by  which 
it  was  so  speedily  perfected,  and  reduced  to  practice. 

Since  the  dissolution  of  Sir  Richard  Arkwright's  patent,  in 
1785,  the  progress  of  discovery  and  improvement  in  every  depart- 
ment of  the  manufacture  has  been  most  rapid.  Thtnuilc-jcniij'  — 
so  called  from  its  being  a  compound  of  the  jenny  and  the  spinning- 
frame —  invented  by  Mr.  Crompton,  and  the  pon'cr-looju,  invented 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cartwright,  are  machines  that  have  had  the  most 
powerful  influence  on  the  manufacture  ;  and  in  consequence  of 
their  introduction,  and  of  innimierable  other  inventions  and  im- 
provements, the  prices  of  cotton  cloth  and  yarn  have  gone  on  pro- 
gressively diminishing.  But  as  the  demand  for  cottons  has  been, 
owing  to  their  extraordinary  cheapness,  extended  in  a  still  greater 
degree,  the  value  of  the  goods  produced,  and  the  number  of  per- 
sons employed  in  the  manufacture,  are  now  decidedly  greater 
than  at  any  previous  period. 

The  following  Tables  have  been  partly  taken  from  official  docu- 
ments, and  partly  from  the  accounts  of  merchants  of  great  ex- 
perience. We  believe  they  may  be  relied  on  as  approaching  as 
near  to  accuracy  as  it  is  possible  to  attain  to  in  such  matters. 

Account  of  the  Imports  and  Exports  of  Cotton  Wool  to  and 
FROM  Great  Britain,  from  1781  to  1812,  both  Inclusive 


Years 

Imported 
(Lbs.) 

Exported 
(Lbs.) 

Years 

Imported 
(Lbs.) 

Exported 
(Lbj.) 

1781  .   .   . 

5,198,778 

96,788 

1797  .   .   . 

23'354,37i 

609,058 

1782 

I  [,828,039 

421,229 

1798 

31,880,641 

60 1 , 1 39 

17S3 

9'735'663 

177,626 

1799 

43-379,278 

844,671 

1784 

11,482,083 

201,845 

1800 

56,010,732 

4,416,610 

1785 

18,400,384 

407,496 

1801 

56,004,305 

1,860,872 

1786 

19.475,020 

3-3.153 

1802 

60,345,600 

3,730,480 

1787 

23,250,268 

1,073,381 

1803 

53,812,284 

1,561,053 

1788 

20,467,436 

853,146 

1804 

61,867,329 

503,171 

1789 

32,576,023 

297,837 

1805 

59,682,406 

804,243 

1790 

31,447,605 

844,154 

1806 

58,176,283 

651,867 

1791 

28,706.675 

363442 

1S07 

74,925,306 

2,176,943 

1792 

34,907497 

1,485,465 

1808 

43,605,982 

1,644,867 

1793 

19,040,929 

1,171,566 

1809 

92,812,282 

4,35', 105 

1794 

24,358,567 

iv349'95o 

1810 

132,488,935 

8,787,109 

1795 

26,401,340 

M  93-7  37 

181 1 

91,576,53s 

1,266,867 

1796  .   .   . 

3^'!  26.357 

694,962 

1812  .   .   . 

63,025,936 

1,740,912 

TIIK  INDUSTRIAL   RK.VOLU'riON  265 

Annual  Avkra(;k    Imi'oris  ok  Cotton   into  (Irkat    IJritain 


Years 

Lbs. 

\  lais 

Lbs. 

1781-1785      

1 786-1 790 

1701-170=; 

11,300,000 

25,400,000 
''6,600,000 

1806-181O      

181I-1815       

1816-182O      

182I-1825       

I 826- I 830      

80,400,000 

81,1 00,000 

138,500,000 

1 68,600,000 

227,100,000 

1 796- 1 800 

I80I-IS05      

37,300,000 
58,300,000 

In  1786,  the  supplies  of  cotton  wool  were  derived  from  the 
following  sources  :  — 

Lbs. 

From  the  IJritish  West  Indies 5,800,000 

French  and  Spanish  colonics 5,500,000 

Dutch  colonies 1,600,000 

Portuguese  colonies 2,000,000 

Smyrna  and  Turkey 5,000,000 

19,900,000 

Previously  to  1790,  North  America  did  not  supply  us  with  a 
single  pound  weight  of  raw  cotton.  A  little  had,  indeed,  been 
raised  in  some  of  the  Southern  States,  for  domestic  use,  before 
the  revolutionary  war,  but  the  quantity  was  quite  inconsiderable. 
In  1 79 1,  it  began,  for  the  first  time,  to  be  exported;  the  trifling- 
quantity  of  189,316  lbs.  having  been  shipped  in  the  course  of 
that  year,  and  138,328  lbs.  in  1792.  Such  was  the  late  and  feeble 
beginning  of  the  American  cotton  trade.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
history  of  industry  to  compare  with  its  subsequent  increase,  unless 
it  bathe  growth- of  the  manufacture  in  this  country. 

American  cotton  is  generally  known  by  the  names  of  sea-island 
and  upland.  The  first,  which  is  the  finest  cotton  imported  into 
Britain,  grows  on  the  small  sandy  islands,  and  along  the  low  sandy 
shores  of  Carolina  and  Georgia.  It  is  long  in  the  staple,  of  an 
even  silky  texture,  and  is  easily  separated  from  the  seed.  Unluckily, 
however,  it  can  be  raised  only  in  certain  situations  ;  so  that  its 
quantity  is  limited,  and  has  not,  in  fact,  been  increased  since  1805. 
The  upland,  of  which  the  supply  may  be  considered  as  unlimited, 
though  of  valuing  qualities,  is  all  shoit  stapled  ;  and  its  separation 
from  the  seed  is  so  very  difficult,  that  if  it  be  done  by  the  hand, 
the  cotton  is  hardly  worth  the  labour.    This,  however,  was  the  only 


266  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

way  in  which  it  could  be  made  available  for  home  use,  or  exporta- 
tion, previously  to  1793  ;  and  had  any  one  then  ventured  to  pre- 
dict that  10,000,000  lbs.  of  upland  cotton  would  ever  be  exported, 
he  would  have  been  looked  upon  as  a  visionary  dreamer.  But  the 
genius  of  Mr.  Eli  Whitney  did  for  the  planters  of  the  Southern 
States  what  the  genius  of  Arkwright  and  Watt  did  for  the  manu- 
facturers of  England.  He  invented  a  machine  by  which  the  wool 
of  the  upland  cotton  is  separated  from  the  seed  with  the  greatest 
facility  and  expedition,  and  by  so  doing  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
new  and  most  important  branch  of  industry,  and  doubled  the 
wealth  and  means  of  employment  of  his  countrymen  !  —  (Pitkin's 
Statistics  of  the  United  States,  p.  109,  ed.  1835.)  Whitney's  in- 
vention came  into  operation  in  1793,  and  in  1794,  1,601,760  lbs., 
and,  in  1795,  5,276,300  lbs.  of  cotton  were  exported.  And  so 
astonishing  has  been  the  growth  of  cotton  in  the  interval,  that  the 
exports  from  the  United  States  in  1837  amounted  to  the  pro- 
digious quantity  of  444,211,537  lbs.!  of  which  438,924,566  lbs. 
were  upland  ! 

TJic  Origin  of  Cotton  Cnltnrc  in  the  United  States 

^  It  is  a  fact,  in  the  histoiy  of  the  manufactures  of  the  United 
States,  that,  in  some  very  important  instances,  the  knowledge  or 
acquisition  of  the  means  of  manufacturing  has  occasioned  excite- 
ments and  exertions  of  the  cultivators  to  produce  the  raw  materials. 
In  this  complex  business,  success  in  one  portion  of  the  means  has 
quickened  the  exertions  to  procure  the  remainder.  In  the  year 
1786,  I  became  well  acquainted  with  the  fact,  that  labor-saving 
spinning  machinery  was  in  eonsiderable  use  in  Great  Britain. 
It  was  understood  that  it  was  applicable,  at  that  time,  only  to  the 
carding  and  spinning  of  cotton^  which  we  constantly  imported 
from  foreign  countries.  In  the  course  of  the  following  autumn 
and  winter,  repeated  examinations  and  considerations  of  this  sub- 
ject occasioned  very  high  expectations,  from  a  few  well  authenti- 
cated facts  in  relation  to  the  production  of  the  cotton  raw  material 

1  Coxe,  Statement  of  the  Arts  and  Manufactures  of  the  United  States  [1S13], 
American  State  Papers,  Finance,  II,  676. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  RF>VOLTTTION  267 

in  gardens  and  other  small  pieces  of  land,  as  far  nortJi  as  ihc 
latitude  of  thirty-ciglit  (fco-rccs  and  forty-five  wiiintes,  and  in 
some  other  places  on  the  rivers  of  the  Chesapeake  bay.  It  was 
inferred,  that,  as  the  shrub  or  tree  grew  in  that  central  degree,  in 
our  country,  all  the  extensive  region  south  of  thirty-nine  was 
capable  of  producing  cotton,  which  is  found  not  only  in  climates 
hotter  than  the  warmest  of  those  of  North  America,  but  in  the 
torrid  zone.  It  is  therefore  confidently  presumed,  that  tJie  cotton 
spinning  mil!  might  be  brought  into  very  beneficial  use  in  the 
United  States.  The  production  of  cotton  in  the  old  settlements  of 
Virginia,  was  carefully  examined,  as  a  test  of  this  opinion,  and 
opportunities  offered  to  make  it  in  a  manner  commanding  entire 
confidence.  After  the  more  exact  information  of  the  existence 
and  operations  of  the  labor-saving  cotton  machinery,  in  Europe, 
had  led  to  due  reflection  on  the  importance  of  the  vast  capacity 
of  this  country  to  produce  the  proper  raw  material,  the  most 
effectual  measures  were  actively  pursued  to  excite  the  attention  of 
the  whole  community,  and  particularly  of  the  planters  of  the  five 
original  Sontliern  States.  But,  though  our  capacity  to  produce 
cotton  was  so  great,  as  we  at  this  time  know  it  to  have  always 
been,  though  labor-saving  machinery  was  effecting  wonders  in 
Great  Britain,  and  though  common  cotton  was  then  worth,  in  the 
United  States,  forty-four  cents  per  pound,  owing  to  foreign  trade 
laws,  and  though  it  was  at  a  high  price  in  many  parts  of  Europe, 
several  years  elapsed  before  sufficient  attention  to  the  culture 
could  be  excited,  even  by  the  numerous  publications  which  were 
incessantly  made. 

At  length,  however,  the  proper  consideration  of  this  great 
natural  capacity  of  the  Southern  States,  and  of  the  peculiar  value 
of  labor-saving  macJiinery  to  a  nation  of  moderate  numbers, 
dwelling  in  a  country  of  redundant  soil,  with  all  the  important 
discovery  of  the  saiv  gin,  has  occasioned  our  cultivators  to  pro- 
duce the  requisite  cotton.  These  two  machines  for  cleaning  cotton, 
in  America,  and  for  spinning  it,  abroad  and  at  home,  with  the 
ordinary  modes  of  household  manufacture,  have  drawn  the  planters 
into  an  enrichins:  revolution  in  the  southern  apiculture. 


2  68  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

^  Cotton  has  been  known  to  the  world  as  an  useful  eommodity 
ever  since  the  days  of  Herodotus,  who  upwards  of  two  thousand 
years  ago  wrote  that  "  Gossypium  grew  in  India  which  instead  of 
seed  produced  wool."  As  rice  feeds  more  of  the  human  race  than 
any  other  grain,  so  cotton  clothes  more  of  mankind  than  either 
wool,  flax,  hemp,  or  silk.  Both  of  these  articles  have  grown  for 
many  centuries  in  the  East  Indies  in  a  country  similar  to  Carolina. 
Though  the  same  reasoning  and  analog)',  and  the  same  information 
that  led  to  the  introduction  of  rice  might  have  pointed  out  the  pro- 
priety of  attempting  the  culture  of  cotton  in  Carolina,  yet  the 
latter  was  not  planted  to  any  considerable  extent  for  lOO  years 
lifter  the  introduction  of  the  former.  It  had  been  declared  by  Dr. 
Hewat  in  his  valuable  historical  account  of  South-Carolina  printed 
in  1 7 19,  "  that  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  province  were  favorable 
to  the  culture  of  cotton."  The  first  provincial  congress  in  South- 
Carolina  held  in  January  1775,  recommended  to  the  inhabitants 
"to  raise  cotton,"  yet  very  little  practical  attention  was  paid  to 
their  recommendation.  A  small  quantity  only  was  raised  for  do- 
mestic manufactures.  This  neglect  cannot  solely  be  referred  to 
the  confusion  of  the  times,  for  agriculture  had  been  successfully 
prosecuted  for  ten  years  after  the  termination  of  the  revolutionary 
war  before  the  Carolinians  began  to  cultivate  it  to  any  considerable 
extent.  In  this  culture  the  Georgians  took  the  lead.  They  began 
to  raise  it  as  an  article  of  export  soon  after  the  peace  of  1783. 
Their  success  recommended  it  to  their  neighbors.  The  whole 
quantity  exported  from  Carolina  in  any  one  year  prior  to  1795 
was  inconsiderable,  but  in  that  year  it  amounted  to  .?^  1,109,653.^ 
The  cultivation  of  it  has  been  ever  since  increasing,  and  on  the 
first  year  of  the  present  century  eight  millions  of  pounds  were  ex- 
ported from  South-Carolina.  The  uncertainty  of  this  crop  has  dis- 
gusted a  few  planters,  and  brought  them  back  to  the  less  hazardous 
culture  of  rice.  These  two  staples  have  so  monopolized  the  agri- 
cultural force  of  the  state,  that  for  several  years  past  other  articles 
of  export  and  even  provisions  have  been  greatly  neglected.  In  the 
great  eagerness  to  get  money,  the  planters  have  brought  themselves 

^  Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina  [1S09],  II,  212-216. 
2  Pounds  weight  is  obviously  meant. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  RF.VOLITTION  269 

into  a  state  of  dependence  on  their  neighbors  for  many  of  the 
necessaries  of  Hfe  which  formerly  were  raised  at  home.  So  much 
cotton  is  now  made  in  Carohna  and  (jeorgia  that,  if  the  whole 
was  manufactured  in  the  United  States,  it  would  go  far  in  cloth- 
ing a  great  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  union  ;  for  one 
laborer  can  raise  as  much  of  this  commodity  in  one  season  as  will 
afford  tlie  raw  materials  for  1500  yards  of  common  cloth,  or  a  suffi- 
ciency for  covering  1 50  persons.  That  part  of  it  which  is  now 
manufactured  in  Europe,  and  brought  back  in  an  improved  state, 
sometimes  pa}"s  more,  and  on  a  general  average  nearly  as  much  in 
duties  to  the  United  States,  as  the  planter  gets  for  the  raw  material. 
The  dut)',  being  in  proportion  to  the  value,  on  a  pound  weight 
of  fine  cotton  goods  is  much  more  than  the  cultivator  of  the  com- 
modity gets  for  the  same  weight  of  cotton  in  its  merchantable  state. 
This  staple  is  of  immense  value  to  the  public,  and  still  more  so  to 
individuals.  It  has  trebled  the  price  of  land  suitable  to  its  growth, 
and  when  the  crop  succeeds  and  the  market  is  favorable  the  annual 
income  of  those  who  plant  it  is  double  to  what  it  was  before  the 
introduction  of  cotton. 

The  cotton  chiefly  cultivated  on  the  sea  coast  is  denominated 
the  black  seed  or  staple  cotton,  which  is  of  the  best  quality  and 
admirably  adapted  to  the  finest  manufactures.  The  wool  is  easily 
separated  from  the  seed  by  roller-gins  which  do  not  injure  the 
staple.  A  pair  of  rollers  worked  by  one  laborer  give  about  25  lbs. 
of  clean  cotton  daily.  The  cotton  universally  cultivated  in  the 
middle  and  upper  country  is  called  the  green  seed  kind.  It  is  less 
silky  and  more  wooly,  and  adheres  so  tenaciously  to  the  seed  that 
it  requires  the  action  of  a  saw-gin  to  separate  the  wool  from  the 
seed.  This  cuts  the  staple  exceedingly  ;  but  as  the  staple  of  this 
kind  of  cotton  is  not  fit  for  the  finer  fabrics  it  is  not  considered 
injurious.  The  quality  of  these  two  kinds  is  very  different.  The 
wool  of  the  green  seed  is  considerably  the  cheapest ;  but  that 
species  is  much  more  productive  than  the  other.  An  acre  of  good 
cotton  land  will  usually  produce  i  50  lb.  of  clean  wool  of  the  long 
staple  kind.  An  acre  of  land  of  equal  quality  will  usually  produce 
200  lb.  of  the  green  seed  or  short  staple  kind.  Besides  these, 
yellow  or  nankeen  cotton  is  also  cultivated  in  the  upper  country 


270  FOREIGN  INFLUENCES 

for  domestic  use.  Two  ingenious  artists,  Miller  and  Whiteney  of 
Connecticut,  invented  a  saw-gin  for  the  separation  of  the  wool 
from  the  seed  which  has  facilitated  that  operation  in  the  highest 
degree.  The  legislature  of  South-Carolina  purchased  their  patent 
right  for  50,000  dollars,  and  then  munificently  threw  open  its 
use  and  benefits  to  all  its  citizens. 

Such  have  been  the  profits  of  the  planters  of  cotton,  and  so 
great  has  been  their  partiality  for  raising  it  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  valuable  commodities,  that  the  history  of  the  agriculture  of 
Carolina  in  its  present  state  comprehends  little  more  than  has 
been  already  given,  .  .  . 


CHAPTER   VII 
RISE   OF   INTERNAL   COMMERCE 
INTRODUCTION 

The  transition  from  colonial  to  national  economy  was  marked  by  the  rapid 
growth  of  internal  commerce.  This  internal  commerce  was  a  factor  of  scarcely 
less  importance  in  our  economic  development  during  the  period  from  1 8 1 5  to 
the  Civil  War  than  foreign  commerce  had  been  in  earlier  times.  It  did  not, 
however,  represent  an  entirely  new  influence  in  our  economic  affairs,  for  it  was 
closely  connected  with  foreign  commerce  and  to  a  large  extent  dependent  upon 
it.  In  fact  it  was  the  means  by  which  the  economic  advantage  arising  from  an 
increasing  foreign  demand  for  our  extractive  products  was  diffused  over  the 
entire  country  and  made  to  stimulate  nearly  all  of  its  industries.  To  make 
clear  the  part  which  internal  commerce  played  in  our  economic  history  during 
this  period  it  will  be  necessary  to  trace  briefly  its  rise  and  point  out  the  way  it 
effected  the  different  sections  of  the  country. 

It  is  common  to  attribute  the  rapid  growth  of  internal  commerce  to  the 
settlement  of  the  West.  It  was  of  course  connected  with  that  event,  but  this 
in  itself  is  not  a  sufficient  explanation.  People  had  been  moving  west  in  great 
numbers  for  more  than  a  generation  before  the  volume  of  internal  trade  became 
large  enough  to  produce  any  marked  effect  upon  economic  affairs.  The  small 
volume  of  this  trade  is  most  strikingly  shown  by  the  complete  absence  of  any 
considerable  growth  of  the  towns  and  cities  which  depended  upon  it.  The  sea- 
board cities  of  the  North  grew  rapidly  before  181 5,  but  that  growth  was  en- 
tirely due  to  their  foreign  commerce  and  the  carrying-trade.  In  the  interior  little 
growth  of  towns  took  place.  In  1795  the  English  traveler  Weld  found  Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania,  the  largest  town  in  the  country  not  on  tide  water.  It  was 
in  fact  nothing  more  than  a  large  village.  As  late  as  18 10,  after  Louisiana  had 
been  annexed  and  at  least  a  million  and  a  half  of  people  had  settled  west  of  the 
mountains,  there  was  only  one  city  of  any  importance  in  the  whole  region. 
New  Orleans  which  handled  most  of  its  exports  and  a  large  part  of  its  imports, 
had  a  population  of  24,562;  Pittsburg  had  4768;  Lexington,  Kentucky,  4326; 
and  Cincinnati  2540.  This  was  all  the  town  life  which  the  trade  of  the  entire 
West  was  able  to  support.  In  1900,  the  three  agricultural  states  of  Nebraska 
and  the  two  Dakotas,  with  but  litde  larger  population,  had  one  city  of  100,000, 
another  of  40,000,  a  third  of  26,000,  and  T:hirty-two  towns  ranging  from  2500 
to  10,000.  This  comparison  illustrates  better  than  anything  else  the  early  com- 
mercial backwardness  of  the  West. 

271 


272  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

The  reason  for  this  small  development  of  internal  commerce  is  not  far  to 
seek.  During  all  this  time  the  pioneers,  whether  in  the  back  country  of  the 
colonies,  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  the  northwest,  or  in  western  New  York 
and  northern  New  England,  were  without  any  valuable  products  which  could 
be  exchanged  for  commodities  to  satisfy  their  wants.  P"urs  would  stand  the  ex- 
pense of  land  carriage  to  the  seaboard,  a  few  cattle  could  be  driven  there,  and 
a  little  grain  and  provisions  floated  down  the  rivers,  but  these  were  only  suffi- 
cient to  purchase  a  small  amount  of  the  most  pressing  necessities.  Each  little 
community  was  compelled  to  live  to  itself,  producing  by  its  own  labor  almost 
everything  it  consumed.  Millions  of  settlers  under  such  conditions  could  give 
rise  to  no  swelling  volume  of  commerce.  The  western  people  had  to  buy  a  few 
things  in  order  to  support  civilized  life,  and  these  were  supplied  chiefly  by  the 
merchants  of  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  But  the  interest  which  the  seaboard 
cities  felt  in  western  trade  before  181 5  was  aroused  more  by  the  prospects  of 
future  development  than  by  its  actual  importance. 

The  influence  which  rapidly  changed  all  this  was  the  introduction  of  cotton 
culture  into  the  South  and  its  extension  after  1 8 1 5  over  the  southwest.  About 
the  same  time,  also,  there  was  a  considerable  extension  of  sugar  culture  in 
Louisiana,  and  tobacco  culture  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Here  was  a  group 
of  commodities  almost  as  much  in  demand  everywhere  as  the  precious  metals 
themselves,  and  having  large  value  in  small  bulk  so  that  they  were  able  to  bear 
the  expense  of  land  transportation  for  long  distances  over  the  poor  roads  of 
new  settlements.  The  soil  and  climate  of  a  vast  region  were  peculiarly  suited 
to  the  production  of  cotton,  the  demand  for  which  was  increasing  at  a  prodigious 
rate.  This  region  was  covered  by  a  network  of  navigable  streams  that  could 
easily  and  cheaply  float  this  valuable  product  to  tide  water.  The  timely  appli- 
cation of  steam  power  to  navigation  perfected  a  natural  transportation  system 
entirely  adequate  for  a  community  devoted  to  producing  a  few  such  commodities 
and  exchanging  them  with  the  outside  world. 

In  this  combination  of  favoring  circumstances  the  southern  half  of  the 
country  possessed  an  economic  prize  beside  which  the  more  dramatic  discovery 
of  gold  in  California  a  generation  later  sinks  into  comparative  insignificance. 
It  provided  the  inhabitants  of  a  large  part  of  this  section  with  the  means  of 
satisfying  their  wants  by  trade  similar  to  that  which  the  later  gold  discoveries 
furnished  to  a  comparatively  small  number  of  people.  It  furnished  to  the  set- 
tlers in  the  southwest  both  the  staples  they  could  easily  produce  and  a  market 
for  those  staples.  Thus  for  the  first  time  did  the  pioneer  of  the  West  possess 
the  necessary  conditions  for  rapid  progress  in  the  accumulation  of  wealth. 

The  effect  of  these  economic  advantages  was  not  confined  to  the  South. 
Very  soon  they  were  felt  by  every  other  section  of  the  country.  The  great 
profit  to  be  secured  in  the  cultivation  of  cotton  and  sugar  caused  the  people  of 
South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States  to  devote  themselves  chiefly  to  these  in- 
dustries and  to  neglect  the  other  branches  of  agriculture.  The  gradual  absorp- 
tion of  these  industries  by  planters  with  slave  labor  increased  this  tendency,  as 


INTRODUCTION  273 

the  one  advantage  of  that  labor,  viz.,  its  capacity  for  being  organized,  could 
only  be  utilized  in  them.  Mixed  farming  could  not  be  profitably  carried  on  by 
slaves  in  the  South  ;  hence  the  planters  were  glad  to  purchase  their  agricultural 
supplies,  so  far  as  possible,  from  other  producers. 

The  live  stock  could  be  driven  overland  to  the  plantations,  and  the  great 
network  of  rivers  with  their  flatboats  and  steamboats  provided  an  easy  means 
of  transportation  for  other  supplies.  All  kinds  of  produce  from  such  important 
products  as  pork,  bacon,  lard,  beef,  butter,  cheese,  corn,  flour,  and  whiskey,  to 
such  little  ones  as  apples,  cider,  vinegar,  soap,  and  candles  went  down  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  in  great  quantities.  This  was  the  first  important  market  which 
the  farmers  of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  the  northwest  secured,  and  it  wrought 
an  improvement  in  their  economic  situation  almost  as  remarkable  as  the  intro- 
duction of  cotton  culture  produced  in  the  southwest. 

The  prosperity  of  the  South  and  West  now  in  turn  influenced  the  East. 
The  people  of  these  sections  were  able  for  the  first  time  to  purchase  freely 
from  other  communities.  The  commodities  to  satisfy  their  wants  were  partly 
imported  from  abroad,  and  partly  produced  in  New  England  and  the  Middle 
States.  Accordingly,  both  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests  of  this 
section  were  greatly  stimulated.  New  York  reached  out  with  her  Erie  Canal 
to  secure  a  larger  share  of  the  growing  internal  trade,  and  a  keen  rivalry  sprang 
up  among  the  commercial  cities  of  the  seaboard  which  has  lasted  to  the  present 
day.  Manufactures  also  began  now  to  feel  the  influence  of  that  expanding  home 
market  which  has  played  so  great  a  part  in  their  development  ever  since. 

The  growth  of  commercial  cities  and  manufacturing  towns  in  turn  provided 
a  home  market  for  the  northern  farmers.  This  did  not  at  first  affect  the  north- 
west as  Henry  Clay  and  the  protectionists  of  the  time  expected,  for  little  west- 
ern produce  was  sent  east  over  the  canals  until  after  1840.  The  farmers  of 
the  Middle  States  w-ere,  how-ever,  greatly  benefited  by  the  development  of  a 
home  market  in  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  centers  ;  and  the  numerous 
canals  of  this  region  brought  them  into  close  contact  with  it.  In  the  early  forties 
the  northwest  began  to  share  in  this  advantage  and  sent  increasing  supplies  of 
produce  through  the  Erie  Canal  to  New  England.  With  the  Irish  famine  and 
the  repeal  of  the  English  Corn  Laws,  a  foreign  market  for  their  grain  and  pro- 
visions also  arose.  From  both  these  sources  their  means  of  purchasing  eastern 
manufactures  was  greatly  increased. 

Finally,  those  sections  of  the  older  slave  states  which  were  not  able  to  pro- 
duce cotton,  especially  Maryland,  \'irginia,  and  North  Carolina,  were  not  left 
entirely  unaffected  by  this  great  movement.  In  the  first  place  they  were  able 
through  the  coasting  trade  to  share  in  supplying  the  commercial  and  manufac- 
turing communities  of  the  northeast  with  agricultural  produce.  Then  the  rapid 
extension  of  cotton  culture  into  the  southwest  opened  a  profitable  field  for  the 
employment  of  their  surplus  slave  labor,  which  since  the  Revolution  had  been 
felt  to  be  a  burden  upon  them.  The  rise  of  an  active  internal  slave  trade  trans- 
formed this  burden  into  an  economic  resource.  There  is  litde  ground  for  believing 


2  74  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

that  these  states  actually  engaged  in  the  business  of  slave-breeding  for  the  sake 
of  the  profits  to  be  derived  from  it,  but  without  any  motive  of  this  kind  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  incidentally  they  profited  greatly  as  a  result  of  the  change. 

This  account  is  sufficient  to  make  clear  the  general  character  of  internal 
commerce.  Its  basis  was  a  territorial  division  of  labor  among  the  three  great 
sections  of  the  country  resting  upon  foreign  commerce.  The  South  was  able 
to  devote  itself  chiefly  to  the  production  of  a  few  staples,  turning  out  a  great 
surplus  of  them  for  export  and  depending  upon  the  other  two  sections  for  much 
of  its  agricultural  produce,  nearly  all  of  its  manufactures,  and  to  a  large  extent  for 
the  conduct  of  its  commerce.  Both  its  exports  and  imports  were  carried  largely 
by  northern  shipping,  went  through  northern  ports,  and  was  either  actually  in 
the  hands  of  northern  merchants  or  financed  by  northern  capital.  The  north- 
west devoted  itself  chiefly  to  agriculture,  depending  at  first  entirely  upon  the 
South  for  its  markets,  but  gradually  acquiring  after  1840  a  home  market  in  the 
northeast  and  a  foreign  one  in  Europe.  New  England  and  the  Middle  States 
were  devoted  principally  to  commerce  and  manufactures  by  which  they  were 
enabled  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  other  two  sections,  depending  at  first  upon 
their  own  farmers  for  their  agricultural  supplies  and  later  drawing  them  partly 
from  the  southern  seaboard  slave  states  and  partly  from  the  northwest,  especially 
from  the  region  about  the  Great  Lakes. 

The  great  streams  of  commerce  which  resulted  from  this  territorial  division 
of  labor  were,  first,  the  trade  on  the  western  rivers  consisting  principally  of 
agricultural  produce  sent  down  the  river  to  the  planters  —  little  southern  produce 
was  brought  back  except  sugar  and  molasses  from  Louisiana ;  second,  there 
was  a  large  coasting  trade,  consisting  of  manufactures  sent  from  northern  to 
southern  ports  with  return  cargoes  of  southern  staples  for  the  supply  of  the 
northeastern  states  or  for  export,  supplemented  by  some  food  supplies  for  New 
England  ;  third,  there  was  the  trade  of  the  seaboard  cities  with  the  West,  made 
up  for  the  most  part  of  manufactures,  imported  and  domestic,  sent  westward 
over  the  canals  to  the  Ohio  or  the  Lakes,  and  intended  to  supply  the  western 
farmers  or  to  be  forwarded  down  the  rivers  to  the  planters  of  the  southwest. 

Like  the  trade  of  the  western  rivers  this  trade  between  East  and  West  was 
in  the  early  times  principally  a  movement  of  goods  in  one  direction  ;  for  as 
already  remarked,  little  western  produce  found  its  way  to  the  East  until  toward 
the  end  of  the  period.  The  Erie  and  Pennsylvania  canals  carried  manufactures 
to  the  West  but  their  east  bound  tonnage  nearly  all  originated  east  of  Buffalo 
and  Pittsburg.  The  West  paid  for  its  manufactures  from  the  proceeds  of  its 
sales  of  produce  to  the  South  in  exactly  the  same  way  that  New  England  and 
the  Middle  Colonies  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  paid  for  theirs  by  sales  of 
produce  to  the  West  Indies.  After  1850  the  western  produce  sent  east  to  tide 
water  from  the  lake  region  became  larger  in  amount  than  that  which  went  down 
the  rivers. 

Two  minor  branches  of  internal  commerce  were  of  growing  importance : 
one  was  the  trade  in  coal ;   the  other  was  the  trade  in  lumber.    The  former 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  275 

flourished  both  in  the  East  and  on  the  western  rivers  and  lakes.  A  network 
of  canals  connected  the  anthracite  mines  with  tide  water  and  thus  with  the  im- 
portant cities  and  towns  of  the  northeast.  Soft  coal  farther  south  was  made 
available  in  the  same  way  by  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  and  the  James  River 
canals.  In  the  West  the  coal  of  Pennsylvania  was  carried  in  increasing  quantities 
on  the  rivers  as  far  south  as  New  Orleans,  and  sent  to  the  lake  region  over 
the  Erie  extension  of  the  Pennsylvania  Canal.  The  lumber  trade  became 
important  with  the  growth  of  towns  and  cities  after  181 5.  Supply  came  at 
first  from  northern  New  England  and  the  southern  seaboard,  and  was  floated 
to  tide  water  on  the  rivers.  Later,  with  the  opening  of  the  New  York  canals 
it  came  from  that  state  and  the  lake  region.  This  trade  received  another  great 
impulse  when  the  process  of  western  settlement  reached  the  prairie  region. 
Great  quantities  of  lumber  had  then  to  be  conveyed  to  the  settlers  of  that  region, 
and  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  became  the  source  of  supply.  Lumber 
towns  in  great  numbers  sprang  up  in  these  states  and  along  the  Mississippi, 
where  supplies  of  timber  could  be  procured  by  floating  the  logs  down  the  river. 

L  FEATURES   OF  INTERNAL   COMMERCE 

1  .  .  .  There  is  one  remarkable  difference  between  this  country 
and  the  maritime  powers  of  Europe.  They  possess  colonies,  the 
commerce  of  which  they  claim  a  right  to  monopolize,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  American  navigation,  except  as  a  matter  of  favour  or  con- 
cession, while  the  United  States,  without  colonies,  have  the  superior 
advantage  of  an  extensive  yet  compact  territory,  embracing  all  the 
varieties  of  soil  and  climate,  with  most  of  the  productions  of  the 
temperate  and  torrid  zones.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  With  a  territory  equal  in  extent  to  four-fifths  of  all  Europe, 
comprising  most  of  its  productions,  and  those  of  its  extensive  colo- 
nies, with  a  common  language,  government  and  laws,  encircled 
and  intersected  by  the  ocean,  lakes  and  rivers  affording  a  connected 
chain  of  inland  navigation,  this  country  is  literally,  as  to  all  the 
benefits  of  agriculture,  commerce  and  manufactures,  a  world  within 
itself.   .   ,   . 

...  It  may  be  here  remarked,  that  the  magnitude  and  extent 
of  the  American  bays,  rivers,  and  lakes,  call  into  existence  two 
descriptions  of  boats,  unknown  in  Europe,  which  navigate  the 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Tombigbee,  and  other  large  rivers  of  the 

1  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  New  York  Convention  of  the  Friends  of  Do- 
mestic Industry  [October  26,  1831]  on  Coasting  Trade  and  Internal  Commerce. 


276  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

West  and  South,  with  their  tributary  waters.  These  boats,  carry- 
ing 30  to  50  tons,  are  to  be  seen  in  countless  numbers,  on  the 
Mississippi  and  Ohio  especially,  and  are  not  licensed,  or  noticed 
in  the  custom  house  reports.  By  a  conjectural  estimate  they 
amount  to  150  to  200,000  tons,  on  the  various  waters  of  the 
United  States.  To  these  may  be  added,  the  coal-boats  of  the 
Susquehannah,  Delaware,  Lehigh,  Schuylkill,  and  Lackawaxen, 
which  this  year  delivered  200,000  tons  of  coal  at  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore  and  New  York.  This  single  item  employed  last  year 
1 172  coasting  vessels,  measuring  100,966  tons,  and  will,  when 
coal  becomes  more  generally  used  for  steam  engines  and  domestic 
purposes,  require  probably  more  tonnage  than  the  entire  present 
amount  of  our  coasting  trade,  and  ere  long  will  far  outstrip  the 
fisheries,  which  in  1828  employed  100,796  tons.  The  steam  boat 
tonnage  is  now  about  75,000  tons,  having  greatly  increased  within 
the  last  two  years.  By  means  of  steam  the  transfers  and  exchanges 
of  merchandize  are  now  effected  with  a  celerity  that  can  only  be 
compared  to  the  remittances  of  bank  notes  and  drafts  by  mail,  or 
to  the  circulation  of  the  blood  through  the  arteries  and  veins  of  the 
human  body.  It  is  a  truly  National  vehicle,  the  practical  and  political 
benefits  of  which,  by  bringing  distant  points  of  the  Union  into 
closer  contact,  will  soon  receive  a  more  thorough  development  by 
the  completion  of  the  system  of  Rail-Roads  and  Canals,  now  in  a 
course  of  execution. 

A.  The  West  and   its   Commerce 

1  In  locating  canals  in  this  country,  two  principal  objects  have 
been  kept  in  view  —  one  to  make  a  safe  water  inland  communica- 
tion, along  the  Atlantic  border,  in  case  of  a  war  with  any  nation, 
whose  maritime  force,  might  exceed  that  of  the  United  States  — 
another  and  very  important  object  has  been,  to  connect  the  waters 
of  the  west  with  those  of  the  east,  and  thereby  facilitate  the  inter- 
course between  these  two  distant  sections  of  this  country.  The 
vast  expansion  of  population  at  the  west,  and  the  great  and  grow- 
ing resources  of  that  portion  of  the  union,  has  rendered  this  kind 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America 
[1S35I.  PP-  533-534- 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  277 

of  improvement  of  vast  impoilanee  ;  and  has  created  ri\al  interests, 
at  the  east,  in  order  to  secure  the  advantages  of  this  intercourse. 

Before  noticing,  however,  the  various  canals,  and  other  improve- 
ments, ah-eady  completed  or  in  progress  for  this  and  other  objects, 
we  shall  present  some  brief  sketches  of  the  population  and  resources 
of  the  ivcstcf'ii  country.  We  include,  under  this  name,  the  states 
of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Missouri,  tlic 
territory  of  Michigan,  and  those  portions  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia,  which  lie  beyond  the  Alleghany  mountains. 

In  1790,  the  whole  population  of  this  country,  was  only  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  seven  thousand  and  eighty  four,  and  in  1830,  the 
number  of  its  inhabitants  had  increased  to  three  millions  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty  eight ;  and 
the  number,  at  the  present  time,  (January  1835,)  must  be  between 
four  and  five  millions,  exceeding  the  whole  population  of  the 
United  States  in   1790. 

The  reader  need  not  be  informed,  that  this  population  extends 
over  a  countiy,  unrivalled  in  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  its  nav- 
igable waters,  as  well  as  in  the  fertility  of  its  soil.  The  valley  of 
the  Mississippi,  as  it  is  usually  called,  is  watered  by  rivers,  some 
of  which,  only  of  the  third  rate,  extend  a  thousand  miles  ;  and  is, 
also,  indented  by  lakes,  whose  magnitude  justly  entitles  them  to 
the  appellation  of  inland  seas. 

This  great  increase  of  inhabitants  within  so  short  a  period, 
affords  conclusive  evidence,  that  this  part  of  the  United  States,  is 
destined  to  sustain  a  vast  population,  and  of  furnishing  resources, 
far  beyond  all  ordinary  calculations.  We  cannot  but  regret  our  in- 
ability to  present  the  reader,  with  as  accurate  an  account  of  the 
exports  and  surplus  produce  of  this  fertile  country,  as  of  its  popu- 
lation. These  exports  pass  through  many  channels  to  their  various 
places  of  destination  along  the  Atlantic  sea  board.  They  reach 
New  York,  by  the  Erie  canal  and  the  Hudson  —  Philadelphia,  by 
Pittsburgh,  and  the  canals  and  rail  roads  of  Pennsylvania  —  Balti- 
more, through  Wheeling,  by  the  Cumberland  road,  and  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  rail  road  — Washington,  partly  by  the  same  route, 
and  by  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  —  Richmond  and  Charles- 
ton, in  various  ways  across  the  mountains,  and  New  Orleans  by 


278  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers.  The  amount  carried  through 
these  various  channels,  must  necessarily,  in  a  great  degree,  be  con- 
jectural. From  our  own  observations,  however,  and  from  other 
sources  of  information,  we  are  satisfied  that  the  value  of  the  ex- 
ports from  this  country,  destined  either  for  the  consumption  of 
other  parts  of  the  union,  or  for  shipments  abroad,  far  exceeds  the 
whole  exports  of  the  United  States  in  the  year  1790. 

The  exports  of  the  western  country  consist,  principally,  of  cotton, 
tobacco,  flour,  wheat,  pork,  beef,  hams  and  bacon,  lard,  butter,  flax 
seed,  linseed  oil,  corn  and  corn  meal,  wool,  bees  wax,  tallow,  gin- 
seng, cheese,  live  cattle,  horses,  hogs  ;  and  various  kinds  of  manu- 
factures, such  as  sugar  mills,  steam  engines,  iron  and. iron  castings, 
cotton  bagging,  hats,  cabinet  ware,  flint  and  window  glass,  candles, 
types,  beer,  whiskey,  porter,  cooper's  ware,  cordage,  &c.  &c.   .   .   . 

1  The  net  money  value  of  the  lake  contnicrcc  for  the  year  1846, 
was  ^61,914,910;  having  nearly  doubled  in  five  years.  For  the 
same  year  the  total  amount  of  American  lake  tonnage  was  106,836 
tons,  and  of  merchandise  3,861,088  tons.  British,  30,000  tons. 
Estimates  from  highly  intelligent  authority  make  the  cost  of  con- 
structing this  tonnage  $6,000,000.  The  passenger  trade  is  also 
an  important  item  in  the  lake  commerce.  The  number  of  passen- 
gers, in  all  directions,  is  stated  at  250,000;  which,  at  $5  each  as 
average  charges,  gives  for  its  value,  $1,250,000.  llie  number  of 
mariners  employed  was  6,972. 

The  aggregate  population  depending  on  the  lakes  for  means  of 
communicating  with  a  market,  in  1846,  was  2,928,925. 

Of  the  Western  rivers,  i.e.  the  Mississippi,  and  its  direct  and 
indirect  tributaries,  it  appears  from  the  official  returns  of  the  treas- 
ury department,  that  the  steamboat  tonnage  for  the  year  1842, 
was  126,278;  and  for  1846,  249,055.  It  is  supposed  that  there 
are  300,000  tons  of  other  boats  (not  steamboats)  employed  on 
these  rivers,  which,  added  to  the  steamboat  tonnage,  gives  for  the 
year  1842,  an  aggregate  of  426,278  tons.  The  flat-boat  naviga- 
tion is  supposed  to  carry  to  market,  in  one  year,  600,000  tons  of 

1  De  Bow,  The  Industrial  Resources  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States 
[1852],  I,  445-446- 


FEATURES  OF  IN'ri<:RNAL  COMMERCE  279 

produce,  while  tlic  slcaniboat  frei<;ht  amounted  to  1,262,780  tons, 
or  a  total  merchandise  transported  to  and  from  New-Orleans  on  the 
Western  rivers,  (exclusive  of  the  way-trade,)  for  1842,  of  4,862,780 
tons.  The  probable  money  value  of  this  commerce,  for  the  same 
year,  can  be  stated  at  $50,506,903  ;  and  for  1846,  according  to  a 
statement  from  the  treasury  department,  $62,206,719.  This  in- 
cludes, of  course,  only  the  direct  ri\'cr  commerce,  and  not  that 
immense  amount  of  commodities  interchanged  between  place  and 
place  on  the  Western  rivers,  and  which  forms  no  part  of  the  New- 
Orleans  commerce.  Of  this  latter,  the  total  ttct  value  can  be  stated 
for  1846,  at  $148,306,710  —  \h<i  float itigM'Awit  cannot  be  less  than 
double  this  amount.  The  passenger  trade,  too,  is  very  great,  and 
is  supposed  to  have  yielded  for  1846  $3,191,982,  making  the  total 
commerce  of  the  Western  rivers,  $151,498,701.  The  steam  ton- 
nage for  1846,  is  stated  at  249,054  tons. 

The  total  cost  of  the  river  craft,  engaged  in  this  trade,  was 
$12,942,355,  and  sustained  at  an  expense  of  $20,196,242  per 
annum.  The  number  of  hands  employed  (not  shore  employees) 
was  25,114.  These  amounts  the  Bureau  considers  too  small,  or  at 
least  not  at  all  exaggerated  ;  and  that  if  $183,609,725  be  assumed 
as  a  reliable  exposition  of  Western  commerce  for  1846,  instead  of 
$151,498,701,  it  will  more  nearly  approximate  to  the  truth. 

The  total  population  depending  upon  the  Western  rivers  as  a 
means  of  communication  with  a  market  for  the  year  1846,  was 
6,576,027  —  the  rate  of  increase  1840  to  1845  having  been  about 
5  per  cent.  The  Mississippi,  with  its  tributaries,  which  traverse 
every  section  of  this  immense  valley,  furnish  16,674  miles  of  good 
steamboat  navigation,  thus  affording  great  natural  facilities  for  the 
development  of  its  unlimited  resources. 

These  facts,  in  reference  to  the  commerce  of  the  lakes,  (says  the 
Report,)  and  Western  rivers,  justify  the  following  conclusions  : 

1st.  That  the  net  moneyed  value  of  the  commerce  of  the  lakes 
and  Western  rivers,  including  the  passenger  trade,  amounted,  for 
the  year  1 846  — 

Of  the  lakes,  to $63,164,910 

Of  the  Western  rivers 183,609,725 

Aggregate $246,774,635 


2  So 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


2d.  That  the  population  depending  upon  the  lakes  and  upon 
the  Western  rivers  as  a  means  of  communieating  with  a  market, 
was,  for  the  year  1846  — 

For  the  lakes 2,928,925 

For  the  Western  rivers 6,576,027 

Aggregate 9'504>952 

3d.  That  the  number  of  hands  employed  in  this  commerce  as 
mariners,  exclusive  of  shore  hands,  for  the  year  1846  — 

For  the  lakes 6,972 

For  the  Western  rivers 25,114 

Aggregate 32,086 

And  it  may  be  added  that  the  total  amounts  which  have  been 
appropriated  and  expended  for  lake  harbors,  and  for  the  improve- 
ment of  Western  rivers,  from  the  year  1806,  when  these  appropri- 
ations by  the  general  government  commenced,  up  to  and  including 
the  last  appropriations  of  1845,  are  — 

For  the  lake  harbors $2,790,500 

For  the  Western  rivers 2,758,800 

Aggregate $5,549,300 

B.    The  South  and  its  Commerce 

^  It  follows,  from  these  facts,  that  the  South  has  a  far  larger 
surplus  to  export  than  any  other  section,  and  that  the  \'alue  of  that 
surplus  per  hand  annually  increases.  It  supplies  the  wants  of  the 
North  in  naval  stores,  rice,  tobacco,  sugar,  hides,  wool,  cotton,  and 
annually  swells  the  aggregate  exports  of  the  Union  to  foreign  coun- 
tries. The  surplus  which  has  thus  poured  out  of  the  country  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  following  table,  which  is  compiled  from  the  annual 
reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  : 

Southern  Exports  from  the  United  States,  Number  of  Slaves, 
AND  Value  per  Hand 


Year 

Naval 
Stores 

Rice 

Tobacco 

Sugar 

Cotton 

Total 

No.  of 
Slaves 

Prod,  per 
Hand 

1800 

^460,000 

$2,455,000 

$6,220,000 

$5,250,000 

$14,385,000 

893,041 

$16.10 

1810 

473,000 

2,626,000 

5,048,000 

15,108,000 

23,255,000 

1,191,364 

19.50 

1820 

202,000 

1,714,923 

8,118,188 

$1,500,000 

26,309,000. 

37,934,111 

1,543,688 

24.63 

1830 

321,019 

1,986,824 

8,833,112 

3 ,000,000 

44,058,025 

48,225,838 

2,009,053 

29.11 

1840 

602,520 

1,942,076 

9,883,957 

5,200,000 

74,640,307 

92,292,260 

2,487,355 

37" 

1850 

1,142,713 

2,631,557 

9,95 ',023 

14,796,150 

101,834,616 

130,556,050 

3,179,509 

43-51 

1851 

1,063,842 

2,170,927 

9,219,351 

15,385,185 

'37,3 15,317 

165,034,517 

3,200,000 

51.90 

1859 

3,695-474 

2,207,148 

21,074,038 

31.455,241 

204,128,493 

262,560,394 

4,000,000 

65.64 

1  Kettell,  Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits  [i860],  pp.  47-50,  98-99. 


FEATURKS  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  28 1 

These  figures  for  na\'al  stores,  tobacco,  and  rice,  are  the  official 
export  values.  The  figures  for  cotton  are  the  cn^p  valued  at  the 
export  rate  in  official  returns.  Those  for  sugar  and  molasses  are 
those  of  the  New  Orleans  prices  current.  As  all  these  products 
are  the  results  of  slave-labor,  in  addition  to  what  supplies  food  for 
consumption,  they  are  ver)'  nearly  the  exchangeable  values  pro- 
duced per  hand,  and  the  increase  has  been  in  regular  progression. 
The  exportable  value  per  hand  that  was  $16.10  in  1800,  has  risen 
to  $65.64  in  1859,  and  was  $43.51  per  hand  in  1850,  the  date 
of  the  census,  when,  as  seen  in  the  above  table,  the  food  produc- 
tion in  that  section  equalled  that  of  the  West,  which  had  no 
other  production.  This  large  value,  amounting  to  $262,560,394, 
is  remitted  to  the  North,  either  in  the  shape  of  sterling  bills  drawn 
against  that  portion  sent  directly  in  Northern  ships  to  Europe,  or  in 
produce  sent  to  the  North.  The  value  of  the  raw  cotton  taken  by 
Northern  spinners  in  1859,  was  760,000  bales,  worth  $40,000,000. 
There  are,  unfortunately,  no  statistics  for  all  the  produce  sent  north 
from  the  South,  but  much  may  be  gathered  from  the  statistics  of 
the  several  cities.  Thus,  Louisiana  sent  north  in  1859,  280,000 
hhds.  sugar,  valued  at  $19,000,000.  The  city  of  Richmond  sent 
north  $4,000,000  worth  of  tobacco.  Savannah,  a  large  value  in 
lumber,  &c.  The  Boston  Post  remarks  in  relation  to  the  South- 
ern trade  of  that  city  — 

"  What  does  New  England  buy  of  the  South  to  keep  her  cotton 
and  woollen  mills  in  operation  —  to  supply  her  lack  of  corn  and  flour, 
to  furnish  her  with  sugar,  rice,  tobacco,  lumber  etc.  1  Boston  alone 
received  from  the  Slave  States  in  1859,  cotton  valued  at  $22,000,- 
000;  wool  worth  $1,000,000;  hides  valued  at  $1,000,000;  lumber 
$1,000,000;  flour  $2,500,000  ;  corn  $1,200,000  ;  rice  $500,000  ; 
tobacco  estimated  at  $2,000,000.  We  thus  have  $31,200,000  in 
value,  only  considering  eight  articles  of  consumption.  Nor  have 
we  reckoned  the  large  amounts  of  portions  or  all  of  these  articles 
which  arrived  at  Providence,  New  Haven,  Hartford,  Portland,  and 
other  places.  Nor  have  we  reckoned  the  value  of  other  articles 
that  arrive  at  Boston,  very  considerable  though  it  be,  such  as  mo- 
lasses, naval  stores,  beef,  pork,  lard,  and  other  animal  produce, 
hemp,  early  vegetables,  oysters  and  other  shell-fish,  game,  peaches, 
etc.   May  we  not  estimate  then,  with  good  reason,  that  New  lingland 


282  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

buys  of  the  South  her  raw  materials  and  other  products  to  the 
amount  of  $50,000,000  annually?  In  1858,  about  one-third  of 
all  the  flour  sold  in  Boston  was  received  from  the  commercial  ports 
of  the  Southern  States,  and  in  the  same  year  seven-fifths  [five- 
sevenths]  of  all  the  corn  sold  in  this  city  was  received  direct  from 
the  States  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia.  The  value  of  the 
product  of  sugar  and  molasses,  principally  produced  in  Louisiana, 
in  1858  was  about  $33,000,000;  and  though  but  a  small  portion 
of  it  came  to  New  England,  nearly  one-half  the  crop  is  consumed 
in  the  Northern  States,  reaching  the  points  of  consumption  by  the 
Mississippi  river." 

The  cities  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Cincinnati,  Pittsburgh, 
and  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  receive  quantities  that 
swell  the  figures  to  $200,000,000,  independently  of  the  articles 
mentioned  in  the  above  table,  which,  being  added,  makes  an 
aggregate  as  follows  : 

Sent  North  in  bills  and  raw  materials $262,560,394 

Sent  North  in  other  produce 200,000,000 

Total,  to  the  credit  of  the  South,  per  annum    .    #462,560,394 

This  is  probably  an  under-valuation  of  the  amount  of  means 
sent  North  by  Southern  owners  and  producers.  The  produce  and 
the  bills  drawn  against  foreign  shipments  form  the  credits  against 
which  the  Southern  banks  draw,  and  these  credits  form  an  impor- 
tant item  of  deposits  in  all  the  Northern  banks,  but  particularly  in 
those  of  New  York  city,  where  the  "balance  due  banks"  swells 
from  17  millions  to  frequently  35  millions  in  the  summer,  when 
the  crops  are  mostly  realized.  The  vast  movement  of  produce  also 
gives  premiums  to  the  Northern  Insurance  Companies,  whose 
swelling  dividends  and  premium-shares  have  been  so  tempting  of 
late.  If  the  South  produces  this  vast  wealth,  she  does  little  of  her 
own  transportation,  banking,  insuring,  brokering,  but  pays  liberally 
on  those  accounts  to  the  Northern  capital  employed  in  those  occu- 
pations. Those  who  visit  the  North  in  the  summer  months,  crowd 
the  hotels  and  watering-places,  and  scatter  the  proceeds  of  South- 
ern labor  broadcast  among  shopkeepers  and  trades-people  in  return 
for  manufactured  articles.  .  .  . 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  283 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  under  all  these  circumstances,  that 
notwithstanding  the  large  production  of  wealth  at  the  South,  capital 
accumulates  there  so  slowly.  All  the  profitable  branches  of  freight- 
ing, brokering,  selling,  banking,  insurance,  &c.,  that  grow  out  of 
the  Southern  products,  are  enjoyed  in  New  York  ;  and  crowds  of 
Southerners  come  north  in  the  summer  to  enjoy  and  spend  their 
share  of  the  profits.  The  profits  that  importers,  manufacturers, 
bankers,  factors,  jobbers,  warehousemen,  carmen,  and  eveiy  branch 
of  industry  connected  with  merchandising,  realize  from  the  mass 
of  goods  that  pass  through  the  Northern  cities,  are  paid  by  Southern 
consumers.  There  can  then  be  no  matter  of  wonder  that  the 
North  accumulates,  or  that  the  South  does  so  slowly.  When,  how- 
ever, people  at  the  North  reproach  the  South  with  these  advantages, 
derived  from  them  as  some  of  the  "blessings  of  free  labor,"  the 
depth  of  ignorance  and  the  sublimity  of  impudence  seem  to  have 
combined.  Nevertheless  capital  does  accumulate  at  the  South,  As 
we  have  seen,  her  net-work  of  railroads  has  been  built  well,  and  more 
economically  than  in  any  other  section,  and  with  less  foreign  aid. 
The  bonds  and  stocks  are  not  only  better  paid,  but  held  at  home  ; 
and  there  is  no  more  eilficient  means  of  building  up  local  capital  than 
by  the  operation  of  9^00  miles  of  railroad,  with  its  employees,  and 
$200,000,000  of  certificates  of  cost,  all  paid  from  their  traffic. 
The  growth  of  manufactures  is  another  efficient  aid  to  accumulation. 
If  the  South  has  a  smaller  leak  than  in  the  West  in  the  matter 
of  interest  and  dividends,  it  has  a  larger  one  in  the  shape  of 
"absenteeism,"  since  a  considerable  portion  of  the  annual  profits 
are  spent  North  and  in  Europe.  The  sums  so  expended  would,  in 
ten  years,  give  her  more  manufacturing  capital  than  exists  at  the 
North,  and  multiply  itself  thereafter  with  great  rapidity. 

1  In  travelling  through  a  fertile  district  in  any  of  the  Southern 
States,  the  appearance  of  things  forms  a  great  contrast  to  that  in 
similar  districts  in  the  Free  States.  During  two  days'  sail  on  the 
Alabama  river  from  Mobile  to  Montgomery,  I  did  not  see  so  many 
houses  standing  together  in  any  one  spot  as  could  be  dignified  with 
the  appellation  of  village,  but  I  may  possibly  have  passed  some 

^  Russell,  North  America:  Its  Agriculture  and  Climate  [1856],  pp.  289-292,  293. 


284  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

during  the  niglit.  There  were  many  places  where  cotton  was 
shipped  and  provisions  were  landed  ;  still  there  were  no  signs  of 
enterprise  to  indicate  that  we  were  in  the  heart  of  a  rich  cotton 
region.  Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at,  for  American  slavery,  in 
its  most  productive  state,  has  all  the  worst  features  of  absenteeism, 
more  particularly  where  the  plantations  are  managed  by  overseers. 
In  fact,  the  more  fertile  the  land  the  more  destitute  is  the  country 
of  villages  and  towns.  And  how  can  it  be  otherwise  ?  The  system 
of  management  which  is  recommended  as  the  most  economical 
and  profitable,  is  to  raise  and  to  manufacture  on  the  plantations 
every  thing  which  the  slaves  require.  Though  this  is  seldom 
accomplished,  yet  a  great  part  of  the  clothing  is  home-made  ;  and 
the  chief  articles  imported  are  bacon  and  mules  from  the  North- 
ern States.  The  only  article  sold  is  cotton,  which  is  conveyed  to 
the  nearest  point  on  a  navigable  river,  and  consigned  to  a  com- 
mission agent  in  the  exporting  town  ;  while  the  bacon  all  comes 
in  through  the  same  channel.  Of  such  articles  as  are  in  daily  use 
among  the  rural  inhabitants  in  the  poorest  districts  of  the  Free 
States,  the  slaves  are  a  non-consuming  class.  An  element  so  es- 
sential to  rural  prosperity  is  in  a  great  measure  wanting  in  the 
Slave  States,  and  thus  few  villages  are  seen.*  The  planters  supply 
themselves  with  their  own  necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life  directly 
through  agents  in  the  large  towns,  and  comparatively  little  of  the 
money  drawn  for  the  cotton  crop  is  spent  in  the  Southern  States. 
Many  of  the  planters  spend  their  incomes  by  travelling  with  their 
families  in  the  Northern  States  or  in  Europe  during  the  summer, 
and  a  large  sum  is  required  to  pay  the  hog-raiser  in  Ohio,  the 
mule  breeder  in  Kentucky,  and,  above  all,  the  northern  capitalists, 
who  have  vast  sums  of  money  on  mortgage  over  the  estates.  Dr. 
Cloud,  the  editor  of  the  "  Cotton  Plant,"  assured  me,  that  after 
these  items  are  paid  out  of  the  money  received  for  the  whole  cot- 
ton and  sugar  crops  of  the  south,  there  did  not  remain  one-fourth 
part  of  it  to  be  spent  in  the  Southern  States.  Hence  the  Slave 
States  soon  attain  a  comparatively  stationary  condition,  and  fur- 
ther, the  progress  they  make  is  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
freemen,  whose  labour  is  rendered  comparatively  unproductive,  see- 
ing that  the  most  fertile  land  is  pre-occupied  by  slave-owners. 


FEATURES  OF  INFERNAL  COMMERCE  285 

When  the  valued  exports  and  imports  of  any  of  the  Southern 
States  are  compared,  it  is  found  that  the  former  invariably  exceed 
the  latter,  in  consequence  of  the  want  of  a  consuming  class.  The 
commerce  of  a  few  of  tlic  ])rincipal  towns  that  export  the  cotton 
crop  may  be  taken  as  illustrating  the  condition  of  Southern  society. 
It  is  a  common  theme  for  the  Southern  politicians  to  lament  the 
want  of  enterprise  among  the  merchants  in  conducting  a  foreign 
import  trade.  "  One  of  the  chief  drawbacks  to  New  Orleans,"  says 
Mr.  Robb,  an  influential  gentleman  in  that  city,  "  is  the  absence  of 
an  import  trade  ;  and  why  are  we  without  imports  ?  Why  is  it  that 
a  city  exporting  80  or  90  millions  of  dollars  annually,  is  so  insig- 
nificant in  that  important  branch  of  commerce  ?  Because  of  the 
ranoteiicss  and  iiiiccrtaitity  of  our  markets,  or  being  zvit/iout  a 
speedy,  rapid,  and  cheap  coniviunication  zvitJi  the  intej'ior  countrv 
that  seeks  N'ezu  Orleans  as  a  market  for  its  agricultiiral  produc- 
tions T  But  the  truth  is,  there  are  few  imports  required,  for  eveiy 
Southern  town  tells  the  same  tale.  In  185  i,  the  valued  exports  at 
Mobile  were  14,555,366  dollars,  and  the  imports  only  620,892 
dollars.  This  town,  with  the  exception  of .  New  Orleans,  exports 
more  cotton  than  any  other  in  the  union.  In  1852  the  valued  ex- 
ports at  Charleston  weve  12,899,620  dollars,  while  the  imports 
were  only  1,767,343  dollars.   ... 

The  commerce  of  the  Northern  States  furnishes  a  great  con- 
trast in  regard  to  the  amount  of  exports  and  imports.  They  show 
that  there  are  stronger  bands  holding  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States  together  than  any  which  politics  are  likely  soon  to  break. 
Not  a  little  of  the  great  prosperity  of  the  Northern  States  is  owing 
to  the  labour  of  the  slaves,  which  is  as  productive  as  any  in  the 
United  States.  As  Adam  Smith  has  pointed  out,  labour  applied 
to  the  culture  of  the  soil  is  always  doubly  valuable  in  new  coun- 
tries ;  and  were  we  to  deduct  the  produce  of  the  labour  of  the  slaves 
from  the  industry  of  the  United  States,  it  would  be  a  comparatively 
poor  countiy.  This  forms  no  excuse  or  palliation  for  the  existence 
of  slavery.  .  ,  .  The  value  of  the  exports  of  agricultural  produce 
raised  by  free  labour  is  little  more  than  a  third  of  that  raised 
by  slave.  The  leading  articles  of  export  for  the  fiscal  year  1852, 
were  :  — 


286  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

Products  of  the  Fisheries  —  free  labour 2,282,342  dollars 

"          "     "    Forest  —  free  and  slave         7,864,220  " 

Products  of  the  Agriculture  (animal)  —  free 6,323,439  " 

"          "     "             "            (vegetable)  —  free  and  slave.  26,210,027  " 

Cotton  —  slave        87,965,732  " 

Tobacco  —  slave 10,031,283  " 

Manufactures  of  Cotton  —  free 7,672,151  " 

Miscellaneous  —  free 18,862,931  " 

Notwithstanding  the  immense  breadth  of  land  under  wheat,  the 
valued  exports  of  tobacco  were  as  great  as  those  of  flour  during 
the  three  years  1850— 1-2.  The  valued  exports  of  rice  were  within 
one-fourth  of  those  of  flour,  though  the  rice  grounds  occupy  mere 
patches  on  the  map,  and  those  of  cotton  were  nearly  ten  times 
greater,  .  .  . 

Though  slavery  impoverishes  the  Southern  States,  it  enriches 
the  Northern.  Almost  every  traveller  from  the  old  country  is 
struck  with  the  numbers  of  Southern  planters  and  their  families 
frequenting  the  hotels  in  the  Northern  States.  It  is  in  the  South 
that  the  Ohio  farmers  find  a  ready  market  for  their  bacon  and 
mules,  which  products  require  comparatively  little  labour  ;  and  the 
northern  capitalists,  who  hold  such  vast  sums  in  mortgage  over 
slave  plantations,  are  in  reality  absentees  of  the  Southern  States. 
These  circumstances  serve  to  explain  how  the  imports  so  greatly 
exceed  the  exports  in  the  Northern  towns.  Thus  in  1852  the  val- 
ued imports  and  exports  at  Philadelphia"  and  New  York  were  — 

Imports  Exports 

Philadelphia   ....       14,785,917  dollars     .    .     .      5,828,571  dollars 
New  York 127,441,394       "  ...    71,523,609 

^  The  commercial  relations  between  the  North  and  South  are 
based  on  natural  laws,  and  are  entirely  distinct  from,  and  independ- 
ent of  political  ones.  The  South  produces  certain  articles  neces- 
saiy  to  commerce  that  cannot  be  raised  North,  while  climate  and 
other  conditions  enable  the  North  to  manufacture  more  cheaply 
and  skilfully  than  at  the  South,  and  beget  a  spirit  of  maritime  ad- 
venture which  renders  them  the  carriers  for  the  whole  country.  In 
certain  products,  from  difference  of  climate,  each  excels,  and  must 

1  The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the  Commeroial  Relations  between  the  North 
and  South  [1S61],  pp.  12-16. 


FEATURES  OF  IN^I'ERNAL  COMMERCI-:  287 

continue  to  excel  the  other.  The  North  cannot  compete  with  the 
South  in  the  culture  of  sui^ar  or  cotton.  But  the  fervid  sun  which 
these  require,  relaxes  the  muscles  and  indisposes  to  physical  exer- 
tion. The  South,  therefore,  cannot  compete  with  the  North  in 
manufactures  and  commerce,  which  require  great  physical  and  nerv- 
ous energy,  which  is  the  product  of  temperate  zones,  which  the 
sun,  for  a  portion  of  the  year,  leaves  to  snow  and  ice.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  two  sections  are  based  on  differences  which  can 
never  be  changed  by  human  agency. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  which  the  Cotton  vStates  picture  to 
themselves  as  springing  from  Secession  is  direct  trade  with  Europe. 
The  want  of  this  has  been  for  a  long  time  most  galling  to  their 
pride.  They  produce  one  half  of  our  exports  to  foreign  countries. 
These  are  all  taken  away  in  ATortJicrn  vessels,  which  bring  back 
the  proceeds,  not  to  SoittJiern  but  to  Northern  ports.  They  see  that 
Northern  cities  rapidly  expand  in  population,  commerce,  and  wealth, 
while  theirs  remain  stationaiy,  or  fall  into  decay.  The  diversion  as 
they  term  it,  of  this  trade,  they  ascribe  to  the  action  of  the  National 
Government,  which  fosters  enterprise  at  the  North,  and  discourages 
it  at  the  South.  The  destruction  of  this  Government,  consequently, 
is  to  free  them  from  their  thraldom,  and  return  to  them  in  gold, 
silver  and  merchandize,  the  $150,000,000  sent  abroad  in  cotton. 
They  will  thus  change  places  with  the  North,  make  their  ports  the 
emporiums  for  the  whole  country,  and  compel  the  Northern  people 
to  come  to  them  for  their  supplies  of  foreign  merchandize. 

In  reasoning  in  this  manner,  the  Southern  people  entirely  over- 
look the  evidence,  drawn  from  experience,  of  their  aptitudes  and 
capabilities.  The  pursuits  and  development  of  both  North  and 
South  are  simply  the  unfolding  of  natural  laws  or  tendencies.  If 
the  two  sections  differ  in  results,  they  must  differ  equally  in  cause. 
The  Southern  people  do  not  become  sailors,  because  they  have  no 
aptitudes  for  maritime  pursuits.  If  they  do  not  build  ships  it  proves 
either  a  lack  of  industry,  or  mechanical  skill,  or  suitable  materials, 
or  good  harbors,  or  a  healthy  climate.  The  South  is  wanting  in  all 
these  particulars  but  materials.  These  consequently  have  to  be  sent 
North,  where  the  people  possess  eveiything  biit  material.  No  peo- 
ple with  the  climate,  or  seacoast  of  the  South,  ever  did,  or  ever  can 


2S8  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

become  maritime.  Another  obstacle  is  their  social  system.  The 
forecastle  is  not  to  be  trusted  to  a  crew  of  slaves.  The  poor  whites 
have  no  taste  for  the  toil  and  subordination  necessary  to  constitute 
good  sailors.  Were  this  fact  otherwise,  Southern  ports  are  too  liable 
to  fatal  epidemics  to  allow  any  development  in  industry,  wealth  or 
population,  beyond  that  necessary  to  perform  the  export  trade  of 
the  districts  dependent  upon  them.  Manufactures  cannot  flourish 
in  them,  because  an  interruption  for  a  month  in  a  year  would  prove 
fatal  to  their  success,  Charleston  has  no  more  population  than  it 
had  ten  years  ago,  for  the  reason  that  its  export  trade  is  but  little 
greater.  Another  fatal  obstacle  to  Southern  cities  becoming  great 
depots  of  trade  is  that  of  climate,  which  is  destructive  to  many 
kinds  of  merchandize  if  they  remain  long  in  store  or  warehouse. 
All  Southern  cities,  consequently,  are  only  points  in  transitu  of 
merchandize  on  its  way  from  the  manufacturer  or  merchant,  who 
must  reside  in  a  climate  which  favors  the  prosecution  of  their  in- 
dustries the  year  round,  and  the  accumulation  of  their  products 
till  they  can  be  sent,  with  profit,  to  the  consumers.   .   .   , 

If  the  North  are  to  carry  the  cotton  to  Europe,  for  the  same 
reason  they  must  britig  back  the  proceeds.  Such  a  result  is  inevi- 
table. The  bulk  of  freights  going  to  Europe  vastly  exceeds  that 
coming  to  the  United  States.  As  the  returning  ships  average  only 
half  a  cargo,  we  do  not  think  Southern  people  are  going  to  send 
ships  out  in  ballast,  for  the  sake  of  bringing  them  back  half  loaded, 
even  to  their  own  ports.  But  if  they  should  attempt  such  an  un- 
heard of  absurdity,  their  ships  would  have  to  bring  their  cargoes 
to  Northern  cities.  Why  t  Because  these,  representing  the  North, 
own  such  cargoes,  having  paid  for  them  in  advances  to  the  South- 
ern people  of  what  they  consume.  A  mere  fraction  of  our  foreign 
imports  finds  its  way  to  the  Southern  States.  These  States  do  not 
consume  foreign  but  domestic  merchandize.  They  import  from  the 
North  ten  dollars  in  domestics  for  every  one  imported,  directly  or 
indirectly,  from  Europe  If  they  opened  a  direct  trade,  they  would 
not  have  returned  to  their  ports  more  than  a  tenth,  in  value,  of 
their  exports.  The  balance  would  never  enter  their  harbors  in  any 
contingency.  It  would  go  by  the  shortest  route  to  the  parties  to 
whom  it  belonged.    The  construction  and  maintenance  of  a  foreign 


FEATURES  OF  IN^FERNAL  COMMERCE  289 

commercial  system,  under  wiiicli  the  return  freij^ht  would  not  equal 
a  tithe  of  the  outgoing,  would  be  a  pretty  expensive  luxuiy.  A  ship 
or  two  a  year  would  be  ample  for  such  a  trade.  The  expense  of 
importing  under  it  would  exceed  five  times  that  through  New 
York,  where  the  amount  of  consumption,  and  the  abundance  and 
perfection  of  the  means  employed  reduces  the  cost  to  the  low- 
est point. 

Numerous  illustrations  of  this  principle  will  occur  to  every  mer- 
chant. Suppose  a  ship  laden  with  silks  and  the  more  expensive 
textile  fabrics,  were  to  go  to  Charleston  for  a  market.  Her  cargo 
would  be  sufficient  to  supply  the  State  for  years.  In  six  months 
changes  of  style  and  fashion  would  render  what  might  be  unsold 
unmerchantable.  How  long  would  such  a  direct  trade  continue  ? 
It  would  never  commence.  Northern  cities  monopolize  the  impor- 
tation of  high  priced  goods,  because  their  consumers  are  numerous 
enough  to  take  whole  cargoes  w'hile  they  are  bright  and  fresh. 
Their  customers  exceed  a  hundred-fold  the  number  that  would 
ever  find  their  way  to  any  Southern  city.  Their  merchants  would 
always  undersell  the  Southern  importer  on  his  own  ground  — 
would  clean  him  out  of  the  market  in  a  month's  time. 

The  proceeds  of  the  Southern  crops  comes  North  simply  /o  pay 
Southern  debts.  Take  an  illustration  of  this  on  a  grand  scale. 
Every  year  the  value  of  merchandize  going  West  over  the  Erie 
Canal,  New  York  Central  and  Erie  Railroads,  exceeds  that  coming 
East  over  the  same  routes,  by  ^100,000,000.  This  is  a  puzzle  to 
many  persons  who  do  not  reflect  upon  the  course  of  trade  in  this 
country.  They  look  upon  the  enormous  excess  of  Western-bound 
freight  as  a  proof  of  the  extravagance  or  unsoundness  of  the  West. 
It  is  simply  the  process  by  which  that  section  gets  pay  for  the  prod- 
ucts which  it  sells  to  the  South.  These  debts  cotton  pays.  The 
Northern  shipper  takes  it  to  Europe,  brings  back  the  proceeds, 
which  are  distributed  by  Northern  merchants  and  factors  to  the 
creditors  of  the  South,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land.  It  is  not  convenient  for  the  West  to  receive  its  pay  through 
Norfolk,  or  Charleston,  or  Savannah,  or  New  Orleans,  but  through 
Northern  Cities,  and  over  interior  routes  of  communication. 


290  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

C.   Southern  Dependence  for  Agricultural  Supplies 

1  Tobacco  and  indigo  could  be  as  extensively  cultivated  as  cotton, 
but  neither  of  the  former  offers  as  alluring  prospects  to  the  planter 
as  the  latter.  Tobacco  and  indigo  have  each  been  staples  of  Carolina, 
but  have  long  been  abandoned,  and  their  places  supplied  by  rice 
and  cotton.    In  all  parts  of  the  state  cotton  is  the  general  staple,  .  .  . 

For  domestic  use,  maize,  wheat,  rye,  barley,  tobacco,  potatoes, 
(the  sweet  and  Irish,)  indigo,  hemp,  flax,  madder,  and  a  variety  of 
smaller  articles  are  raised.  Indian  corn,  wheat,  barley,  tobacco, 
hemp,  flax,  and  indigo,  were  formerly  exported  from  this  state, 
but  they  have  all  given  place  to  cotton  and  rice.  The  upper  parts 
of  this  state  yield  the  finest  of  wheat,  large  heavy  grains,  produc- 
ing the  whitest  and  sweetest  flour.  Indian  corn  flourishes  in  great 
luxuriance  ;  the  lowlands  on  the  rivers  yielding  in  good  seasons 
from  50  to  75  bushels  to  the  acre.  This  fact  tends  to  show  the 
superior  value  of  the  cotton  plant  when  it  supersedes  an  article 
which  can  be  raised  to  such  advantage  as  corn.  The  planter  only 
cultivates  enough  of  this  grain  to  answer  his  domestic  purposes  ; 
in  some  years  he  has  actually  to  purchase  it  in  Charleston,  where 
it  is  imported  from  the  northern  states  in  large  quantities.   .   .   . 

There  is  not  a  finer  grazing  country  in  the  world  than  South 
Carolina  ;  and  were  attention  paid  to  the  raising  of  cattle,  sheep, 
goats,  hogs,  horses,  mules,  &c.,  this  state  might  supply  itself  as 
well  as  all  the  West  India  islands,  &c.  with  these  useful  animals ; 
but  every  other  object  gives  place  to  cotton.  Immense  numbers  of 
cattle,  hogs,  horses  and  mules  are  driven  from  the  western  country 
annually  into  this  state,  and  sold  to  advantage. 

2  The  principal  other  freight  of  the  train  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty  bales  of  northern  hay.  It  belonged,  as  the  conductor  told 
me  to  a  planter  who  lived  some  twenty  miles  beyond  here,  and 
who  had  bought  it  in  Wilmington  at  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  hundred 
weight,  to  feed  to  his  mules.  Including  the  steam-boat  and  rail- 
road freight,  and  all  the  labor  of  getting  it  to  his  stables,  its  entire 

1  Mills,  Statistics  of  South  Carolina  [1S26],  pp.  153-155. 

2  Olmsted,  Seaboard  Slave  States  [1S56],  pp.  378-379. 


FEATURES  OE  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  29 1 

cost  to  him  would  not  be  much  less  than  two  dollars  a  hundred. 
This  would  be  at  least  four  times  as  much  as  it  would  have  cost  to 
raise  and  make  it  in  the  interior  of  New  York  or  New  England. 
Now,  there  are  not  only  several  forage  crops  which  can  be  raised 
in  South  Carolina,  that  cannot  be  grown  on  account  of  the  severity 
of  the  winter  in  the  free-States,  but,  on  a  farm  near  Fayetteville,  a 
few  days  before,  I  had  seen  a  crop  of  natural  grass  growing  in  half- 
cultivated  land,  dead  upon  the  ground  ;  which,  I  think,  would  have 
made,  if  it  had  been  cut  and  well  treated  in  the  summer,  three  tons 
of  hay  t(j  the  acre,  llie  owner  of  the  land  said  that  there  was  no 
better  hay  than  it  would  have  made,  but  he  had  n't  had  time  to  at- 
tend to  it.  He  had  as  much  as  his  hands  could  do  of  other  work 
at  the  period  of  the  year  when  it  should  have  been  made. 

Probably  the  case  was  similar  with  the  planter  who  had  bought 
this  northern  hay  at  a  price  four  times  that  which  it  would  have 
cost  a  northern  farmer  to  make  it.  He  had  preferred  to  employ 
his  slaves  at  other  business. 

The  inference  must  be  either  that  there  was  most  improbably- 
foolish,  bad  management,  or  that  the  slaves  were  more  profitably 
employed  in  cultivating  cotton,  than  they  could  have  been  in 
cultivating  maize,  or  other  forage  crops. 

I  put  the  case,  some  days  afterwards,  to  an  English  merchant, 
who  had  had  good  opportunities,  and  made  it  a  part  of  his  busi- 
ness, to  study  such  matters. 

"  I  have  no  doubt,"  said  he,  "  that,  if  hay  cannot  be  obtained 
here,  other  valuable  forage  can,  with  less  labor  than  anywhere  at 
the  North  ;  and  all  the  Southern  agricultural  journals  sustain  this 
opinion,  and  declare  it  to  be  purely  bad  management  that  neglects 
these  crops,  and  devotes  labor  to  cotton,  so  exclusively.  Probably, 
it  is  so  —  at  the  present  cost  of  forage.  Nevertheless,  the  fact  is 
also  true,  as  the  planters  assert,  that  they  cannot  afford  to  apply 
their  labor  to  anything  else  but  cotton.  And  yet,  they  complain 
that  the  price  of  cotton  is  so  low,  that  there  is  no  profit  in  growing 
it ;  which  is  evidently  false.  You  see  that  they  prefer  buying  hay, 
to  raising  it,  at,  to  say  the  least,  three  times  what  it  costs  your 
Northern  farmers  to  raise  it.   .  .  .  " 


292  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

^  On  our  way  we  met  a  small  caravan,  as  it  might  be  termed,  of 
fine  horses,  and  beautiful  mules,  conducted  by  two  drovers,  one  of 
whom  rode  in  advance,  the  other  in  the  rear ;  and  the  cattle  were 
driven  like  sheep,  without  halter,  bridle,  or  other  fastening,  between 
the  two.  These  were  all  proceeding,  to  the  number  of  about  a 
hundred,  from  Kentucky  and  Ohio  to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
for  sale  ;  and  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  extent  of  this  traffic, 
when  it  is  mentioned  that  not  less  than  10,000  horses  and  mules, 
from  these  middle  and  Western  States  come  down  every  year  for 
sale  to  the  purchasers  in  the  Atlantic  States,  and  the  cities  of  the 
coast,  as  many  as  500  at  a  time  frequently  passing  through  Green- 
ville [South  Carolina]  in  a  single  day.  The  horses  were  quite  as 
fine  as  ordinary  horses  seen  at  fairs  and  markets  in  England  ;  but 
the  mules  were  by  far  the  most  beautiful  I  had  ever  seen,  surpass- 
ing even  the  finest  of  those  in  Spain  and  Portugal. 

^  Strange  to  say,  it  is  more  difficult  to  raise  the  requisite  quantity 
of  provisions  for  a  Southern  plantation,  than  to  manufacture  wag- 
gons, ploughs,  harness,  and  articles  of  clothing.  The  bacon  is  al- 
most entirely  imported  from  the  Northern  States,  as  well  as  a 
considerable  quantity  of  Indian  corn.  This  is  reckoned  bad  man- 
agement by  intelligent  planters  ;  and  in  one  case  I  found  it  form- 
ing the  subject  of  lamentation  by  a  slave-dealer,  who  maintained 
that  planters  could  not  possibly  thrive  while  they  bought  their 
bacon  and  corn  at  such  high  prices,  and  sold  their  cotton  so  low. 
When  provisions  are  cheap,  a  great  impulse  is  given  to  the  exten- 
sion of  the  culture  of  cotton,  more  especially  on  the  inferior  class 
of  soils,  which  are  not  equally  well  adapted  for  Indian  corn.  It  is 
said  that  planters  who  cultivate  little  else  than  cotton,  which  has 
hitherto  fluctuated  much  in  value,  and  who  make  it  a  practice  to 
buy  the  greater  part  of  their  provisions,  seldom  do  well. 

On  this  plantation  [in  Louisiana]  as  much  Indian  corn  was  raised 
as  was  needed  ;  but  little  bacon,  which  is  imported  from  Ohio. 
The  average  sum  annually  expended  on  this  article  was  upwards  of 
^800,    Large  plantations  are  not  Suited  to  the  rearing  of  hogs  ; 

^  Buckingham,  Slave  States  of  America  [1841],  II,  203-204. 

2  Russell,  North  America:  Its  Agriculture  and  Climate  [1S56],  pp.  265-266,  29. 


FEATURES  Ol"   IN'J'1-:RNAL  COMMERCE 


29; 


for  it  is  found  to  be  almost  impossible  to  prevent  the  negroes 
stealing  and  roasting  young  pigs.  This  is  one  of  the  disad- 
vantages in  raising  eertain  kinds  of  produce  incidental  to  a 
system  of  slavery.  The  number  of  cattle  which  can  be  raised 
on  the  large  cotton  plantations,  do  little  more  than  replace  the 
draught  oxen  that  are  required.  The  sheep  only  supply  the  wool 
needed  for  clothing;  and  the  mules  used  for  ploughing  are 
bred  in  the  Northern  States.  The  bad  qualities  of  the  soil  and 
climate  for  producing  the  finer  grasses,  and  the  great  expense  of 
cattle  food  cultix-ated  by  slave  labour,  render  the  raising  of  stock 
for  exportation,  under  present  circumstances,  in  a  great  measure 
undesirable. 

Rearing  mules  for  the  southern  markets  is  carried  on  to  a  great 
extent  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  gentleman  who  occupied 
the  farm  above  described  usuall}'  grazed  forty  of  these  animals 
during  the  summer.  In  winter  it  costs  i6s.  8d,  (four  dollars)  a 
month  for  keeping  a  mule,  which  is  allowed  as  much  Indian  corn 
or  oats  as  it  can  consume.  An  ox  on  grass  is  kept  for  one  dollar 
a  month.  Though  often  the  cold  is  so  intense  that  the  Ohio  is 
frozen  over  in  winter,  the  cattle  are  not  stabled  ;  the  wood  pastures 
affording  good  shelter  from  the  high  winds.  They  are  fed  upon 
hay  and  Indian  corn  :  the  latter  being  given  to  them  as  it  is  cut 
from  the  fields.  One  would  be  very  apt  to  suppose  that  great  loss 
would  arise  from  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  cattle  would 
masticate  the  unground  grain  of  Indian  corn  ;  but  a  lot  of  pigs 
are  usually  wintered  with  the  cattle,  and  act  in  the  character -of  a 
save-all.  Some  of  the  pasture-fields,  too,  are  often  allowed  to  grow 
after  the  middle  of  July,  and  thus  afford  good  winter  grazing.  .  .  . 

Clover  and  Timothy  succeed  well  in  Kentucky,  and  the  latter  is 
in  great  repute  for  hay.  When  the  land  is  allowed  to  remain  in 
pasture,  the  blue-stem  grass  occupies  the  ground  and  puts  all  the 
others  out.  Large  quantities  of  hay  are  made  in  the  western  parts 
of  the  State,  pressed  into  bales,  and  sent  down  the  Mississippi  to 
New  Orleans  ;  for  this  is  a  scarce  and  high-priced  article  in  all  the 
States  south  of  Tennessee. 


294  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

^  The  business  of  the  merchants  here  is  very  extensive.  They 
buy  up  the  produce  of  the  land,  consisting  of  wheat,  maize,  and 
other  grain,  of  cattle,  salted  pork,  butter,  cheese,  and  other 
articles,  which  they  carry  to  New-Orleans,  and  there  they  purchase 
sugar,  coffee,  tea,  foreign  wine,  woollen  cloths,  and  all  those  articles 
which  the  Illinois  planters  require  for  their  own  use.  The  mer- 
chant, of  whose  store  Mr,  Stephens  was  taking  charge,  had  some 
time  ago  sent  down  to  New-Orleans  200,000  weight  of  salted  pork. 

One  of  our  stopping-places  for  wood,  not  far  above  the  confluence 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio,  was  at  Mr.  Brox's  farm,  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river.  He  has  700  acres  of  fine  land,  about  100  head 
of  cattle,  and  an  innumerable  quantity  of  pigs.  He  says  he  has  no 
difficulty  in  selling  all  the  produce  of  his  farm  ;  he  disposes  of  his 
stock  to  the  New-Orleans'  butchers,  who  go  all  over  this  country 
to  make  their  purchases ;  —  and  there  are  merchants  who  have 
great  depots  of  grain,  salted  pork,  and  other  agricultural  produce, 
which  they  scour  the  country  to  collect,  and  afterward  carry  to 
New-Orleans.  The  prices  are  variable  —  and  Mr.  Brox  thinks,  as 
every  farmer  or  planter  does,  are  too  low ;  but  there  is  no  want  of 
a  ready  market  in  any  part  of  the  western  states  hitherto  settled. 
Navigable  rivers,  generally  fit  for  steamboats,  are  within  reach, 

2  The  institution  of  slavery,  at  this  moment,  gives  indications  of 
a  vitality  that  was  never  anticipated  by  its  friends  or  foes.  Its 
enemies  often  supposed  it  about  ready  to  expire,  from  the  wounds 
they,  had  inflicted,  when  in  truth  it  had  taken  two  steps  in  advance, 
while  they  had  taken  twice  the  number  in  an  opposite  direction. 
In  each  successive  conflict,  its  assailants  have  been  weakened, 
while  its  dominion  has  been  extended. 

This  has  arisen  from  causes  too  generally  overlooked.  Slavery 
is  not  an  isolated  system,  but  is  so  mingled  with  the  business  of 
the  world,  that  it  derives  facilities  from  the  most  innocent  transac- 
tions. Capital  and  labor,  in  Europe  and  America,  are  largely 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton.    These  goods,  to  a  great 

1  Stuart,  Three  Years  in  North  America  [1828],  II,  239,  191. 

2 Christy,  Cotton  is  King  [1S56],  pp.  62-64,  'SZ-'o^-  142-146,  159,  163. 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  295 

extent,  may  be  seen  freighting  every  vessel,  from  Christian  nations, 
that  traverses  the  seas  of  the  globe  ;  and  filling  the  warehouses 
and  shelves  of  the  merehants  over  two-thirds  of  the  wcjrld.  By 
the  industry,  skill,  and  enterprise  employed  in  the  manulaeture 
of  cotton,  mankind  are  better  clothed  ;  their  comfort  better  pro- 
moted ;  general  industry  more  highly  stimulated  ;  commerce  more 
widely  extended  ;  and  civilization  more  rapidly  advanced  than  in 
any  preceding  age. 

To  the  superficial  observer,  all  the  agencies,  based  upon  the 
sale  and  manufacture  of  cotton,  seem  to  be  legitimately  engaged 
in  promoting  human  happiness ;  and  he,  doubtless,  feels  like 
invoking  Heaven's  choicest  blessings  upon  them.  When  he  sees 
the  stockholders  in  the  cotton  corporations  receiving  their  divi- 
dends, the  operatives  their  wages,  the  merchants  their  profits,  and 
civilized  people  everywhere  clothed  comfortably  in  cottons,  he  can 
not  refrain  from  exclaiming:  "The  lines  have  fallen  unto  them 
in  pleasant  places  ;  yea,  they  have  a  goodly  heritage  !  " 

But  turn  a  moment  to  the  source,  whence  the  raw  cotton,  the 
basis  of  these  operations,  is  obtained,  and  observe  the  aspect  of 
things  in  that  direction.  When  the  statistics  on  the  subject  are 
examined,  it  appears  that  nearly  all  the  cotton  consumed  in  the 
Christian  world  is  the  product  of  the  slave  labor  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  this  monopoly  that  has  given  slavery  its  commercial 
value  ;  and,  while  this  monopoly  is  retained,  the  institution  will 
continue  to  extend  itself  wherever  it  can  find  room  to  spread.  .  .  . 

The  cotton  planting  States,  toward  the  close  of  the  contest, 
found  themselves  rapidly  accumulating  strength,  and  approximat- 
ing the  accomplishment  of  the  grand  object  at  which  they  aimed 
• — the  monopoly  of  the  cotton  markets  of  the  world.  This  success 
was  due,  not  so  much  to  any  triumph  over  the  North  —  to  any 
prostration  of  our  manufacturing  interests  —  as  to  the  general 
policy  of  other  nations.  All  rivahy  to  the  American  planters 
from  those  of  the  West  Indies,  was  removed  by  emancipation  ; 
as,  under  freedom,  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was  nearly  abandoned. 
Mehemet  Ali  had  become  imbecile,  and  the  indolent  Egyptians 
neglected  its  culture.  The  South  Americans,  after  achieving  their 
independence,  were  more  readily  enlisted  in  military  forays,  than 


296  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

in  the  art  of  agriculture,  and  they  produced  httle  cotton  for  export. 
The  emancipation  of  their  slaves,  instead  of  increasing  the  agricul- 
tural products  of  the  Republics,  only  supplied,  in  ample  abundance, 
the  elements  of  promoting  political  revolutions,  and  keeping  their 
soil  drenched  with  human  blood.  Such  are  the  uses  to  which 
degraded  men  may  be  applied  by  the  ambitious  demagogue. 
Brazil  and  India  both  supplied  to  Europe  considerably  less  in 
1838  than  they  had  done  in  1820;  and  the  latter  country  made 
no  material  increase  afterward,  except  when  her  chief  customer, 
China,  was  at  war,  or  prices  were  above  the  average  rates  in 
Europe.  While  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was  thus  stationary  or 
retrograding,  everywhere  outside  of  the  United  States,  England 
and  the  Continent  were  rapidly  increasing  their  consumption  of 
the  article,  which  they  nearly  doubled  from  1835  to  1845  ;  so  that 
the  demand  for  the  raw  material  called  loudly  for  its  increased 
production.  Our  planters  gathered  a  rich  harvest  of  profits  by 
these  events.  .   .  . 

The  West,  which  had  long  looked  to  the  East  for  a  market,  had 
its  attention  now  turned  to  the  South,  as  the  most  certain  and  con- 
venient mart  for  the  sale  of  its  products  —  the  planters  affording 
to  the  farmers  the  markets  they  had  in  vain  sought  from  the 
manufacturers.  In  the  meantime,  steamboat  navigation  was  acquir- 
ing perfection  on  the  Western  rivers  —  the  great  natural  outlets 
for  Western  products  —  and  became  a  means  of  communication 
between  the  Northwest  and  the  Southwest,  as  well  as  with  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  the  Atlantic  cities.  This  gave  an  impulse 
to  industry  and  enterprise,  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  unparalleled 
in  the  history  of  the  country.  While,  then,  the  bounds  of  slave 
labor  were  extending  from  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia, 
Westward,  over  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas, 
the  area  of  free  labor  was  enlarging,  with  equal  rapidity,  in  the 
Northwest,  throughout  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Michigan, 
Thus,  within  these  provision  and  cotton  regions,  were  the  forests 
cleared  away,  or  the  prairies  broken  up,  simultaneously  by  those 
old  antagonistic  forces,  opponents  no  longer,  but  harmonized  by 
the  fusion  of  their  interests  —  the  connecting  link  between  them 
being  the  steamboat.    Thus,  also,  was  a  tripartite  alliance  formed, 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  297 

by  which  the  Western  l^'armer,  the  Soutliern  I'lanter,  and  the 
Enghsh  Manufacturer,  became  united  in  a  common  ix)nd  of  inter- 
est :  the  whole  giving  their  support  to  the  doctrine  of  FVee  Trade. 

This  active  commerce  between  the  West  and  South,  however, 
soon  caused  a  rivalry  in  the  East,  that  pushed  forward  improve- 
ments, by  States  or  Corporations,  to  gain  a  share  in  the  Western 
trade.  These  improvements,  as  completed,  gave  to  the  West  a 
choice  of  markets,  so  that  its  Farmers  could  elect  whether  to  feed 
the  slave  who  grows  the  cotton,  or  the  operatives  who  are  engaged 
in  its  manufacture.  But  this  rivalry  did  more.  The  competition 
for  Western  Products  enhanced  their  price,  and  stimulated  their 
more  extended  cultivation.  This  required  an  enlargement  of  the 
markets  ;  and  the  extension  of  slavery  became  essential  to  Western 
prosperity.  .  .  . 

We  have  not  reached  the  end  of  the  alliance  between  the 
Western  Farmer  and  Southern  Planter.  The  emigration  which 
has  been  filling  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  and  is  now  rolling  like  a 
flood  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  is  but  a  repetition  of  what  has 
occurred  in  the  other  Western  States  and  Territories.  Agricultural 
pursuits  are  highly  remunerative,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  men  of 
moderate  means,  or  of  no  means,  are  cheered  along  to  where  none 
forbids  them  land  to  till.  For  the  last  few  years,  public  improve- 
ments have  called  for  vastly  more  than  the  usual  share  of  labor, 
and  augmented  the  consumption  of  provisions.  The  foreign 
demand  added  to  this,  has  increased  their  price  beyond  what  the 
planter  can  afford  to  pay.  For  many  years  free  labor  and  slave 
labor  maintained  an  even  race  in  their  Western  progress.  Of  late 
the  freemen  have  begun  to  lag  behind,  while  slavery  has  advanced 
by  several  degrees  of  longitude.  F'ree  labor  must  be  made  to  keep 
pace  with  it.  There  is  an  urgent  necessity  for  this.  The  demand 
for  cotton  is  increasing  in  a  ratio  greater  than  can  be  supplied  by 
the  American  planters,  unless  by  a  corresponding  inc-reased  pro- 
duction. This  increasing  demand  must  be  met,  or  its  cultivation 
will  be  facilitated  elsewhere,  and  the  monopoly  of  the  planter  in 
the  European  markets  be  interrupted.  This  can  onl)'  be  effected  by 
concentrating  the  greatest  possible  number  of  slaves  upon  the  cotton 
plantations.    Hence  they  must  be  supplied  with  provisions.  .  .  . 


298  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

Commerce  supplied  us,  in  1853,  with  foreign  articles,  for  con- 
sumption, to  the  value  of  $250,420,187,  and  accepted,  in  exchange, 
of  our  provisions,  to  the  value  of  but  $33,809, 1 26  ;  while  the  prod- 
ucts of  our  slave  labor,  manufactured  and  unmanufactured,  paid  to 
the  amount  of  $133,648,603,  on  the  balance  of  this  foreign  debt. 
This,  then,  is  the  measure  of  the  ability  of  the  Farmers  and 
Planters,  respectively,  to  meet  the  payment  of  the  necessaries  and 
comforts  of  life,  supplied  to  the  country  by  its  foreign  commerce. 
The  farmer  pays,  or  seems  only  to  pay,  $33,800,000,  while  the 
planter  has  a  broad  credit,  on  the  account,  of  $133,600,000.  .  .  . 

But  is  this  seeming  productiveness  of  slavery  real,  or  is  it  only 
imaginary .-'  Has  the  system  such  capacities,  over  the  other  indus- 
trial interests  of  the  nation,  in  the  creation  of  wealth,  as  these 
figures  indicate .-'  Or,  are  these  results  due  to  its  intermediate 
position  between  the  agriculture  of  the  country  and  its  foreign 
commerce }  These  are  questions  worthy  of  consideration.  Were 
the  planters  left  to  grow  their  own  provisions,  they  would,  as  already 
intimated,  be  unable  to  produce  any  cotton  for  export.  That  their 
present  ability  to  export  so  extensively,  is  in  consequence  of  the 
aid  they  receive  from  the  North,  is  proved  by  facts  such  as  these  : 

In  1820,  the  cotton-gin  had  been-  a  quarter  of  a  century  in 
operation,  and  the  culture  of  cotton  was  then  nearly  as  well  under- 
stood as  at  present.  The  North,  though  furnishing  the  South 
with  some  live  stock,  had  scarcely  begun  to  supply  it  with  provi- 
sions, and  the  planters  had  to  grow  the  food,  and  manufacture 
much  of  the  clothing  for  their  slaves.  In  that  year  the  cotton 
crop  equaled  109  lbs.  to  each  slave  in  the  Union,  of  which  83  lbs. 
per  slave  were  exported.  In  1830  the  exports  of  the  article  had 
risen  to  143  lbs.,  in  1840  to  295  lbs.,  and  in  1853  to  t,2>7  lbs.  per 
slave.  The  total  cotton  crop  of  1853  equaled  485  lbs.  per  slave 
—  making  both  the  production  and  export  of  that  staple,  in  1853, 
more  than  four  times  as  large,  in  proportion  to  the  slave  popula- 
tion, as  they  were  in  1820.^    Had  the  planters,  in  1853,  been  able 

1  The  progressive  increase  is  indicated  by  the  following  figures : 

1S20  1S30  1840  1853 

Total  slaves  in  United  States  ....         1,538,098  2,009,043  2,487,356  3,296,408 

Cotton  exported  (lbs.) 127,800,000  298,459,102        743,941,061         1,111,570,370 

Average  e-xport  to  each  slave  (lbs.)   .     .  83  143  295  337 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  299 

to  produce  no  more  cotton,  per  slave,  than  in  1820,  they  would 
have  grown  but  359,308,472  lbs.,  instead  of  the  actual  crop  of 
1,600,000,000  lbs. ;  and  would  not  only  have  failed  to  supply  any 
for  export,  but  have  fallen  short  of  the  home  demand,  by  nearly 
130,000,000  lbs.,  and  been  uninis  the  total  crop  of  that  year,  by 
1,240,690,000  lbs. 

In  this  estimate,  some  allowance,  perhaps,  should  be  made,  for 
the  greater  fertility  of  the  new  lands,  more  recently  bnjught  under 
cultivation  ;  but  the  difference,  on  this  account,  can  not  be  equal 
t(j  the  difference  in  the  crops  of  the  several  periods,  as  the  lands, 
in  the  older  States,  in  1820,  were  yet  comparatively  fresh  and 
productive. 

Again,  the  dependence  of  the  South  upon  the  North,  for  its 
provisions,  may  be  inferred  from  such  additional  facts  as  these  : 
The  "Abstract  of  the  Census,"  for  1850,  shows,  that  the  pro- 
duction of  wheat,  in  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  and  Texas,  averaged,  the  year  preceding,  very  little 
more  than  a  peck,  (it  was  ^^-^  of  a  bushel,)  to  each  person  within 
their  limits.  These  States  must  purchase  flour  largely,  but  to  what 
amount  we  can  not  determine.  The  shipments  of  provisions  from 
Cincinnati  to  New  Orleans  and  other  down  river  ports,  show  that 
large  supplies  leave  that  city  for  the  South  ;  but  what  proportion 
of  them  is  taken  for  consumption  by  the  planters,  must  be  left,  at 
present,  to  conjecture.  These  shipments,  as  to  a  few  of  the  promi- 
nent articles,  for  the  four  years  ending  August  31,  1854,  averaged 
annually  the  following  amounts  : 

Wheat  flour 385,204  bbls. 

Pork  and  bacon 43,689,000  lbs. 

Whisky 8,1 15,360  gals. 

Cincinnati  also  exports  eastward,  by  canal,  river  and  railroad, 
large  amounts  of  these  productions.  The  towns  and  cities  west- 
ward send  more  of  their  products  to  the  South,  as  their  distance 
increases  the  cost  of  transportation  to  the  East.  But,  in  the 
absence  of  full  statistics,  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  additional 
statements.  .  .  . 

From  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  appears  that  slavery  is  not  a 
self-sustaining  system,   independently   remunerative ;   but  that  it 


?oo 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


attains  its  importance  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world,  by  standing 
as  an  agency,  intermediate,  between  the  grain-growing  States  and 
our  foreign  commerce.  As  the  distillers  of  the  West  transformed 
the  surplus  grain  into  whisky,  that  it  might  bear  transport,  so 
slavery  takes  the  products  of  the  North,  and  metamorphoses  them 
into  cotton,  that  they  may  bear  export. 


1 


■^  Destination  of  Specified  Articles  exported  from  the 
Port  of  Cincinnati,  1850-51 


Commodities 

To  New 
Orleans 

To  Other 

Down 

River  Ports 

To  Up  River 
Ports 

By  Canals 

and 
Railways 

By 
Flatboats 

Beef,  barrels     .... 

19.319 

68 

314 

236 

1,611 

Beef,  tierces 

8,677 

8 

657 

14 

96 

Butter,  barrels  . 

1,850 

867 

2 

539 

Butter,  firkins  and 

kegs 

35,200 

959 

15 

8 

315 

Corn,  sacks  .     . 

15,672 

3,519 

156 

790 

Cheese      .    .    . 

69,258 

48,432 

2,165 

1,900 

920 

Candles,  boxes 

76,245 

20,272 

10,695 

6,195 

522 

Cotton,  bales    . 

10 

3,182 

1,940 

Coffee,  sacks     . 

10 

12,439 

7,853 

17,856 

Flour,  barrels    . 

281,609 

95,943 

7,719 

4,859 

95,877 

Iron,  pieces  .    . 

6,608 

54,894 

6,634 

40,119 

Iron,  bundles    . 

1.503 

25,281 

2,182 

15-144 

Iron,  tons      .     . 

64 

1,341 

219 

8,152 

117 

Lard,  barrels 

22,854 

117 

3,277 

4, '43 

1,821 

Lard,  kegs    .    . 

56,380 

5,358 

5-739 

2,823 

1,587 

Lard  oil,  barrels 

13,617 

1,547 

3,726 

7,220 

Linseed  oil    .     . 

4,443 

1,362 

1,042 

974 

Molasses  .    .     . 

33 

2,665 

12,711 

9,589 

Pork,  hogsheads 

19,044 

1,313 

8,809 

1,054 

1,312 

Pork,  tierces 

11,341 

18 

8,759 

644 

42 

Pork,  barrels     . 

112,622 

1,055 

3,801 

4,608 

3,781 

Pork,  pounds     . 

1,345,860 

755,860 

1,559,280 

1,092,953 

525,820 

Soap,  boxes  .     . 

9,425 

6,440 

3,600 

2,068 

375 

Sugar,  hogsheads 

1,426 

4,378 

7,196 

Whiskey,  barrels  .     . 

140,661 

56,164 

31,231 

3,268 

17,980 

1  This  commerce  between  different  agricultural  communities  in  America  has 
played  a  more  important  role  in  our  economic  history  than  seems  to  have  been 
appreciated.  It  began  in  colonial  times  and  shows  itself  in  the  trade  between  the 
Northern  Colonies  and  the  West  Indies  which  was  reckoned  by  the  colonists 
themselves  to  be  of  vital  importance  to  their  prosperity.  It  appears  again  in  the 
first  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  when  a  trade  grew  up  on  our  western  rivers 
between  the  lower  South  and  the  new  states  of  the  West  of  exactly  the  same 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 
^  Hogs  killed  in  the  West 


^Ol 


1850-51 


1849-50 


Ohio,  exclusive  of  Cincinnati 

Indiana ;    .     . 

Kentucky 

Cumberland  Valley  .... 
Cincinnati 

Total 


64,027 

152,900 

329-549 

380,174 

205,414 

201,000 

30,000 

40,000 

310,000 

401,735 

938,990 


1,175,809 


"^  Comparison  of  the  Number  of  Hogs  driven  South  from 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee 


1S49-50 

1850-51 

Through  Cumberland  Gap 

Through  Asheville,  N.C.,  embracing  Tennessee  hogs 

43,000 
81,000 

2 1 ,000 
40,000 

Total 

1 24,000 

61,000 

2  Receipts  at  New  Orleans  by  river,  in  1848,  1849,    Receipts  at  the  Hudson  River  by  canals,  in  1848, 
and  1850,  to  September  31,  —  3  years  1849,  and  1850,  to  close  of  navigation,  —  3  years 

Flour 2,312,121  bbls 8,636,207 

Pork 1,536,817  bbls 211,018 

Beef 200,901  bbls 264,072 

Wheat 852,497  bush 8,798,759 

Corn 9,758,750  bush 11,178,228 

Other  grains 5,350,151  bush 11,210,239 

Bacon 135,622,515  lbs 26,364,156 

Butter 6,215,970  lbs 61,695,064 

Cheese 8,955,880  lbs 97,596,632 

Lard 292,110,060  lbs 27,137,175 

character  as  that  which  went  up  and  down  the  Atlantic  coast  between  the  West 
Indies  and  the  Northern  Colonies  during  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  in  both 
cases  a  trade  between  a  community  of  planters  using  slave  labor  to  produce  a  few 
valuable  staples  which  found  a  ready  sale  in  the  markets  of  the  world  on  one 
hand,  and  a  community  of  small  farmers  (who  in  many  cases  were  partly  fisher- 
men) producing  food  and  crude  supplies  on  the  other.  The  basis  of  the  trade  in 
both  cases  was  the  fact  that  the  planter  found  it  more  profitable  to  devote  his 
slave  labor  to  the  production  of  valuable  staples  to  be  sold  in  the  markets  of  the 
world  than  to  use  it  in  producing  the  food  and  other  agricultural  supplies  which 
he  needed.  .So  long  as  there  were  other  agricultural  communities  ready  and 
willing  to  furnish  these  supplies  it  was  cheaper  to  procure  them  by  trade  than  by 
direct  production. 

2  De  Bow,  Resources  of  Southern  and  Western  States,  I,  253-254,  375;  II,  145. 


302  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

D.   Thk  Manufactures  of  the  East 

1  The  inhabitants  of  this  village  [Berlin]  make  great  quantities  of 
tin  warr  ;  or  utensils,  formed  of  tinned  plates.  As  this  species  of 
manufacture,  on  the  Western  side  of  the  Atlantic,  probably  com- 
menced here  ;  I  will  give  you  an  account  of  the  manner,  in  which 
it  was  introduced. 

About  the  year  1 740,  William  Pattison,  a  native  of  Ireland,  came 
to  this  country,  and  settled  in  this  town.  His  trade  was  that  of  a 
tinner :  and  soon  after  his  arrival,  he  commenced  manufacturing 
tin  ware,  and  continued  in  that  business  until  the  Revolutionary 
war.  He  was  then  under  the  necessity  of  suspending  it,  as  the 
raw  material  could  not  be  obtained.  After  the  war,  this  manu- 
facture was  carried  on  at  Berlin,  by  those  young  men  who 
had  learned  the  art  from  Mr,  Pattison  ;  and  these  persons  have 
since  extended  the  business  over  a  number  of  the  neighbouring 
towns. 

For  many  years,  after  tinned  plates  were  manufactured  in  this 
place  into  culinary  vessels,  the  only  method  used  by  the  pedlars 
for  conveying  them  to  distant  towns,  for  sale,  was  by  means  of  a 
horse  and  two  baskets,  balanced  on  his  back.  After  the  war,  carts 
and  waggons  were  used  for  this  purpose,  and  have,  from  that 
time  to  the  present,  been  the  only  means  of  conveyance  which 
have  been  adopted. 

The  manner,  in  which  this  ware  is  disposed  of,  puts  to  flight  all 
calculation,  A  young  man  is  furnished  by  the  proprietor  with  a 
horse,  and  a  cart  covered  with  a  box,  containing  as  many  tin  ves- 
sels, as  the  horse  can  conveniently  draw.  This  vehicle  within  a  few 
years  has,  indeed,  been  frequently  exchanged  for  a  waggon  ;  and 
then  the  load  is  doubled.  Thus  prepared,  he  sets  out  on  an  ex- 
pedition for  the  winter,  A  multitude  of  these  young  men  direct 
themselves  to  the  Southern  States  ;  and  in  their  excursions  travel 
wherever  they  can  find  settlements.  Each  of  them  walks,  and  rides, 
alternately,  through  this  vast  distance,  till  he  reaches  Richmond, 
Newbern,  Charleston,  or  Savannah  ;  and  usually  carries  with  him 
to  the  place  of  his  destination  no  small  part  of  the  gain,  which  he 

1  Dwight,   Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1797],  II,  53-55- 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  303 

has  acquired  upon  the  road.  Here  he  finds  one  or  more  workmen, 
who  have  been  sent  forward  to  co-operate  with  him,  furnished  with 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  tinned  plates  to  supply  him  with  all  the 
ware,  which  he  can  sell  during  the  season.  W'ith  this  he  wanders 
into  the  interior  countiy  ;  calls  at  every  door  on  his  way  ;  and 
with  an  address,  and  pertinacity,  not  easily  resisted,  compels  no 
small  number  of  the  inhabitants  to  buy.  At  the  commencement  of 
the  summer  they  return  to  New-York  ;  and  thence  to  New-Haven, 
by  water  ;  after  selling  their  vehicles,  and  their  horses.  The  origi- 
nal load  of  a  single  horse,  as  I  am  told,  is  rarely  worth  more  than 
three  hundred  dollars  ;  or  of  a  waggon,  more  than  six  hundred. 
Yet  this  business  is  said  to  yield  both  the  owner  and  his  agent 
valuable  returns  ;  and  the  profit  to  be  greater  than  that,  which  is 
made  by  the  sale  of  any  other  merchandize  of  equal  value.  Even 
those,  who  carry  out  a  single  load,  and  dispose  of  it  in  the  neigh- 
bouring country  find  their  employment  profitable.  In  this  manner 
considerable  wealth  has  been  accumulated  in  Worthington,  and  in 
several  towns  in  its  vicinity. 

Every  inhabited  part  of  the  United  States  is  visited  by  these 
men.  I  have  seen  them  on  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod^  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Lake  Erie  ;  distant  from  each  other  more  than 
six  hundred  miles.  They  make  their  way  to  Detroit,  four  hundred 
miles  farther  ;  to  Canada  ;  to  Kentucky  ;  and,  if  I  mistake  not,  to 
New-Orleans  and  St.  Louis. 

All  the  evils,  which  are  attendant  upon  the  bartering  of  small 
wares,  are  incident  to  this,  and  eveiy  other  mode  of  traffic  of  the 
same  general  nature.  Many  of  the  young  men,  employed  in  this 
business,  part,  at  an  early  period  with  both  modesty,  and  principle. 
Their  sobriety  is  exchanged  for  cunning  ;  their  honesty  for  impo- 
sition ;  and  their  decent  behaviour  for  coarse  impudence.  Mere 
wanderers,  accustomed  to  no  order,  control,  or  worship  ;  and  directed 
solely  to  the  acquisition  of  petty  gains  ;  they  soon  fasten  upon  this 
object ;  and  forget  every  other,  of  a  superiour  nature.  The  only 
source  of  their  pleasure,  or  their  reputation,  is  gain  ;  and  that,  how- 
ever small,  or  however  acquired,  secures  both.  No  course  of  life 
tends  more  rapidly,  or  more  effectually  to  eradicate  eveiy  moral 
feeling. 


304  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

Berlin  has,  I  suspect,  suffered  not  a  little  from  this  source. 
Were  their  manufactures  sold,  like  other  merchandize  ;  the  profits 
would  undoubtedly  be  lessened  :  but  the  corruption  of  a  considera- 
ble number  of  human  beings  would  be  prevented.  .   .  . 

The  business  of  selling  tin  ware,  has  within  a  few  years  under- 
gone a  considerable  change.  Formerly  the  pedlar's  load  was  com- 
posed exclusively  of  this  manufacture  :  now  he  has  an  assortment 
of  merchandize  to  offer  to  his  customers.  He  carries  pins,  needles, 
scissars,  combs,  coat  and  vest  buttons,  with  many  other  trifling 
articles  of  hardware  ;  and  children's  books,  and  cotton  stuffs  made 
in  New-England.  A  number  set  out  with  large  waggons  loaded 
with  dry  goods,  hats  and  shoes  ;  together  with  tin  ware,  and  the 
smaller  articles  already  mentioned.  These  loads  will  frequently 
cost  the  proprietor  from  one  to  two  thousand  dollars  ;  and  are 
intended  exclusively  for  the  Southern  and  Western  States. 

It  is  frequently  the  fact,  that  from  twenty  to  thirty  persons  are 
employed  by  a  single  house,  in  the  manufacturing  and  selling  of 
tin  ware  and  other  articles.  The  workmen,  furnished  with  a  suffi- 
cient quantity  of  the  raw  materials  to  employ  them  for  six  months, 
are  sent  on  by  water,  in  the  autumn,  to  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  or  Georgia.  They  station  themselves  at  some  town  in 
the  interiour,  where  the  employer,  or  his  agent,  has  a  store,  well 
furnished  with  such  articles  as  the  pedlars  require.  As  the  stock 
of  each  pedlar  is  exhausted,  he  repairs  to  the  store  for  a  supply. 
In  this  way,  a  large  amount  of  goods  are  vended  during  the  six  or 
eight  months  they  are  absent. 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  extent  to  which  this  business 
is  sometimes  carried,  from  the  fact,  that  immediately  after  the  late 
war  with  Great  Britain,  which  terminated  in  1815,  ten  thousand 
boxes  of  tinned  plates  were  manufactured  into  culinary  vessels  in 
the  town  of  Berlin,  in  one  year.  Since  that  time,  however,  the 
cjuantity  demanded  for  this  market,  has  greatly  diminished. ^ 

1  The  above  is  an  example  of  the  kind  of  trade  in  manufactures  which  gradu- 
ally developed  between  the  northeastern  states  and  the  rest  of  the  country  from 
the  close  of  the  Revolution  to  the  Civil  War.  A  similar  development  of  trade 
may  be  traced  in  boots  and  shoes,  clocks,  fire  arms,  nails,  buttons,  pins  and  furni- 
ture. All  these  articles  began  to  be  manufactured  in  the  northeastern  states,  espe- 
cially southern  New  England,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  and  were 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


305 


1  The  Northern  or  New  England  States  are  endowed  by  nature 
with  a  mountainous  and  sterile  soil,  which  but  poorly  rewards  the 
labor  of  the  husbandman.  However,  its  wooded  slopes,  and  tum- 
bling streams,  which  fall  into  commodious  harbors,  early  pointed 
out  to  the  restless  energy  of  the  first  settlers  the  direction  in  which 
their  industiy  was  to  be  employed.  Ship-building  and  navigation 
at  once  became  the  leading  industiy,  bringing  with  it  more  or  less 
wealth.  The  harsh  rule  of  the  mother  country  forbade  a  manufac- 
turing development,  and  that  branch  of  industiy  had  never  got  a 
footing  in  the  colonies.  The  act  of  independence  which  opened 
up  that  field  of  employment,  also  provided,  by  freedom  of  inter- 
course, a  large  market  for  the  sale  of  manufactures  to  the  agricul- 
tural laborers  of  the  more  fertile  fields  of  the  Middle  and  Southern 
States.  The  genius  of  Northern  industiy  was  not  slow  in  apply- 
ing the  capital  earned  in  commerce  to  the  prosecution  of  this 
branch  of  labor,  and  with  eveiy  increase  in  numbers,  and  every 
extension  of  national  territoiy,  the  New  England  States  have  had 
only  a  larger  market  for  their  wares,  while  the  foreign  competing 
supply  has  been  restricted  by  high  duties  on  imports.  The  moun- 
tain torrents  of  New  England  have  become  motors,  by  which  annu- 
ally improving  machinery  has  been  driven.  These  machines  require 
only  the  attendance  of  females,  but  a  few  years  since  a  non-produc- 
ing class,  to  turn  out  immense  quantities  of  textile  fabrics.  In  the 
hands  of  the  male  population,  other  branches  of  industry  have 
multiplied,  in  a  manner  which  shows  the  stimulant  of  an  ever- 
increasing  effective  demand.   .  .  . 

The  Boston  Post  contains  a  long  and  able  article,  showing  the 
extent  of  the  trade  between  New  England  alone  and  the  South, 
from  which  we  make  the  following  extract : 

'"  The  aggregate  value  of  the  merchandise  sold  to  the  South  an- 
nually we  estimate  at  some  $60,000,000.  The  basis  of  the  esti- 
mate is,  first,  the  estimated  amount  of  boots  and  shoes  sold,  which 
intelligent  merchants  place  at  from  $20,000,000  to  $30,000,000, 

sent  for  sale  to  the  rest  of  the  country.    It  is  in  such  industries  as  these,  which 
produced  articles  of  general  domestic  use  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  country, 
quite  as  much  as  in  the  textile  and  iron  industries,  that  the  early  history  of  Amer- 
ican manufactures  is  to  be  traced.    See  Chapter  IX,  on  Manufactures. 
1  Kettell,  Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits  [i860],  pp.  52,  60. 


3o6  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

including  a  limited  amount  that  are  manufactured  with  us  and  sold 
in  New  York.  In  the  next  place,  we  know  from  merchants  in  the 
trade,  that  the  amount  of  dry-goods  sold  South  yearly  is  many  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  and  that  the  amount  is  second  only  to  that  of  the 
sales  of  boots  and  shoes.  In  the  third  place,  we  learn  from  careful 
inquiry,  and  from  the  best  sources,  that  the  fish  of  various  kinds 
sold  realize  $3,000,000,  or  in  that  neighborhood.  Upwards  of 
$1,000,000  is  received  for  furniture  sold  in  the  South  each  year. 
The  Southern  States  are  a  much  better  market  than  the  Western 
for  this  article.  It  is  true,  since  the  establishment  of  branch  houses 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  other  cities,  many  of  the  goods 
manufactured  in  New  England  have  reached  the  South  through 
those  houses ;  but  still  the  commerce  of  New  England  with  the 
South,  and  this  particular  section  of  the  country  receives  the  main 
advantage  of  that  commerce.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  New  Eng- 
land ship-building,  that  is  so  greatly  sustained  by  Southern  wants  ? 
What  shall  we  say  of  that  large  ocean  fleet  that,  by  being  the 
common  carriers  of  the  South,  has  brought  so  large  an  amount  of 
money  into  the  pockets  of  our  merchants  }  We  will  not  undertake 
to  estimate  the  value  of  these  interests,  supported  directly  by  the 
South.  If  many  persons  have  not  become  very  rich  by  them,  a 
very  large  number  have  either  found  themselves  well  to  do,  or 
else  have  gained  a  living." 

This  estimate  of  the  Post  for  New  England  alone,  is  about  half 
the  aggregate  that  the  census  indicates  as  the  sales  of  Northern 
manufactures  to  the  South. 

E.    The  Domestic  Slave  Trade 

^Froni  xvJiat  states  are  slaves  exported  for  sale,  and  zvJiat  is 
the  number  from  each  state  ? 

Slaves  are  exported  from  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  and  the  district  of  Co- 
lumbia.   The  states  from  which  the  largest  proportion  are  taken 

1  Slavery  and  the  Internal  Slave  Trade  in  the  United  States,  being  Replies  to 
Questions  transmitted  by  the  Committee  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery 
Society  [i84i],pp.  12-14,  17-18. 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  307 

are  Virginia,  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  and  Kentucky,  and  of 
these  Virginia  exports  most. 

Of  the  number  exported  annually  from  each  state  we  cannot 
speak  with  accuracy.  F'rom  the  following  data,  however,  an  esti- 
mate may  be  formed  of  the  whole  number,  which  will  not  be  very 
far  from  the  truth. 

The  "Virginia  Times  "  (a  weekly  newspaper  published  at  Wheel- 
ing, Virginia)  estimates,  in  1S36,  the  number  of  slaves  exported  for 
sale  from  that  state  alone,  during  '•'  the  twelve  months  preceding," 
at  forty  tJionsand,  the  aggregate  value  of  whom  is  computed  at 
tii'ciity-fonr  millions  of  dollars. 

Allowing  for  Virginia  one  half  of  the  whole  exportation  during 
the  period  in  question,  and  we  have  the  appalling  sum  total  of 
eighty  tlionsand  slaves  exported  in  a  single  year  from  the  breeding 
states.  \Vc  cannot  decide  with  certainty  what  proportion  of  the 
above  number  was  furnished  by  each  of  the  breeding  states,  but 
Maryland  ranks  next  to  Virginia  in  point  of  numbers.  North  Caro- 
lina follows  Mar)'land,  Kentucky,  North  Carolina,  then  Tennessee, 
Missouri,  and  Delaware. 

To  ivJiieh  of  the  states  are  slaves  exported,  and  zvhat  is  their 
number  in  each  of  those  states  ? 

The  states  into  which  slaves  are  imported  are  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas,  also  the 
territory  of  Florida.  North  Carolina  is  to  some  extent  an  import- 
ing as  well  as  an  exporting  state  ;  some  sections  exporting  and 
others  importing. 

The  same  is  true  in  a  limited  degree  of  Tennessee  and 
Missouri.   .   .   . 

What  proportion  of  them  are  supplied  by  the  internal  slave 
trade  ? 

By  far  the  greater  proportion,  perhaps  four-fifths  or  more.  The 
extent,  regularity,  and  activity  of  the  internal  slave  trade  are  matter 
of  astonishment,  no  less  than  of  grief  and  shame.  We  have  esti- 
mated the  exportation  of  a  single  year  at  eighty  thousand,  on 
the  lowest  calculation ;  we  should,  perhaps,  have  been  nearer  the 


3o8  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

truth,  had  we  put  it  at  a  Jiundrcd  and  tivcnty  tJionsand ;  as  will 
appear  from  the  following  extracts. 

"The  Natchez  (Mississippi)  Courier  "  says  "  that  the  states  of  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Arkansas,  imported  two  Iniiidred  mid  fifty  thou- 
sand slaves  from  the  more  northern  states  in  the  year   1836." 

This  seems  absolutely  incredible,  but  it  probably  includes  all 
the  slaves  introduced  by  the  immigration  of  their  masters.  The 
following,  from  the  "Virginia  Ximes,"  confirms  this  supposition. 
In  the  same  paragraph  which  is  referred  to  under  the  second 
query,  it  is  said  : 

We  have  heard  intelligent  men  estimate  the  number  of  slaves  exported  from 
Virginia,  within  the  last  twelve  months,  at  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand, 
each  slave  averaging  at  least  600  dollars,  making  an  aggregate  of  72,000,000 
dollars.  Of  the  number  of  slaves  exported,  not  more  than  oiic-third  have  been 
sold,  the  others  having  been  carried  by  their  masters,  who  have  removed. 

Assuming  one-third  to  be  the  proportion  of  the  sold,  there  are 
more  than  eighty  thousand  imported  for  sale  into  the  four  states 
of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Arkansas.  Supposing 
one-half  of  eighty  thousand  to  be  sold  into  the  other  buying  states, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  the  territory  of  Florida,  and  we  are 
brought  to  the  conclusion  that  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  slaves  were,  for  some  years  previous  to  the  great  pecun- 
iary pressure  in  1837,  exported  from  the  breeding  to  the  consum- 
ing states. 

The  "  Baltimore  American  "  gives  the  following  from  a  Missis- 
sippi paper  of  1837. 

The  Report  made  by  the  Committee  of  the  Citizens  of  Mobile,  appointed 
at  their  meeting  held  on  the  i  st  instant,  on  the  subject  of  the  existing  pecuniary 
pressure,  states,  that  so  large  has  been  the  return  of  slave  labour,  that  purchases 
by  Alabama  of  that  species  of  property  from  other  states,  since  1833,  have 
amounted  to  about  tot  utillion  dollars  annually. 

The  activity  and  system  with  which  this  traffic  is  carried  on,  as 
well  as  its  extent,  may  be  learned  from  the  following  statements 
and  public  advertisements,  derived  from  southern  papers. 

"  Dealing  in  slaves,"  says  the  Baltimore  (Maryland)  Register  of  1829, 
"  has  become  a  large  business;  establishments  are  made  in  several  places  in 


FEATURES  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE  309 

Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  which  they  arc  sold  like  cattle  ;  these  places  of  de- 
posit are  strongly  built,  and  well  supplied  with  iron  thumb-screws  and  gags, 
and  ornamented  with  cowskins  and  other  whips,  oftentimes  bloody." 

We  might  present  a  variety  of  advertisements  of  Virginia  Slave- 
Mongers,  but  our  space  will  allow  us  to  record  but  one. 

Notice.  —  This  is  to  inform  my  former  acquaintances,  and  the  public  gen- 
erally, that  I  yet  continue  in  the  Slave  Trade  at  RicJunond,  Virginia.,  and 
will  at  all  times  buy,  and  give  a  fair  market  price  for  yotuig  negroes.  Persons 
in  this  state,  Maryland,  or  North  Carolina,  wishing  to  sell  lots  of  negroes,  are 
particularly  requested  to  forward  their  wishes  to  me  at  this  place.  Persons 
wishing  to  purchase  lots  of  negroes,  are  requested  to  give  me  a  call,  as  I  keep 
constantly  on  hand  at  this  place  a  great  many  for  sale  ;  and  have  at  this  time 
the  use  of  one  hundred  young  negroes,  consisting  of  boys,  young  men  and 
girls.  I  will  sell  at  all  times  at  a  small  advance  on  cost,  to  suit  purchasers.  I 
have  comfortable  rooms,  with  ^jail  attached,  for  the  reception  of  negroes;  and 
persons  coming  to  this  place  to  sell  slaves  can  be  accommodated,  and  every  atten- 
tion necessary  will  be  given  to  have  them  well  attended  to ;  and,  when  it  may 
be  desired,  the  reception  of  the  company  of  gentlemen  dealing  in  sla^'es  will 
conveniently  and  attentively  be  received.  My  situation  is  very  healthy  and 
suitable  for  the  business. 

Lewis  A.  Collier 

From  the  nature  of  the  foregoing  evidence,  all  of  it  being 
necessarily  in  some  measure  indefinite,  the  actual  extent  of  the 
internal  slave  trade  can  be  arrived  at  only  by  approximation.  The 
precise  number  annually  exported  from  each  of  the  slave-breeding 
states,  and  also  the  number  imported  into  each  slave-consuming 
state  can  be  found  on  no  statistical  records  ;  and  as  we  have  no 
data  for  an  estimate  more  specific  than  the  preceding  facts,  we 
present  them  as  the  best  reply  to  the  foregoing  query  which  we 
are  able  to  furnish. 

^ .  .  .  We  have  made  some  efforts  to  obtain  some  thing  like  an 
accurate  account  of  the  number  of  negroes  every  year  carried  out 
of  Virginia  to  the  South  and  Southwest.  We  have  not  been  en- 
abled to  succeed  completely  ;  but  from  all  the  information  we  can 
obtain,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  upwards  of  6,000  are 
yearly  exported  to  other  States.  Virginia  is,  in  fact,  a  negro  raising 

1  Dew,  On  Slavery  [1S32],  Pro-Slavery  Argument,  pp.  359-360. 


3IO  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

State  for  other  States ;  she  produces  enough  for  her  own  supply, 
and  six  thousand  for  sale.  Now,  suppose  the  government  of  Vir- 
ginia enters  the  slave  market  resolved  to  purchase  six  thousand 
for  emancipation  and  deportation,  is  it  not  evident  that  it  must 
overbid  the  Southern  seeker,  and  thus  take  the  very  slaves  who 
would  have  gone  to  the  South  ?  The  very  first  operation,  then,  of 
this  scheme,  provided  slaves  be  treated  as  property,  is  to  arrest  the 
current  which  has  been  hitherto  flowing  to  the  South,  and  to  ac- 
cumulate the  evil  in  the  State.  As  sure  as  the  moon  in  her  transit 
over  the  meridian  arrests  the  current  which  is  gliding  to  the  ocean, 
so  sure  will  the  action  of  the  Virginia  governitient,  in  an  attempt 
to  emancipate  and  send  off  6,000  slaves,  stop  those  who  are  annu- 
ally going  out  of  the  State ;  and  when  6,000  are  sent  off  in  one 
year,  (which  we  never  expect  to  see,)  it  will  be  found,  on  investi- 
gation, that  they  are  those  who  would  have  been  sent  out  of  the 
State  by  the  operation  of  our  slave  trade,  and  to  the  utter  astonish- 
ment and  confusion  of  our  abolitionists,  the  black  population  will 
be  found  advancing  with  its  usual  rapidity  —  the  only  operation  of 
the  scheme  being  to  substitute  our  government,  alias,  ourselves, 
as  purchasers,  instead  of  the  planters  of  the  South.  This  is  a 
view  which  every  legislator  in  the  State  should  take.  He  should 
beware,  lest  in  his  zeal  for  action,  this  efflux,  which  is  now  so 
salutary  to  the  State,  and  such  an  abundant  source  of  wealth,  be 
suddenly  dried  up,  and  all  the  evils  of  slavery  be  increased  instead 
of  diminished. 

1  There  were,  in  the  train,  two  first-class  passenger  cars,  and 
two  freight  cars.  The  latter  were  occupied  by  about  forty  negroes, 
most  of  them  belonging  to  traders,  who  were  sending  them  to  the 
cotton  States  to  be  sold.  Such  kind  of  evidence  of  activity  in  the 
slave  trade  of  Virginia  is  to  be  seen  every  day ;  but  particulars  and 
statistics  of  it  are  not  to  be  obtained  by  a  stranger  here.  Most 
gentlemen  of  character  seem  to  have  a  special  disinclination  to 
converse  on  the  subject ;  and  it  is  denied,  with  feeling,  that  slaves 
are  often  reared,  as  is  supposed  by  the  Abolitionist,  with  the  inten- 
tion of   selling   them   to  the  traders.    It  appears  to  me  evident, 

1  Olmsted,  The  Cotton  Kingdom  [1S56],  I,  57-58. 


FEATURES  OF  IN'l'ERNAL  COMMERCE  311 

liowcvcr,  from  the  manner  in  whieh  I  hear  the  traffic  spoken  of 
incidentally,  that  the  cash  value  of  a  slave  for  sale,  above  the  cost 
of  raising  it  from  infancy  to  the  age  at  which  it  commands  the 
highest  price,  is  generally  considered  among  the  surest  elements 
of  a  planter's  wealth.  Such  a  nigger  is  worth  such  a  price,  and 
such  another  is  too  old  to  learn  to  pick  cotton,  and  such  another 
will  bring  so  much,  when  it  has  grown  a  little'  more,  I  have  fre- 
quently heard  people  say,  in  the  street,  or  the  public-houses.  That 
a  slave  woman  is  commonly  esteemed  least  for  her  working  quali- 
ties, most  for  those  qualities  which  give  value  to  a  brood-mare  is, 
also,  constantly  made  apparent. 

By  comparing  the  average  decennial  ratio  of  slave  increase  in 
all  the  States  with  the  difference  in  the  number  of  the  actual  slave- 
population  of  the  slave-breeding  States,  as  ascertained  by  the  cen- 
sus, it  is  apparent  that  the  number  of  slaves  exported  to  the  cotton 
States  is  considerably  more  than  twenty  thousand  a  year. 

F.    The  Lumber  Trade 

1  The  increase  of  houses  being  proportioned  to  the  increase  in 
the  numbers  of  the  people,  their  value  has  risen  in  the  ratio  of 
their  growing  wealth.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  country,  in  all  its 
sections,  abounds  with  the  best  materials  for  all  descriptions  of 
dwellings.  .  .  .  The  early  houses  of  the  settlers  were  log  huts, 
but  subsequently  frame  houses  were  raised  by  the  more  ambitious, 
and,  as  wealth  increased,  those  "  shingle  palaces  "  that  became 
famous  in  the  stories  of  New  England  manners,  began  to  dot  the 
countiy.  In  the  cities  frame  houses  were  the  rule  down  to  a  com- 
paratively late  date,  when  the  fire  laws  forbade  the  erection  of 
wooden  tenements  within  certain  districts.  The  abundance  of  tim- 
ber not  only  for  building  purposes,  but  for  fuel,  was  a  great  advan- 
tage to  the  country.  But  as  the  population  increased,  the  inroads 
upon  it  became  very  heavy,  and  the  forests  were  rapidly  thinned 
out.  The  annual  consumption  exceeded  the  growth,  according  to 
the  estimates  of  the  most  experienced  lumbermen,  by  about  30  per 
cent.,  and  this  notwithstanding  that  coal  came  to  supply  the  drafts 

1  Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years'  Progress  [i860],  pp.  356,  188. 


312  RISE. OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

made  for  fuel,  and  the  substitution  of  bricks  for  city  houses.  The 
sources  of  lumber  for  building  purposes  have  become  more  diversi- 
fied as  the  demand  has  increased.  The  State  of  Maine  was  for  a 
long  time  the  head-quarters  of  the  trade  for  pine,  spruce,  and  hem- 
lock lumber ;  but  hard  pine  comes  from  North  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Florida,  and  Alabama ;  Ohio  and  Michigan  supply  black  walnut, 
cherry,  ash,  white -oak.  The  exports  from  the  country  are  about 
$2,500,000  per  annum,  and  ship-building  makes  large  drafts  upon 
it.  The  lumber  trade  at  various  leading  points,  where  the  lumber 
resources  of  the  back  country  are  most  readily  concentrated  for 
market,  may  be  given  as  follows  :  — 


Detroit   .     . 
Savannah    . 
Charleston 
Albany   .     . 
Bangor  .     . 
Cincinnati  . 
Chicago 
Milwaukee 
Oswego 
Cleveland  . 
Baltimore   . 
Boston    .     . 
Buffalo    .    . 
Philadelphia 

Total  . 

Value  . 


Feet 


76, 

-3' 

15^ 

291, 

176, 

32. 
300. 

65. 
144^ 

28. 
100, 

131^ 

68. 

162. 


537,000 
365,656 
312,128 
771,762 
187,016 
000,000 
982,207 
000,000 
654,572 
950,000 
000,000 
000,000 

558,151 
879,722 


1,661,568,214 
fe  1, 93 1, 364 


Laths  (M.) 


13,491,000 


49,102,000 
1,634,500 


20,000,000 
2,026,000 


86,262,500 
#138,797 


Shingles  (M.) 


36,647,000 

48,756,000 

165,927,000 

7,653,250 

28,000,000 

10,000,000 

1,768,300 

21,220,937 


320,072,487 

$1,280,289 


The  Bangor  lumber  is  derived  from  the  forests  of  that  region,  and 
it  composes  a  part  of  that  sent  to  Boston,  Philadelphia,  etc.  The 
Savannah  and  Charleston  trade  is  that  shipped  from  those  ports, 
mostly  north.  The  Albany  lumber  is  derived  from  the  canal  de- 
liveries and  the  northern  section.  The  Philadelphia  lumber  comes 
mostly  from  the  canals  and  rivers  ;  about  one-third  comes  through 
the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal,  as  much  more  down  the 
Delaware  river  from  southern  New  York  :  about  one  n:iillion  feet 
only  comes  from  Maine.    The  Baltimore  supplies  are  mostly  from 


DEVFXOPMKNT  OF  RIVER  COMMERCE  313 

the  Susquehanna  river,  being  rafted  down  from  Peimsylvania  and 
New  York.  From  150  to  200  milhons  of  feet  go  down  the  Alle- 
ghany river  every  year.  Chicago  is  by  far  the  largest  lumber  mar- 
ket, and  the  supplies  are  derived  from  the  Michigan  Lake  shore, 
the  largest  quantity  from  the  Green  Bay  district.  The  supplies  are 
sent  through  the  state  by  canal  and  the  various  railroads  that  radi- 
ate through  the  prairie  country,  where  wood  of  natural  growth  is 
scarce,  and  which  scarcity  was  one  of  the  objections  to  settling 
until  railroads  became  the  means  of  furnishing  the  supplies.  The 
largest  quantity  goes  by  the  canal,  and  the  next  largest  by  the  Illi- 
nois Central  railroad.   .   .   . 

The  lumber  from  western  New  York  and  the  lake  borders  being 
now  [after  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal]  marketable  where  before 
it  was  valueless,  a  motive- for  clearing  land  was  imparted,  and  the 
new  canal  received  on  its  bosom  from  all  sections  of  the  lake  shore 
the  lumber  brought  by  multiplying  vessels.  The  lumber  that  found 
tide  water  before  had  been  that  which  in  southern  New  York  and 
in  Pennsylvania  skirted  the  natural  water-courses,  and  being  cut 
and  hauled,  was  rafted  down  to  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  The 
New  England  streams  delivered  the  lumber  in  the  same  manner. 
The  opening  of  the  canal  brought  into  competition  the  vast  and 
hitherto  untouched  resources  of  the  west,  and  the  same  remark 
applies  to  all  farm  produce. 

II.    DEVELOPMENT   OF   COMMERCE    ON   THE 
WESTERN    RIVERS 

^  The  receipts  of  New  Orleans  during  the  first  year  of  successful 
steam  navigation,  18 16,  amounted  in  value  to  $8,062,540.   .   .  . 

This  is  independent  of  the  produce  raised  in  Louisiana,  such  as 
cotton,  corn,  indigo,  molasses,  rice,  sugar,  tafia  or  rum,  and  lumber. 
These  were  brought  to  the  market  in  the  planters'  crafts,  and  often 
taken  from  the  plantation  direct  in  foreign-bound  vessels,  a  ship 
loading  directly  w^ith  sugar  and  molasses,  which  thus  never  went 
through  New  Orleans.    But  little  account  was  taken  of  this  system 

^  Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  1887  [Part  II  of  the 
Report  on  Commerce  and  Navigation  for  18S7],  pp.  191,  199,  205,  214-215. 


314  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

in  the  commercial  reports  of  the  time,  although  sea-going  vessels 
ascended  the  river  as  far  as  Natchez  for  cargoes.  They  were,  of 
course,  of  small  size,  of  but  little  more  tonnage  and  draught  than 
the  steam-boats  themselves. 

The  value  of  receipts  shows  to  what  extent  the  produce  of  the 
West  passed  through  New  Orleans.  Cotton,  which  in  later  days 
rose  to  be  60  and  even  75  per  cent,  in  value  of  all  the  receipts, 
was  then  barely  12  per  cent.  At  least  80  per  cent,  of  the  articles 
came  from  the  West,  that  is,  from  the  Ohio  and  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi, above  the  Ohio.  They  represented  the  surplus  products  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  for  but  little  found  any  other  exit  to  mar- 
ket. Much  of  the  produce  shipped  from  the  West  to  New  Orleans 
was  lost  en  route.  A  rough  estimate  places  the  loss  from  disas- 
ters, snags,  etc.,  at  20  per  cent.  Many  boats,  moreover,  stopped 
along  the  river  on  their  way  down  to  sell  supplies  to  the  planters. 
Thus,  at  Natchez,  flour,  grain,  and  pork  were  purchased  from  the 
Kentucky  boats. 

From  these  losses  and  sales  the  shipments  down  the  river  in 
1 8 16,  including  the  products  of  Louisiana,  may  be  estimated  at 
^13,875,000. 

The  river  traffic  required  6  steam-boats,  594  barges,  and  1287 
flat-boats,  of  an  actual  tonnage  of  87,670. 

During  all  this  period  [i8i6-'40],  and  despite  all  these  difficul- 
ties, the  number  of  arrivals  at  New  Orleans  and  the  amount  of  river 
business  on  the  Lower  Mississippi  continued  to  steadily  increase. 
The  growth  of  the  river  traffic  is  well  shown  in  this  table. 

In  regard  to  the  steam-boats,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
steady  increase  in  arrivals  each,  year  does  not  fully  express  the  in- 
crease in  tonnage,  because  the  boats  were  not  only  growing  more 
numerous,  but  were  increasing  in  size  each  year,  and  thus  while 
they  doubled  in  number  between  1825,  and  1833  they  more  than 
trebled  in  their  carr)dng  capacity. 

In  regard  to  the  flat-boats  and  other  craft,  there  is  no  suffi- 
ciently definite  information  for  most  of  this  period.  It  should  be 
said,  however,  that  while  the  steam-boats  supplanted  the  flat-boats 
in  many  lines  of  trade,  they  did  not  entirely  drive  them  off  the 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  RIVER  COMMEROE 
River  Trade  of  New  Orleans,  i 8 13 -i860 


15 


Arrivals  of 

Freight  Re- 

Value of 

Steam-boats 

ceived  (Tons)  I 

Produce  - 

i8i3-'i4 

21 

67,560 

i8i4-'i5 

40 

77,220 

i8i5-'i6 

94.560 

^9.749,253 

iSi6-'i7 

80,820 

8.773-379 

1817-18 

100,880 

13,501,036 

I  Si  8 -'19 

.91 

136,300 

16.771.7" 

i8i9-'2o 

198 

106,706 

12,637,079 

l820-'2I 

202 

99,320 

1 1,967,067 

1821 -'22 

2S7 

136,400 

15,126.420 

l822-'23 

392 

129,500 

14.473.725 

i823-'24 

436 

136,240 

15,063,820 

i824-'25 

502 

176,420 

19,044,640 

i825-'26 

608 

193,300 

20,446,320 

i826-'27 

715 

235,200 

21,730,887 

1827 -'28 

698 

257,300 

22,886,420 

1828-29 

756 

245,700 

20.757,265 

i829-'3o 

989 

260,900 

22,065,518 

i83o-'3i 

778 

307,300 

26,044.820 

1831-32 

813 

244,600 

21,806,763 

iS33-'33 

1,280 

291,700 

28,238,432 

1833-34 

1,081 

327,800 

29,820,817 

1834-35 

1,005 

399,900 

37.566,842 

1835 -'36 

1,272 

437,100 

39,237,762 

1 836 -'37 

1.372 

401,500 

43.515.402 

1837 -'38 

I '549 

449,600 

45.627,720 

1 838 -'39 

i'55i 

399,500 

42,263,880 

1839-40 

1.573 

537.400 

49,763,825 

i840-'4i 

1,958 

542,500 

49.822,115 

i84i-'42 

2,132 

566,500 

45.716,045 

1842 -'43 

2.324 

782,600 

53.782.054 

1843-44 

2,570 

652,000 

60.094,716 

1844-45 

2.530 

868,000 

57,199,122 

1845 -'46 

2,770 

971,700 

77.193,464 

i846-'47 

4.024 

937,600 

90,033,256 

1847 -'48 

2.9 '7 

1,025,900 

79.779.151 

1848 -'49 

2.873 

1 ,009.900 

81,989,692 

i849-'5o    . 

2,784 

886,000 

96,897,873 

i85o-'5i     . 

2,918 

1,058,200 

196,924.083 

i85i-'52    . 

2,778 

1,160,500 

108,051,708 

i852-'53    ■ 

3.252 

1,328,800 

134.233.735 

1853 -'54    • 

3.076 

1,286.300 

115.336.798 

i854-'55    • 

2,763 

1,247,200 

117,106,823 

1855  7'56    . 

2.956 

1,500.200 

144,256,081 

1856-57    . 

2,745 

1,431,800 

158,161,369 

1857 -'58    . 

3,264 

1,572,700 

167,155.546 

i858-'59    . 

3.259 

1,803,400 

172,952,664 

1859 -'60 3,566 

2,187,560 

185.211,254 

1  This  does  not  include  articles  rafted  down  of  which  no  record  was -kept. 

2  This  includes  the  small  amount  of  produce  received  by  Lake  Pontchartrain,  from 
I  to  6  per  cent  of  total.  It  is  impossible  to  separate  it  from  the  receipts  by  river,  since 
no  separate  account  was  kept,  except  for  cotton  and  a  few  other  articles. 


3i6  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

river  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years  afteru^ards.  During  all  this  period 
when  the  Western  cities  were  building  steam-boats  the  flat-boats 
also  were  increasing  in  numbers.  They  were  found  serviceable  in 
carrying  hay,  coal,  etc.,  and  in  reaching  the  interior  streams.  The 
Mississippi  counted  some  hundreds  of  tributaries.  On  some  of 
these  the  settlements  were  sparse,  and  the  surplus  products  afforded 
at  best  one  or  two  cargoes  a  year,  and  these  were  sent  much  more 
conveniently  and  cheaply  in  flat-boats  than  in  steamers.  The 
steamers  had  passed  the  flats  between  1820  and  1S30  in  the  busi- 
ness transacted  and  the  freight  hauled,  and  from  this  time  they 
increased  the  lead  steadily.  The  number  of  flats,  however,  arriving 
at  New  Orleans  kept  but  little  if  any  behind  the  steamers,  and  as 
late  as  1840  nearly  a  fifth  of  the  freight  handled  in  the  Lower 
Mississippi  went  by  flat-boat,  keel,  or  barge.  The  early  flat-boats 
had  depended  altogether  on  the  current  of  the  river  to  carry  them 
down.  The  system  of  towing  was  tried  in  1829,  and  a  small 
steamer,  which  would  be  called  a  tug  to-day,  was  successfully  used 
in  towing  keel-boats  up  and  down  stream.  The  idea  did  not  seem, 
however,  to  meet  with  much  favor,  the  flat-boat  men  having  a  su- 
perstition that  their  conjunction  with  a  steamer  was  not  favorable  to 
them,  and  it  was  reserved  for  a  later  generation  to  definitely  tiy  in 
the  barge  the  system  of  towing  freight  up  and  down  stream.  .  .  . 

As  the  first »two  decades  of  the  century  showed  the  settlement 
of  the  Ohio  basin,  and  a  rapid  increase  in  population  and  production, 
so  the  next  two  resulted  in  the  settlement  of  the  Lower  Mississippi 
region  from  Louisiana  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  The  removal  of 
the  Indian  tribes  to  the  Indian  Territory,  the  building  of  levees, 
and  the  immense  increase  in  the  demand  for  cotton,  hastened 
the  development  of  West  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  and 
Northern  Louisiana.  The  Western  products  received  at  New 
Orleans,  although  they  did  not  fall  off,  constituted  a  smaller  per- 
centage of  the  city's  total  trade,  while  cotton  and  sugar  became 
each  year  more  important  items  commercially.  In  other  words,  the 
Western  trade,  while  not  growing  less,  did  not  increase  as  fast  as 
that  section  advanced  in  population  and  production,  nor  as  fast  as 
the  cotton  trade. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  RIVER  COMMERCE  317 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  South  first  began  to  insist  on 
the  sovereignty  of  King  Cotton,  and  New  Orleans  claimed,  like 
Mahomet,  to  be  its  prophet.  The  rapid  development  of  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industries  in  luirope  incited  the  planters  to  devote 
more  and  more  acres  to  it,  and  it  became  highly  profitable  to  culti- 
vate cotton  even  on  credit.  New  Orleans  was  overflowing  with 
money  in  those  flush  times,  and  lent  it  readily,  and  the  credit  system 
of  the  South  was  firmly  established,  to  last  even  to  this  day.  The 
system  became  universal  among  the  planters,  particularly  those  en- 
gaged in  raising  cotton  and  sugar,  and  New  Orleans  became  not 
only  the  lender  of  money  at  a  high  rate  of  interest,  but  the  depot  of 
western  supplies,  which  it  advanced  in  large  quantities  to  the 
planters  throughout  the  vast  region  then  tributary  to  it.  The  whole 
agricultural  countiy  along  the  Lower  Mississippi  and  its  bayous  and 
streams  became,  in  a  manner,  the  commercial  slaves  of  the  New 
Orleans  factors,  and  were  not  allowed  to  sell  to  any  one  else  or  buy 
from  them.  The  western  produce  shipped  down  the  river  never 
stopped  at  the  plantation,  but  was  sent  direct  to  New  Orleans,  and 
thence  transshipped  up  the  river  over  the  same  route  it  had  just 
gone.  When  the  big  collapse  of  1837  came  the  banks  of  New 
Orleans,  with  a  circulation  of  $7,000,000,  purported  to  have  a  capi- 
tal of  $34,000,000,  a  great  majority  of  them  being  wrecked  in  the 
storm.  Within  a  few  years,  however,  New  Orleans  recovered  from 
the  shock  and  strengthened  its  hold  on  the  planters. 

While  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  listening  at  the  Memphis  con- 
vention to  the  story  of  its  glories  to  come,  and  river  men  were  cal- 
culating on  the  immense  traffic  that  was  assured  the  future,  New 
Orleans  was  confident  of  the  future.  Few  of  its  people  anticipated 
any  danger  of  its  future,  and  it  was  predicted  not  only  in  American 
papers  but  in  the  British  Quarterly  Review  that  it  must  ultimately 
become,  on  account  of  the  Mississippi,  the  most  important  commer- 
cial city  in  America,  if  not  in  the  world. 

That  eminent  statistical  and  economical  authority,  De  Bow's 
Review,  declared  that  "  no  city  of  the  world  has  ever  advanced  as 
a  mart  of  commerce  with  such  gigantic  and  rapid  strides  as  New 
Orleans." 


3i8  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

It  was  no  idle  boast.  Between  1830  and  1840  no  city  of  the 
United  States  kept  pace  with  it.  When  the  census  was  taken  it  was 
fourth  in  population,  exceeded  only  by  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Baltimore,  and  third  in  point  of  commerce  of  the  ports  of  the 
world,  exceeded  only  by  London,  Liverpool,  and  New  York,  being, 
indeed,  but  a  short  distance  behind  the  latter  city,  and  ahead  of  it 
in  the  export  of  domestic  products.  Unfortunately,  its  imports  were 
out  of  all  proportion  with  its  exports.  It  shipped  coffee,  hardware, 
and  other  heavy  articles  like  this  up  the  river,  but  it  left  the  West 
dependent  on  New  York  and  the  other  Atlantic  cities  for  nearly  all 
the  finer  class  of  manufactured  goods  they  needed. 

Later  on,  when  the  West  began  to  go  into  manufacturing  itself, 
and  Cincinnati  and  Pittsburgh  became  important  manufacturing  cen- 
ters, New  Orleans  imported  their  goods  and  reshipped  them  to  the 
plantations.  Of  these  shipments  up-stream  over  75  per  cent., 
strange  to  say,  were  articles  which  had  previously  been  sent  down- 
stream. Cincinnati  sent  its  lard,  candles,  pork,  etc.,  to  New  Orleans 
to  be  carried  up  by  the  coast  packets  to  Bayou  Sara  and  Baton 
Rouge.  From  these  latter  towns  were  shipped  so  many  hogsheads 
of  sugar  and  barrels  of  molasses  to  New  Orleans  to  be  thence  sent 
by  the  Cincinnati  boats  to  the  Ohio  metropolis.  There  was  no 
trade  between  the  Western  cities  and  the  Southern  plantations, 
very  little  even  with  the  towns  ;  it  all  paid  tribute  to  New  Orleans. 

The  upper  Mississippi  had  from  1850  become  the  center  of  im- 
migration and  production,  and  New  Orleans,  which  had  formerly 
depended  on  the  Ohio  River  country  almost  wholly  for  its  supplies, 
now  largely  got  them  from  Saint  Louis.  About  1850  the  traffic 
with  Saint  Louis  exceeded  that  with  Cincinnati.  In  1859,  32 
steamboats  of  48,726  tons  were  required  for  the  Saint  Louis  and 
36  of  26,932  tons  for  the  Cincinnati  trade.   .   .  . 

The  extent  of  the  commercial  area  covered  by  the  river  traffic  of 
New  Orleans  in  i860  will  show  what  was  lost  in  the  four  years  of 
war  that  followed,  and  never  fully  regained.  New  Orleans  then 
absolutely  controlled  the  entire  river  trade,  commerce,  and  crops  of 
the  State  of  Louisiana.  In  Texas,  through  the  Red  River,  it  secured 
the  crops  of  the  northern  half  of  the  State  ;  through  the  Arkan- 
sas and  the  Red  it  secured  the  products  of  the  greater  portion  of 


DEVELOPMENT  OK   RIVER  COMMERCE  319 

the  Indian  Territory.  It  controlled  tlie  trade  of  the  southern  two- 
thirds  of  Arkansas,  all  the  Ouachita  and  Arkansas  valleys,  all  the 
river  front,  and  a  portion  of  the  White  River  trade  runnini^  up  into 
Missouri.  It  controlled  Mississippi  with  the  exception  of  the  east- 
ern portion  of  the  State,  through  which  ran  the  Mobile  and  Ohio 
railroad  and  the  tributaries  of  the  Alabama.  All  the  produce  of 
western  Tennessee  and  half  that  of  middle  Tennessee  went  to  New 
Orleans  ;  and  in  Kentucky  a  large  proportion  of  the  business  went 
to  the  Crescent  City.  The  bulk  of  the  produce  of  the  Ohio  valley 
had  been  diverted  to  the  lakes  and  Atlantic  seaboard,  but  probably 
one-fifth  of  it  found  its  way  to  New  Orleans  direct  or  by  way  of  the 
Cincinnati  and  Louisville  packets. 

In  the  upper  Mississippi  probably  a  third  of  the  surplus,  or  ex- 
ported crops,  similarly  reached  market  by  way  of  New  Orleans, 
either  direct  or  via  Saint  Louis. 

The  territory  immediately  tributary  to  New  Orleans  included  all 
Louisiana,  half  of  the  setded  portion  of  Texas,  half  of  the  Indian 
Territory,  three-fourths  of  Arkansas,  three-fourths  of  Mississippi,  a 
third  of  Tennessee,  and  considerable  portions  of  Kentucky  and 
Alabama,  probably  300,000  square  miles,  while  indirectly  tributary 
to  it,  through  Saint  Louis,  Cincinnati,  and  Louisville,  was  a  region 
twice  as  great. 

Yet  it  was  admitted  at  the  time  that  New  Orleans  and  the  river 
route  were  losing  some  trade,  and  it  was  felt  that  the  railroads  were 
diverting  traffic  away  from  it.  They  had  tapped  the  river  at  various 
points.  The  tributaries  running  into  the  Upper  Tennessee,  had 
formerly  sent  down  their  produce  by  flat-boats  to  New  Orleans,  the 
boats  reaching  the  city  in  fleets  of  thirty  and  forty.  Railroads  had 
diverted  much  of  this  traffic  to  Charleston,  Savannah,  and  the  At- 
lantic cities.  The  trade  of  northern  Alabama  had  formerly  come 
via  the  Tennessee  to  New  Orleans.  It  was  almost  gone  and  the 
receipts  from  North  Alabama  were  actually  less  in  i860  than  in 
1845,  although  the  crops  had  grown  manifold  larger.  The  lead 
trade  of  the  upper  Mississippi  had  been  diverted  from  the  river  by 
the  railroads.  At  Cincinnati  a  large  portion  of  the  flour  and  grain 
that  had  been  formerly  sent  down  the  river  traveled  either  up  it  to 
Pittsburgh   or  went  direct  by  rail  to  New  York,  or  by  canal   to 


320  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

Cleveland,  Buffalo,  and  thence  by  the  Hudson.  In  the  twenty  years 
between  1 840  and  1 860,  during  which  the  competition  of  river  and 
rail  had  been  inaugurated,  the  production  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
had  increased  far  more  rapidly  than  the  receipts  at  New  Orleans. 
The  river  traffic  had  increased  in  the  aggregate,  but  lost  relatively. 

The  Mississippi  carried  a  much  larger  tonnage,  but  a  far  smaller 
percentage  of  the  total  traffic  of  the  valley.  The  loss  was  most 
marked  in  Western  products.  Forty  years  before,  these  had  con- 
stituted 58  percent,  of  the  total  receipts  at  New  Orleans.  In  1859- 
'60  they  had  fallen  to  23  per  cent,  although  in  that  period  the  West 
had  made  the  greatest  increase  in  population  and  production.  What 
was  lost  here,  however,  was  more  than  made  good  in  the  cotton  and 
sugar  crops,  and  the  river  trade  of  New  Orleans  therefore  showed 
no  decline  but  a  steady,  active,  and  positive  advance. 

During  all  this  period  "  the  levee  "  of  New  Orleans,  as  the  river 
landing  of  that  city  was  called,  was  the  wonder  of  every  visitor.  It 
was  beyond  doubt  the  most  active  commercial  center  of  the  world. 
Here,  side  by  side,  lay  the  steam-boats  and  fiat-boats  of  the  river, 
the  steamers,  ships,  and  numerous  ocean  vessels.  Here  the  entire 
business  of  New  Orleans  and  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  valley 
was  transacted.  The  levee  was  the  landing,  warehouse,  commercial 
exchange  of  half  a  continent,  and  the  freight  handled  there  ex- 
ceeded that  to  be  seen  on  any  single  dock-yard  of  London  or 
Liverpool.   .   .   . 

The  flat-boat  trade  slowly  went  out  during  this  period  [  1 840  -'60]. 
It  had  been  a  cheap  but  very  unsafe  way  of  getting  produce  to  mar- 
ket. It  is  estimated  that  not  more  than  three-fourths  to  four-fifths 
of  the  flat-boats  when  started  down  river  to  New  Orleans  ever 
reached  that  port,  the  others  being  snagged  or  lost.  A  squall  on  the 
river  would  sink  a  dozen  at  a  time.  At  the  same  time  the  flat-boat 
offered  great  advantages  to  the  farmers  living  along  the  smaller 
streams  penetrating  into  the  center  of  Indiana  and  Ohio.  Indeed, 
there  was  no  other  way  of  their  getting  their  produce  to  market,  as 
the  low  water,  snags,  etc.,  rendered  it  impossible  for  the  steam-boats 
to  penetrate  there.  A  flat-boat  was  accordingly  built  after  the  crop 
was  gathered,  loaded  down  with  produce,  and  the  spring  tide  waited 
for  to  float  it  out.  .  .  . 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  LAKE  COMMERCE  321 

The  steady  decline  of  this  trade  can  be  here  studied.'  The  only 
State  which  shows  an  increase  is  Pennsylvania,  due  to  the  coal  trade. 
Indiana,  particular!)-  the  Wabash  country,  sent  a  considerable  amount 
of  i)roduce,  lar<;el)'  hay,  to  New  Orleans  by  flat-boats  ;  and  so  did 
the  upper  tributaries  of  the  Tennessee  River,  whence  the  tobacco 
was  shipped  on  flat-boats.  On  the  other  hand,  the  flat-boat  traffic 
of  the  upper  Mississippi  had  given  way  to  the  steam-boats,  and 
neither  Missouri  nor  Iowa  sent  a  single  flat  to  New  Orleans. 
Some  remarkable  fluctuations  will  be  noticed  in  the  arrivals  from 
year  to  year,  attributable  to  the  condition  of  the  river.  When  the 
water  was  high,  as  in  i85i-'52,  the  ffat-boats  got  out  without  any 
difficulty.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  previous  season,  which  was 
a  low  one,  the  flat-boat  tonnage  was  reduced  much  below  the 
average.  After  1856  the  fiat-boat  played  so  unimportant  a  part  in 
the  river  trafific  that  it  ceased  to  be  enumerated  among  the  arrivals. 


III.    DEVELOPMENT   OF   LAKE   COMMERCE 

2  The  total  length  of  the  fiye  great  lakes  is  1,555  miles,  and  the 
area  90,000  square  miles,  and  they  are  estimated  to  drain  an  area 
of  335,515  square  miles.  That  vast  tract  of  waters  was  a  waste  as 
far  as  transportation  went  until  the  year  1797,  when  the  first  Amer- 
ican schooner  was  launched.  The  craft  increased  to  some  extent 
for  the  small  commerce  that  engaged  the  settlers  when  there  was 
no  outlet  either  to  the  Atlantic  or  to  the  south.  In  18 16,  however, 
a  steamer  was  built  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  in  18 19  the  Walk-in-the- 
W^ater,  340  tons,  was  launched  at  Buffalo.  The  most  of  the  trade, 
however,  consisted  in  the  operations  of  the  Indian  traders,  carrying 
westward  supplies  and  trinkets  for  the  trade,  and  returning  with 
furs  and  peltries.  On  the  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  in  1825,  a 
new  state  of  things  presented  itself.  W^estern  New  York  threw  off 
its  frontier  aspect,  and  put  on  an  air  of  civilization,  since  it  became 
a  receiver  of  western  produce  and  exporter  of  goods.  The  steam 
tonnage  multiplied  to  transport  the  growing  produce  of  the  west. 

1  See  table  on  p.  222  of  Report  on  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  1887. 

2  Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years'  Progress  [i860],  pp.  186-188. 


322 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


In  1822  the  Superior  was  launched,  another  steamer  in  1824,  two 
in  1825,  and  three  in  1826.  One  of  these  made  the  first  voyage 
upon  Lake  Michigan,  in  1826,  upon  a  pleasure  excursion.  It  was 
not  until  1832  that  business  called  them  thither,  and  then  one 
reached  Chicago,  in  the  employ  of  the  government,  to  carry  supplies 
for  the  Black  Hawk  war.  From  that  time,  tonnage  has  increased 
as  follows  :  — 


1841 


1850 


i860 


Buffalo  Creek 
Presque  Isle  . 
Cuyahoga  . 
Sandusky  . 
Miami  .  .  . 
Detroit  .  .  . 
Mackinaw  .  . 
Chicago  .  . 
Milwaukee . 


6,773 
2,8.3 


887 
^'053 


14,381 


25,990 
5,691 
6,418 


i'745 

16,469 

1,746 

652 


58,711 


42,640 

1,471 

22,597 

360 

30,381 

617 

8,151 

2,026 


108,243 


The  II  boats  running  in  1833,  carried  to  and  from  Buffalo 
61,485  passengers,  and  the  fares  with  the  freight  amounted  to 
$229,212.  Those  were  the  years  of  the  great  land  speculations, 
and  crowds  of  passengers  went  west  on  that  errand.  Three  trips 
were  made  a  year  to  the  upper  lakes.  The  trips  to  Chicago  from 
Buffalo  occupied  25  days  to  go  and  return.  In  1841  the  time 
required  for  a  first-class  steamer  was  10  days  from  Buffalo  to  Detroit 
and  back.  This  was  reduced  in  185 1  to  3  days,  and  5  for  propel- 
lers. In  1834  the  lake  commerce  was  controlled  by  an  association, 
owning  18  boats.  This  association  was  kept  up  to  1841,  when  the 
number  of  boats  had  increased  to  48.  The  opening  of  the  Ohio 
canals  had  poured  upon  the  lakes  a  large  amount  of  produce.  The 
500  miles  of  canal  then  completed,  opened  up  the  grain  country  to 
the  lakes.  In  1835,  Ohio  exported  by  the  lakes  543,815  bushels 
of  wheat;  in  1840,  3,800,000  bushels;  and  in  185  i,  12,193,202 
bushels  which  paid  $500,000  freight  and  charges.  The  railroads 
have  since  interfered  to  some  extent,  but  the  wheat  received  across 
the  lakes  has  this  last  year  been  as  follows  :  — 


DKVELOPMENT  OF  LAKE  COMMERCE  323 

I<"rom  Ohio 2,856,216  bushels 

Indiana 3,219,225  " 

Michigan 2,117,970  " 

Illinois 12,195,195  " 

Wisconsin 5,447,766  " 

New  \'ork 130,667  " 

Total  25,967,039 

The  successive  opening  of  the  Ohio  canals  in  1H33,  the  llHnois 
canal  in  1848,  and  the  Indiana  canal  in  1 851,  all  added  constantl)' 
to  the  amount  of  produce  to  be  transported,  and  since  the  last-men- 
tioned date  the  railroads  have  opened  new  regions  of  country,  and 
increased  the  lake  trade.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  size  of 
the  vessels,  their  great  speed  when  under  way,  and  the  greater  dis- 
patch in  loading  and  unloading  by  steam,  not  only  for  motion,  but 
for  labor  at  the  dock,  enable  the  same  quantity  of  tonnage  to  do  ten 
times  the  business  that  it  formerly  could  do.  In  1859  the  lake 
steamers  averaged  437  tons.  In  the  present  year  the  average  is 
680  for  steamers  and  470  for  propellers.  A  change  is  now  going 
on  in  the  power,  by  reason  of  the  improvements  in  propellers.  In 
1843  the  first  lake  propeller,  the  Hercules,  was  launched  at  Cleve- 
land, 275  tons,  the  screw  of  Ericsson's  patent.  She  was  said  to 
have  made  great  economy  in  wood  for  fuel.  In  185 1  the  propel- 
lers had  increased  to  52,  with  a  tonnage  amounting  to  15,729.  In 
i860  there  were  118,  tonnage  55,657.  These  boats  had  far  less 
speed  than  the  paddles,  but  they  have  not  ceased  to  gain  in  public 
opinion,  not  only  upon  the  lakes,  but  in  the  Atlantic  bays  and  rivers, 
until  recent  improvements  have  brought  them  to  ri\'al  the  paddle 
wheels  in  speed.  These  vessels  will  in  all  probability  monopolize 
the  European,  as  well  as  the  internal  trade. 

Previous  to  the  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  in  1825,  the  com- 
merce of  the  lakes  was  necessarily  local,  since  there  were  no  mar- 
kets east  or  west.  The  produce  raised  in  the  country  bordering  the 
lakes  descended  the  streams  that  ran  into  them,  and  found  inter- 
change with  other  lake  ports.  The  opening  of  the  canal  immediately 
gave  an  eastern  current  to  produce  of  all  descriptions,  and  much 
had  accumulated  in  anticipation  of  the  event,  and  goods  returned  in 
great  quantities.  In  the  month  of  May,  1825,  837  boats,  carrying 
4,122  tons  of  goods,  left  Albany  for  Buffalo,  paying  $22,000  tolls. 


324  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

The  lumber  from  western  New  York  and  the  lake  borders  being 
now  marketable  where  before  it  was  valueless,  a  motive  for  clearing 
land  was  imparted,  and  the  new  canal  received  on  its  bosom  from 
all  sections  of  the  lake  shore  the  lumber  brought  by  multiplying 
vessels.  The  lumber  that  found  tide  water  before  had  been  that 
which  in  southern  New  York  and  in  Pennsylvania  skirted  the  natu- 
ral water-courses,  and  being  cut  and  hauled,  was  rafted  down  to 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  The  New  England  streams  delivered 
the  lumber  in  the  same  manner.  The  opening  of  the  canal  brought 
into  competition  the  vast  and  hitherto  untouched  resources  of  the 
west,  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  all  farm  produce.  The  farm- 
ers of  New  England  were  undersold  at  their  own  doors,  by  prod- 
uce from  western  New  York.  The  potatoes  that  had  been  quick 
of  sale  at  75  cents,  were  supplanted  by  the  best  "chenangos"  at  37^ 
cents,  and  the  competition  was  felt  in  corn,  flour,  and  most  articles. 
The  effect  of  this  was  to  turn  the  attention  of  that  hard-working  and 
thrifty  race  of  men,  the  farmers  of  New  England,  to  the  western 
countiy,  where  the  soil  was  so  much  more  profitable.  At  that  date 
commenced  the  interchange  of  inhabitants,  which  has  drawn  off  so 
many  New  England  farmers,  replacing  them  with  manufacturers 
from  abroad.  In  order  to  show  the  extent  of  this  operation,  we  take 
from  the  census  of  1850  the  figures  showing  the  nativities  of  the 
whole  people  of  the  United  States.  Thus  there  were  in  the  whole 
Union  8,370,089  persons  who  were  born  in  the  New  England  and 
middle  states.  Of  these,  6,941,510  lived  in  the  states  where  they 
were  born,  llie  remainder,  1,428,579,  were  living  mostly  west, 
but  in  their  place  there  were  living  in  the  New  England  and  mid- 
dle states  1,292,241  persons  who  were  born  in  foreign  countries. 
These  latter  worked  in  the  mills  and  manufactories,  while  1,428,- 
579  northern  persons  who  had  migrated  west  were  agriculturists 
attracted  thither  by  the  fertile  lands  made  available  by  the  means 
of  transportation. 

^  As  being  the  oldest  port  on  Lake  Erie,  and  having  taken,  and 
thus  far  held,  the  lead  in  the  amount  and  value  of  her  lake  com- 
merce, the  commercial  returns  of  Buffalo  are  fuller  than  those  of 

1  Andrews,  Report  on  Colonial  and   Lake  Trade  [1853],  pp.  S3-S4,  84-85,  236. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  LAKE  COMMERCE  325 

most  other  ports  ;  and  as  the  histoiy  of  her  commercial  progress  is 
little  less  than  the  history  of  the  rise  and  advancement  of  all  the 
commerce  west  of  it,  no  apology  will  be  necessar)^  for  entering 
somewhat  fully  into  the  history  of  the  lake  commerce  of  Buffalo, 
and  its  details,  at  this  time. 

This  commerce  dates  its  actual  commencement  from  the  year 
1825,  the  year  in  which  the  canal  was  finished  and  opened,  so  as 
to  connect  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  with  the  Atlantic.   .   .   . 

Up  to  the  year  1835  the  trade  consisted  principally  of  exports  of 
merchandise  to  the  West.  During  that  year,  however,  Ohio  com- 
menced exporting  breadstuffs,  ashes,  and  wool,  to  some  extent.  The 
following  table  exhibits  the  quantities  of  several  leading  articles  of 
western  produce,  during  the  various  periods  from  1835  to  185  i : 

Articles  shipped  Eastward  from  Buffalo  by  Canal 


Articles 


1835 


1840 


184: 


1850 


1S51 


Flour  (bbls.)    .   . 
Wheat  (bush.)   . 
Corn         " 
Provisions  (bbls. 
Ashes  " 

Staves  (no.)    .  . 
Wool  (lbs.)  .  .  . 
Butter  ^ 
Cheese  !>  (lbs.)  . 
Lard      j 


86,233 

14,579 
6,502 

4.419 

2,565,272 

140,911 

1,030,632 


633,700 

881,192 

47,885 

25,070 

7,008 

22,410,660 

107,794 

3.422,687 


717,406 

1,354,990 

33'069 

68,000 

34,602 

88,296,431 

2,957,007 

6,597,007 


984,430 

3,304,647 

2,608,967 

146,836 

17-504 

159,479.504 

8,805,817 

17.534,981 


1,106,352 

3,668,005 

5,789,842 

"7,734 

25,585 

75,927,659 

7,857,907 

1 1,102,282 


The  figures  above  are  taken  from  the  canal  returns  for  the  sev- 
eral years,  and  of  course  do  not  embrace  the  whole  imports  of  the 
lakes,  but  are  given  as  the  best  attainable  standards  of  the  increase 
of  lake  commerce,  up  to  the  date  when  the  statistics  of  that  com- 
merce began  to  be  kept  in  a  manner  on  which  reliance  might  be 
reposed.  .  .   .  ^ 

1  It  is  important  to  note  in  this  and  the  following  table  the  small  amount  of 
western  produce  sent  east  over  the  canal.  It  was  insignificant  in  1835,  very  small 
in  1840,  and  not  an  important  factor  in  the  prosperity  of  the  West  until  the  Irish 
famine  of  1846-7.  Eastern  manufactures  furnished  little  home  market  for  western 
agriculture  until  the  decade  1S50-60.  Western  farmers  got  their  home  market 
chiefly  on  the  plantations  of  the  South.    Such  markets  as  the  eastern  manufactures 


;26 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


Comparative  Statement  of  Trade  and  Tonnage  of  the 
New  York  State  Canals 


Total 
received 
at  Tide- 
Water 
(Tons) 

Total  going 

from  Tide- 

Proportion 
destined  to 

Proportion 
received  from 

Value  from 

Other  States, 

Total  Value 

Years 

Water 
(Tons) 

Other  States 
(Tons) 

Other  States 
(Tons) 

via  Buffalo 
and  Oswego 

received  at 
Tide-Water 

1835 

763.193 

128,910 

55.772 

$20,525,446 

1836 

696,347 

133.796 

61,167 

104,701 

$5,493,816 

26,932,470 

1S37 

611,741 

122,130 

54,766 

I  10,108 

4,813,626 

21,822,354 

1838 

640,481 

142,802 

77,090 

125.779 

6,369,645 

23,038,510 

1S39 

602,128 

142,035 

85.193 

I  58,000 

7,258,968 

20,163,199 

1840 

669,012 

129,580 

63,871 

214,456 

7.877.358 

23.213.573 

1 84 1 

774,334 

162,715 

81,742 

275,076 

11,889,273 

27.225,322 

1842 

666,626 

122,394 

54,011 

272,386 

9,215,808 

22,761,013 

1843 

836,861 

143.595 

72,500 

286,891 

'1.937.943 

28,453.408 

1844 

1,019,094 

176,737     , 

99.552 

340,151 

15.875.558 

34,183,167 

1845 

1,204,943 

195,000 

104,018 

338.525 

14,162,239 

45.452.321 

1846 

1,362,319 

213.795 

138.235 

540,219 

20,471.939 

51,105,256 

1847 

1,744,283 

288,267 

147,654 

854.693 

32,666.324 

73,092,414 

1848 

1,447,905 

329-557 

187,453 

701,531 

23.245.353 

50.883,907 

1849 

1,579,946 

315.550 

183,036 

834,140 

26,713,796 

52.375.521 

1850 

2,033,668 

418,370 

158,501 

897,891 

25,471,962 

55.474.637 

1851 

1,977,151 

467,961 

246,812 

1,047,649 

26,928,315 

53,927,508 

IV.    COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  SEABOARD  CITIES 

1  Previous  to  the  construction  of  the  canal  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation from  I.ake  Eric  to  tide-water  was  such  as  nearly  to  prevent 
all  movement  of  merchandise.  A  report  of  the  committee  of  the 
legislature,  to  whom  was  referred  the  whole  subject  of  the  proposed 
work,  consisting  of  the  most  intelligent  memlx'i's  of  that  body, 
dated  March  17,  18 17,  states  that  at  that  time  the  co.st  of  transpor- 
tation//?;/// Buffalo  to  Montreal  was  $50  pei-  ton,  and  the  rctiiniing 
transportation   from   $60  to  $75.    The  expense  of  transportation 

created  for  agricultural  produce  were  supplied  by  the  local  farmers  and  by  those 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  who  were  brought  into  easy  connection  with 
these  markets  by  the  extensive  canal  systems  of  those  two  states. 

1  Poor,  Railroads  and  Canals  of  the  United  States,  in  Andrews'  Report  on  Colo- 
nial and  Lake  Trade,  pp.  234,  240,  242,  243,  248-249,  250,  261,  262,  269-270,  271, 
273.  274.  275.  284,  285-286. 


COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  SEABOARD  CrriES    327 

from  Buffalo  to  New  York  was  stated  at  $100  per  ton,  and  the  or- 
dinary length  of  passage  /tiyv//;'  days  ;  so  that,  upon  the  ver}'  route 
through  which  the  heaviest  and  cheapest  products  of  the  West  are 
now  sent  to  market,  the  cost  of  transportation  equalled  nearly  tJure 
times  the  market  value  of  wheat  in  New  York  ;  six  times  the 
vajue  of  corn  ;  Hvclvc  times  the  value  of  oats  ;  and  far  exceeded 
the  value  of  most  kinds  of  cured  provisions.  These  facts  afford  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  value  of  internal  improvements  to  a 
country  like  the  Lhiited  States.  It  may  be  here  stated,  as  an  inter- 
esting fact,  that  prior  to  the  construction  of  the  Erie  Canal  the  wheat 
of  western  New  York  was  sent  down  the  Susquehanna  to  Balti- 
more, as  the  cheapest  and  best  route  to  market. 

Although  the  rates  of  transportation  over  the  Erie  Canal,  at  its 
opening,  were  nearly  double  the  present  charges  —  which  range 
from  $3  to  $7  per  ton,  according  to  the  character  of  the  freight  — 
it  immediately  became  the  convenient  and  favorite  route  for  a  large 
portion  of  the  produce  of  the  Northwestern  States,  and  secured  to 
the  city  of  New  York  the  position  which  she  now  holds  as  the  em- 
porium of  the  confederacy.  Previous  to  the  opening  of  the  canal 
the  trade  of  the  West  was  chiefly  carried  on  through  the  cities  of 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,  particularly  the  latter,  which  was  at 
that  time  the  first  city  in  the  United  States  in  population  and 
wealth,  and  in  the  amount  of  its  internal  commerce.   .   .   . 

The  Erie  Canal  secured  to  the  city  of  New  York  the  trade  of  the 
interior,  because  it  occupied  the  only  route  practicable  for  such  a 
work.  So  long,  therefore,  as  canals  continued  the  most  approved 
of  known  modes  of  transportation,  the  superior  position  of  that  city 
in  reference  to  the  internal  trade  of  the  country  remained  unques- 
tioned. Such  is  now  [1852]  no  longer  the  case.  Eor  travel,  and  for 
the  transportation  of  certain  kinds  of  merchandise,  the  superiority 
of  railroads  is  admitted.  It  is  also  claimed  that  they  can  successfully 
compete  with  the  canal  in  heavy  freights.  However  this  may  be, 
the  correctness  of  the  assumption  is  admitted  by  the  construction 
of  railroads  parallel  to  all  the  canals,  for  the  purpose  of  competing 
for  the  business  of  the  latter.  The  conviction  is  now  almost 
universal,  that  commercial  supremacy  is  to  be  secured  and  main- 
tained by  this  new  agency,  which  neutralizes,  to  a  great  extent,  the 


328  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

advantages  arising  from  the  accidents  of  position  ;  and  that  the  com- 
merce of  the  country  is  still  a  prize  for  the  competition  of  all  cities 
which  may  choose  to  enter  the  lists.  Influenced  by  these  views, 
all  the  great  commercial  towns  have  either  completed  or  are  con- 
structing, stupendous  lines  of  railroad,  with  the  confident  expectation 
of  securing  to  each  a  portion  of  the  trade  which,  up  to  the  present 
time,  has  been  almost  entirely  monopolized  by  one. 

It  is  proper  to  state,  that  the  people  of  New  York,  in  view  of 
the  competition  and  rivalry  with  which  they  are  threatened,  have 
determined  to  complete  the  enlargement  of  the  Erie  Canal  within 
the  shortest  practicable  period.  It  is  calculated  that  this  enlargement 
can  be  completed  within  three  years  after  it  shall  be  undertaken. 
The  enlarged  canal  will  allow  the  use  of  boats  of  224  tons  burden, 
or  three  times  the  capacity  of  those  now  employed  ;  and  will,  it  is 
estimated,  reduce  the  cost  of  transporting  a  barrel  of  flour  from 
Buffalo  to  Albany  to  twenty-five  cents,  and  other  merchandise  in 
like  proportion.   .   .   . 

Erie  Railroad  and  its  BraneJies.  —  The  Erie  railroad,  unlike  the 
Central  line,  was  planned  and  has  been  executed  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  accommodation  of  the  trade  between  New  York  and  the 
West.  It  is  the  greatest  work  ever  attempted  in  this  country,  and 
its  construction  is  the  greatest  achievement  of  the  kind  yet  realized. 
The  road  and  all  its  structures  are  on  the  most  comprehensive  scale, 
and  its  facilities  for  business  are  fully  equal  to  the  magnitude  and 
object  of  the  work.   ... 

This  road  was  opened  for  business  only  on  the  first  of  June,  185 1. 
It  has  not,  therefore,  been  in  operation  a  sufficient  length  of  time 
to  supply  any  satisfactory  statistics  as  to  its  probable  influence  upon 
western  commerce.  So  far  as  its  business  and  revenues  are  con- 
cerned, it  has  exceeded  the  most  sanguine  expectations. 

Western  Railroad.  —  No  sooner  had  the  people  of  this  country 
become  acquainted  with  the  part  that  railroads  are  capable  of  per- 
forming in  commercial  affairs,  than  the  city  of  Boston  conceived  the 
bold  idea  of  securing  to  itself  the  trade  of  the  interior,  from  which 
it  had  previously  been  cut  off  by  the  impossibility  of  opening  any 
suitable  communication  by  water.    It  was  this  idea  that  gave  birth 


COMMERC'lAI,    RIVALRY   OF  SKA]K)AR1)  CTl'IKS     329 

to  the  \]\'stfn/  railroad  project,  the  most  important  which  has  yet 
been  consummated  in  New  England,  and  one  of  the  most  so  in  the 
United  States.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  Through  it  the  city  of  Boston  proposed  to  draw  to  herself 
the  trade  and  produce  of  the  West,  from  the  very  harbor  of  New 
York,  (for  the  Albany  basin  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  portion  of 
her  harbor  ;)  and  to  open  in  the  same  direction  an  outlet  for  the 
product  of  her  manufactures,  and  of  her  foreign  commerce.  It  is 
well  known  that  these  efforts  have  been  so  far  successful  as  to  se- 
cure to  Boston  a  large  amount  of  western  trade,  which  otherwise 
would  have  gone  to  New  York,  and  to  render  the  Western  road  her 
channel  of  communication  between  the  former  city  and  the  West. 
It  was  only  when  menaced  by  this  work,  that  New  York  successfully 
resumed  the  construction  of  the  Erie  railroad  ;  and  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say,  that  but  for  the  former,  the  Erie  road  would  probably 
have  been  abandoned,  even  after  the  expenditure  of  many  millions 
of  dollars,  and  the  Hudson  River  railroad  project  remained  un- 
touched up  to  the  present  time. 

The  W^estern  railroad,  though  constructed  at  immense  cost,  has 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  productive  works  in  the  United 
States,  paying  an  annual  dividend  of  eight  per  cent.,  besides  accu- 
mulating a  large  sinking  fund.  It  has  been  the  chief  instrument  of 
the  extraordinary  progress  of  Massachusetts  in  population,  wealth, 
and  commercial  greatness,  from  1840  to  1850.  It  supplies  the 
State  with  a  large  portion  of  many  of  the  most  important  articles  of 
food.  It  opened  an  outlet  to  the  products  of  her  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments and  her  foreign  commerce,  and  stimulated  every  in- 
dustrial pursuit  to  an  extraordinaiy  degree,  and,  from  the  results 
that  have  followed  its  opening,  forced  all  our  leading  cities  to  the 
construction  of  similar  works,  with  similar  objects. 

Railroads  from  Boston  to  Lake  Charnplain  and  the  St.  Lazu- 
rence.  —  The  Western  railroad,  though  accomplishing  greater 
results,  and  exerting  a  wider  influence  upon  the  varied  interests  of 
the  State,  than  either  were  or  could,  with  reason,  have  been  antici- 
pated, secured  to  the  city  of  Boston  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
western  produce  reaching  Albany.  As  the  canal,  which  has  been  the 
avenue  for  this  produce,  is  in  operation  only  during  the  period  of 


330  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

navigation  on  the  Hudson  river,  it  is  found  that  this  produce  can  be 
forwarded  to  New  York  by  water  much  cheaper  than  to  Boston  by 
raih^oad.  Cost  of  transportation  always  determines  the  route.  At 
the  dullest  season  of  the  year  for  freights,  flour  is  often  sent  from 
Albany  to  Liverpool  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  twenty-five  cents  per 
barrel,  which  is  only  equal  to  the  lowest  rate  charged  from  Albany 
to  Boston,  The  Western  railroad,  therefore,  though  a  convenient 
channel  through  which  the  people  of  Boston  and  of  Massachusetts 
draw  their  domestic  supplies  of  food,  is  found  unable  to  compete 
with  the  Hudson  river  as  a  route  for  produce  designed  for  exporta- 
tion to  foreign  countries  or  to  the  neighboring  States.  It  failed  to 
secure  one  of  the  leading  objects  of  its  construction.  Its  fault, 
however,  was  not  so  much  ascribed  to  the  idea  upon  which  the 
road  was  built,  as  to  the  route  selected  to  accomplish  its  object.  It 
was  felt  that  a  route  farther  removed  from  the  influence  of  the  New 
York  system  of  public  works  must  be  selected,  and  this  conviction 
led  to  the  project  of  a  direct  line  of  railroad  from  Boston  to  the 
navigable  waters  of  Lake  Ontario,  passing  to  the  north  of  Lake 
Champlain.  This  line,  freed  from  all  immediate  competition,  and 
from  the  attractive  influence  of  other  great  cities,  would,,  it  was  be- 
lieved, secure  to  Boston  the  proud  pre-eminence  of  becoming  the 
exporting  port  of  western  produce,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
the  emporium  of  the  country. 

This  great  line  has  been  completed  ;  but  it  has  too  recently  come 
into  operation  to  predict,  with  any  certainty,  the  result.  From 
Boston  to  Lake  Champlain  it  is  composed  of  two  parallel  lines  :  one 
made  up  of  the  Boston  and  Lowell,  Nashua  and  Lowell,  Concord, 
Northern  (New  Hampshire,)  and  Vermont  Central ;  the  other  of  the 
Fitchburg,  a  part  of  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts,  Cheshire,  and 
Rutland  roads.  From  Burlington,  on  Lake  Champlain,  these  roads 
are  carried  forward  upon  a  common  trunk,  composed  of  the  Ver- 
mont and  Canada,  and  Ogdensburg  (Northern  New  York)  roads, 
to  Ogdensburg,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  above  the  rapids  in  that  river, 
thus  forming  an  uninterrupted  line  from  the  navigable  waters  of  the 
great  basin  to  the  city  of  Boston.  .  .   . 

Were  those  immediately  interested  in  the  above  roads  to  derive 
no  other  advantage  than  that  of  receiving  their  supplies  of  western 


COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  SEABOARD  CITIES    331 

products,  and  forwarding  o\er  tlu'in  in  return  those  of  their  own 
factories,  they  would  be  fully  compensated  for  all  their  outlay.  The 
unexampled  progress  of  New  ICngland  in  population  and  wealth,  in 
spite  of  all  her  disadvantages  of  soil  and  climate,  j)roves,  most  con- 
clusively, the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  her  people  in  constructing 
their  numerous  lines  of  railroad,  which  ally  them  to  the  more  fer- 
tile and  productive  portions  of  the  country.   .   .   . 

The  attention  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  was,  at  an  early 
period  in  our  history,  turned  to  the  subject  of  internal  improve- 
ments, with  a  view  to  the  local  wants  of  the  State,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  opening  a  water  communication  between  the  Delaware  river 
and  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Ohio.  It  was  not,  however,  till 
stimulated  by  the  example  of  New  York,  and  the  results  which  her 
great  work,  the  Erie  Canal,  was  achieving  in  developing  and  secur- 
ing to  the  former  the  trade  of  the  West,  that  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania commenced  the  construction  of  various  works  which  make 
up  the  elaborate  system  of  that  State. 

The  great  Pennsylvania  line  of  improvement,  extending  from 
Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  was  commenced  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1826,  and  was  finally  completed  in  March,  1834.  It  is  made  up 
partly  of  railroad  and  partly  of  canal,  the  works  that  compose  it 
being  the  Columbia  railroad,  extending  from  Philadelphia  to  Colum- 
bia, a  distance  of  82  miles  ;  the  eastern  and  Juniata  divisions  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Canal,  extending  from  Columbia,  on  the  Susque- 
hanna river,  to  Hollidaysburg,  at  the  base  of  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains, a  distance  of  172  miles;  the  Portage  railroad,  extending 
from  Hollidaysburg  to  Johnston,  a  distance  of  36  miles,  and  by 
which  the  mountains  are  surmounted  ;  and  the  western  division  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Canal,  extending  from  Johnston  to  Pittsburg,  a 
distance  of  104  miles  ;  making  the  entire  distance  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Pittsburg  by  this  line  394  miles.   .   .   . 

The  line  of  improvement  we  have  described  was  constructed 
with  similar  objects,  and  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  city  of 
Philadelphia  as  does  the  Erie  Canal  to  the  city  of  New  York.  It 
has  not,  however,  achieved  equal  results,  partly  from  the  want  of 
convenient  western  connexions,  from  the  unfavorable  character  of 


332  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

the  route,  and  partly  from  the  fact  that  the  hne  is  made  up  of  rail- 
road and  canal,  involving  greater  cost  of  transportation  than  upon 
the  New  York  work.  It  has,  however,  proved  of  vast  utility  to  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  and  to  the  State,  and  has  enabled  the  former 
to  maintain  a  very  large  trade  which  she  would  have  lost  but  for 
the  above  line.  The  comparatively  heavy  cost  of  transportation 
over  this  route  has  not  enabled  it  to  compete  with  the  New  York 
improvements,  as  an  outlet  for  the  cheap  and  bulky  products 
of  the  West ;  but  so  far  as  the  return  movement  is  concerned, 
it  enjoys  some  advantages  over  the  former,  the  most  important 
of  which  is  the  longer  period  during  which  it  is  in  operation. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  season  it  opens  for  business  about 
a  month  earlier  than  the  Erie  canal  —  a  fact  which  secures  to 
it  and  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia  a  very  large  trade  long  before 
its  rival  comes  into  operation  ;  so  that,  although  it  may  not  have 
realized  the  expectations  formed  from  it  as  an  outlet  for  western 
trade,  it  has  been  the  great  support  of  Philadelphia,  without  which 
her  trade  must  have  succumbed  to  the  superior  advantages  of 
New  York. 

It  would  be  a  matter  of  much  interest  could  the  movement  of 
property,  upon  the  two  lines  of  improvement  from  tide-water  to  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  West,  be  compared,  both  in  tonnage  and 
value.  The  returns  of  the  Pennsylvania  works,  however,  do  not 
furnish  the  necessary  data  for  such  a  comparison.  There  are  no 
methods  of  distinguishing  accurately  the  local  from  the  through- 
tonnage,  nor  the  quantity  or  value  of  property  received  from 
other  States,  as  is  shown  upon  the  New  York  works.  The  returns 
of  the  business  on  the  former,  however,  show  only  a  small  move- 
ment east  over  the  Portage  road,  which  must  indicate  pretty  cor- 
rectly the  tJuvngh  movement.  In  the  opposite  direction  the  amount, 
both  in  value  and  tonnage,  is  much  larger.  A  better  idea,  proba- 
bly, can  be  formed  of  the  value  and  amount  of  this  traffic  from  the 
extent  of  the  jobbing  trade  of  Philadelphia,  a  ver)^  considerable 
portion  of  which  must  pass  over  the  above  route.  Philadelphia, 
though  it  does  not  possess  a  large  foreign  commerce,  is  one  of 
the  great  distributing  points  of  merchandise  in  the  Union  ;  and 
the  large  population  and  the  very  rapid  growth  of  that  city,  in  the 


COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  SEABOARD  CITIES     t^^^ 

absence  of  i\\c  foreign  trade  enjoyed  by  New  York,  proves  conclu- 
sively the  immense  c/ojncstic  commerce  of  the  former. 

Influenced  by  similar  objects  to  those  which  actuated  the  people 
of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  and  the  eastern  States,  in  their 
immense  expenditures  for  works  that  facilitate  transportiition,  the 
people  of  Mar)land,  at  an  early  ])eriod,  commenced  two  very  im- 
portant works,  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  and  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  railroad,  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  the  trade  of  the 
interior,  and  of  placing  themselves  on  the  routes  of  commerce  be- 
tween the  two  grand  divisions  of  the  country.  By  the  deep  inden- 
tation made  by  the  Chesapeake  bay,  the  navigable  tide-waters  are 
brought  into  nearest  proximity  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  the 
States  of  Maryland  and  Virginia.  To  this  is  to  be  ascribed  the 
fact,  that  before  the  use  of  railroads,  the  principal  routes  of  travel 
between  the  East  and  the  West  were  from  the  waters  of  that  bay 
to  the  Ohio  river.  The  great  National  road,  established  and  con- 
structed by  the  general  government,  commenced  at  the  Potomac 
river,  in  Maryland,  and  its  direction  was  made  to  conform  to  the 
convenient  route  of  travel  at  tJiat  time. 

No  sooner  had  experience  demonstrated  the  superiority  of  rail- 
roads to  ordinary  roads,  than  the  people  of  Baltimore  assumed  the 
adaptation  of  them  to  their  routes  of  communication,  and  immedi- 
ately commenced  the  construction  of  that  great  work,  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  railroad,  which,  after  a  struggle  of  tzvoity-five 
years,  is  now  on  the  eve  of  completion. 

This  road  was  commenced  in  1828,  and  was  one  of  the  first 
roads  brought  into  use  in  the  United  States.   .   .   . 

The  road  is  now  [1852]  open  to  a  point  about  300  miles  from 
Baltimore,  and  will  be  completed  on  or  before  the  first  of  Januaiy 
next.  .  .  . 

As  before  stated,  the  first  route  of  travel  between  the  East  and 
the  West  was  between  the  waters  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Ohio. 
The  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  and,  subsequently,  of  the  railroads 
between  the  Hudson  river  and  Lake  Erie,  diverted  this  travel  to 
this  more  northern  and  circuitous,  but  more  convenient  route. 
This  diversion  seriously  affected  the  business  of  Baltimore,  and 


334  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

materially  lessened  the  revenues  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  rail- 
road, since  its  opening  to  Cumberland.  All  this  lost  ground  the 
people  of  Baltimore  expect  to  regain  ;  and  with  it,  to  draw  them- 
selves a  large  trade  now  accustomed  to  pass  to  the  more  northern 
cities.  Assuming  the  cost  of  transportation  on  a  railroad  to  be 
measured  by  lineal  distance,  Baltimore  certainly  occupies  a  very 
favorable  position  in  reference  to  western  trade.  To  Cincinnati, 
the  great  city  of  the  West,  and  the  commercial  depot  of  southern 
(3hio,  the  shortest  route  from  all  the  great  northern  cities  will 
probably  be  by  way  of  Baltimore,  and  over  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad.  To  strengthen  her  position  still  farther,  the  people  of  this 
city  have  already  commenced  the  construction  of  the  NortJiwcstcrn 
railroad,  extending  from  the  southwestern  angle  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  railroad  to  Parkersburg,  on  the  Ohio  river,  in  a  direct  line 
towards  Cincinnati.  The  distance  from  Baltimore  to  Parkersburg, 
by  this  route,  will  be  about  395  miles,  and  about  580  to  Cincinnati, 
by  the  railroads  in  progress  through  southern  Ohio.   .   .  . 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal.  —  This  great  work  was  projected 
with  a  view  to  its  extension  to  the  Ohio  river  at  Pittsburg.  The 
original  route  extended  from  Alexandria,  up  the  Potomac  river,  to 
the  mouth  of  Wills  Creek,  thence  by  the  Youghiogheny  and  Mo- 
nongahela  rivers  to  Pittsburg.  Its  proposed  length  was  341  miles. 
It  was  commenced  in  1828,  but  it  was  only  in  the  past  year  that  it 
was  opened  for  business  to  Cumberland,  191  miles.  Towards  the 
original  stock  $1,000,000  was  subscribed  by  the  United  States, 
$1,000,000  by  the  city  of  Washington,  $250,000  by  Georgetown, 
$250,000  by  Alexandria,  and  $5,000,000  by  the  State  of  Maryland. 

From  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  construction,  the  idea  of  ex- 
tending the  canal  beyond  Cumberland  has  long  since  been  aban- 
doned ;  and  though  when  originally  projected,  it  was  regarded  as 
a  work  of  national  importance,  it  must  now  be  ranked  as  a  local 
work,  save  so  far  as  it  may  be  used  in  connexion  with  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  railroad,  as  a  portion  of  a  tJirough  route  to  the 
Ohio.  In  this  manner  it  bids  fair  to  become  a  route  of  much  gen- 
eral importance.  As  a  very  large  coal  trade  must  always  pass 
through  this  canal,  the  boats  will  take  return  freights  at  very  low 
rates,  in   preference  to  returning  light.     It  is  proposed  to  form 


COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  SEABOARD  CITIES     335 

a  line  of  steam  propellers  from  New  York  to  I^altinKMV,  for  the 
transportation  of  coal ;  and  it  is  claimed  that  the  very  low  rates  at 
which  freights  between  New  York  and  Cumberland  can  be  placed 
by  such  a  combination,  will  cause  the  canal,  in  connexion  with 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  to  become  a  leading  route 
between  New  York  and  the  West. 

The  State  of  Virginia  is  the  birth-place  of  the  idea  of  construct- 
ing an  artificial  line  for  the  accommodation  of  commerce  and  travel 
between  the  navigable  rivers  of  the  interior  and  tide-water.  It  is 
now  nearly  one  hundred  years  since  a  definite  plan  for  a  canal 
from  the  tide-waters  of  Virginia  to  the  Ohio  was  presented  by 
Washington  to  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia,  and  ever 
since  that  time  the  realization  of  this  project  has  been  the  cher- 
ished idea  of  the  State.   .   .   . 

James  River  and  Kanawha  Canal.  —  The  great  work  by  which 
this  connexion  has  been  sought  to  be  accomplished  is  the  James 
river  and  Kanazvha  canal,  to  extend  from  Richmond  to  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Greenbrier  river,  a  distance  of  about  310  miles.  This  work  is  now 
completed  to  Buchanan,  in  the  valley  of  Virginia,  a  distance  of  196 
miles,  and  is  in  progress  to  Covington,  a  town  situated  at  the  base 
of  the  great  Alleghany  ridge,  about  thirty  miles  farther.  It  was 
commenced  in  1834,  and  has  cost,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  sum 
of  $10,714,306.  The  extension  of  this  water  line  to  the  Ohio  is 
still  considered  a  problem  by  many,  though  its  friends  cherish  the 
original  plan  with  unfaltering  zeal.  The  work  thus  far  has  scarcely 
realized  public  expectation,  from  the  difficulties  encountered,  which 
have  proved  far  greater  than  were  anticipated  in  the  outset,  and 
have  materially  delayed  the  progress  of  the  work.   .   .   . 

Central  Railroad.  —  The  object  which  led  to  the  conception  of 
the  James  river  and  Kanawha  canal  is  now  the  ruling  motive  in  the 
construction  of  the  two  leading  railroad  projects  of  this  State,  viz : 
the  Virginia  Central  and  the  Mrginia  and  Tennessee  railroads. 
While  the  canal  is  still  the  favorite  project  with  an  influential  por- 
tion of  her  citizens,  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  sympathizing  with 
the  popular  feeling  in  favor  of  railroads,  which  have  in  many  cases 


336  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

superseded  canals  as  means  of  transportation,  and  which  are  adapted 
to  more  varied  uses  and  better  reflect  the  character  and  spirit  of 
the  times,  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  the  State  deem  it  more 
advisable  to  open  the  proposed  western  connexions  by  means  of 
railroads  than  by  a  farther  extension  of  the  canal.   .   .  . 

The  whole  length  of  the  road,  from  Richmond  to  the  navigable 
waters  of  the  Kanawha,  will  be  about  two  hundred  and  eighty-six 
miles.  The  means  for  its  construction  have  thus  far  been  furnished 
by  stock  subscriptions  on  the  part  of  the  State  and  individuals,  in 
the  proportion  of  three-fifths  by  the  former,  to  two-fifths  by  the 
latter.  No  doubt  is  entertained  of  its  extension  over  the  mountains, 
at  a  comparatively  early  period.  The  State  is  committed  to  the 
work,  and  has  too  much  involved,  both  in  the  amount  already  ex- 
pended and  in  the  results  at  stake,  to  allow  it  to  pause  at  this  late 
hour.  The  opinion  is  now  confidently  expressed  by  well-informed 
persons  that  some  definite  plan  will  be  adopted  for  the  immediate 
construction  of  the  remaining  link  of  this  great  line. 

The  leading  roads  in  operation  in  Georgia  constitute  two  great 
lines,  representing,  apparently,  two  different  interests.  The  first 
extends  from  Savannah,  the  commercial  capital  of  the  State,  to 
the  Tennessee  river,  a  distance  of  434  miles,  and  is  made  up  of  the 
Georgia  Central,  ^faeon  and  IVester-n,  and  Western  and  Atlantic 
roads.  The  latter,  by  which  the  railroad  system  of  the  State  is 
carried  into  the  Tennessee  valley,  is  a  State  work.  The  second  line 
traverses  the  State  from  east  to  west,  crossing  the  other  nearly  at 
right-angles,  and  is  made  up  of  the  Georgia  and  the  Atlantic  and 
La  Grange  railroads.  This  line  may  be  considered  as  an  exten- 
sion, in  a  similar  direction,  of  the  South  Cajvlina  railroad,  and 
rests  on  Charleston  as  its  commercial  depot,  as  does  the  former 
on  Savannah.  To  a  certain  extent  the  Western  and  Atlantic  link 
may  be  said  to  be  common  to  both  lines.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  To  the  State  of  Georgia  must  be  awarded  the  honor  of 
first  surmounting  the  Great  Alleghany  or  Appalachian  range,  and 
of  carrying  a  continuous  line  of  railroad  from  the  seacoast  into 
the  Mississippi  valley.  From  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such 
an  achievement,  it  must  always  be  regarded  as  a  crowning  work. 


CANALS  AND  RAILROADS  vs.  THE  MISSISSIPPI 


jji 


Wherever  accomplished,  the  most  important  results  are  certain  to 
follow.  The  construction  of  the  Western  and  Atlantie  road  was 
the  signal  for  a  new  movement  throughout  all  the  southern  and 
southwestern  States.  By  opening  an  outlet  to  the  seaboard  for  a 
vast  section  of  countr}^  it  at  once  gave  birth  to  numerous  important 
projects,  which  are  now  making  rapid  progress,  and  which,  when 
completed,  will  open  to  the  whole  southern  country  the  advantages 
of  railroad  transportation.  Among  the  more  important  of  these 
may  be  named  the  MenipJiis  and  CJiarleston,  the  East  Tentiessee 
and  (Georgia,  and  the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  roads,  already 
referred  to.  The  former  will  open  a  direct  line  of  railroad  from 
Memphis,  an  important  town  on  the  Tennessee  [Mississippi]  river, 
to  the  southern  Atlantic  ports  of  Charleston  and  Savannah,  and 
will  become  the  trunk  for  a  great  number  of  important  radial 
branches.  The  Nashville  and  Chattanooga,  traversing  the  State 
of  Tennessee  in  a  northwesterly  direction,  has  given  a  new  impulse 
to  the  numerous  railroads  which  are  springing  into  life,  both  in 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  These  railroads  will  soon  form  connex- 
ions with  those  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Ilhnois,  and  thus  all  the 
northern  and  western  States  will  be  brought  into  intimate  business 
relations  with  the  southern  cities  of  Charleston  and  Savannah.  .  .  . 


V.    COMPETITION  OF  CANALS  AND  RAILROADS 
WITH   THE   MISSISSIPPI 

1  In  1845  it  was  estimated  that  of  the  produce  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  shipped  to  seaboard  one  half  found  its  way  to  market  via 
the  canals,  railroads,  and  other  means  of  transportation  to  the  At- 
lantic coast,  and  the  other  half  went  by  way  of  New  Orleans.  Of 
the  imports,  however.  New  Orleans  handled  a  much  smaller  pro- 
portion, and  of  those  the  heavier  products  were  shipped  to  the 
West  by  the  canals  and  the  lighter  by  the  railroads.  In  1846  the 
receipts  of  flour  and  wheat  at  Buffalo  exceeded  those  at  New  Or- 
leans, and  those  who  favored  the  river  route  began  for  the  first 
time  to  express  some  alarm.  The  newspapers  and  magazines  of 
the  time  are  filled  with  a  discussion  of  this  question,  and  those  of 

1  Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  1SS7,  pp.  210-212. 


33,^ 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


New  Orleans  insisted  that  the  natural  water  way  to  the  ocean  was 
the  cheapest,  and  no  artificial  route,  whether  rail  or  canal,  could 
long  successfully  compete  with  it. 

In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  receipts  by  the  New  York  State 
canals  at  tide-water  had  increased  as  follows  : 


Years 

Tons 

Value 

Years 

Tons 

Value 

1826      ... 

302,170 

1838      .      .      . 

640,481 

$23,038,510 

1834      .      .      . 

583>596 

$13,405,022 

1839      .      .      . 

602,128 

20,163,199 

1835      •      •      • 

753'i9i 

20,525,446 

1840      .      .      . 

669,012 

23>2i3.573 

1836      .      .      . 

699'347 

26,932,470 

1 84 1       .      .      . 

774035 

27,225,322 

1837       .      .      . 

611,781 

21,822,354 

1842      .      .      . 

666,626 

22,751,013 

The  change  was  most  marked  in  the  wheat  and  flour  trade.  In 
1835  there  arrived  at  tide- water  by  the  Erie  Canal  128,552  tons 
of  wheat  and  flour,  of  a  value  of  $5,719,795  [$7,395,939],  and  it 
increased  as  follows  : 


Years 

Tons 

Value 

Years 

Tons 

Value 

1835      .      .      . 

128,552 

^7095.939 

1S41      .      .      . 

201,360 

$10,165,355 

1836      .      .      . 

124,982 

9,796,540 

1842      .      .      . 

198,231 

9,284,778 

1837      .      .      . 

116,491 

9,649,156 

1843      .      .      . 

248,780 

10,283,454 

1838      .      .      . 

133,080 

9,883,586 

1844      .      .      . 

277,865 

11,211,677 

1839      .      .      . 

124,683 

7,217,841 

1845      •      ■      ■ 

320,463 

15,962,950 

1840      .      .      . 

244,862 

10,362,862 

1846      .      .      . 

419,366 

18,836,412 

This  was  by  a  single  canal.  The  Pennsylvania  Canal  transported 
a  much  larger  variety  of  articles,  while  the  Erie  diverted  the  corn 
and  wheat.  The  Pennsylvania  route  took  annually  some  20,000 
hogsheads  of  tobacco  that  had  formerly  gone  down  the  river,  all 
the  pig-iron  manufactured  around  Pittsburg,  and  large  quantities 
of  lard,  bacon,  and  other  Western  products.  Its  imports  included 
all  kinds  of  manufactured  goods,  chinaware,  cotton,  diy  goods, 
earthenware,  glassware,  hardware,  hats,  shoes,  and  muslin,  and  as 
early  as  1846  it  supplied  the  Ohio  basin  with  more  manufactured 
goods  than  the  Mississippi  did. 

A  comparison  made  by  De  Bow's  Review  at  this  time  of  the 
relative  cost  of  transportation  by  rail  and  river  declared  the  latter 


CANALS  AND  RAILROADS  vs.  THE  MLSSISSIPPI      339 

to  be  the  cheapest,  and  estimated  the  cost  of  transportation  per 
ton  per  mile  : 

Cents 

Canal,  exclusive  of  tolls i  j4 

Railroads 2^ 

Steam-boats  on  lakes 3 

Steam-boats  on  Ohio  and  Mississippi /4  io  i  )4 


Average 3, 


This  is  scarcely  a  fair  statement  of  the  case,  but  even  with  these 
figures  it  will  be  seen  that  as  the  steam-boats  had  to  go  from  60 
to  120  per  cent,  farther  in  miles,  had  to  pay  a  heavy  insurance, 
and  when  they  reached  destination  (New  Orleans),  the  freight  had 
a  heavier  ocean  rate  to  pay  than  at  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  there 
was  less  advantage  in  the  river  route  than  these  figures  would 
seem  to  indicate. 

In  1846  it  was  noted  that  for  the  first  time  the  receipts  of  flour 
and  wheat  at  Buffalo  exceeded  those  at  New  Orleans.  In  1847  the 
canals  and  railroads  had  still  further  invaded  the  river  territory, 
flour  being  shipped  from  Cincinnati  direct  to  New  York.  Over  the 
Erie  Canal  the  cost  per  barrel  was  $1.53  ;  via  Pittsburg,  $  i  .40 ; 
via  New  Orleans,  $1.30;  but  the  extra  risk  via  latter  route  made 
the  cost  by  the  river  $1.50. 

Attention  was  soon  after  called  to  the  fact  that  between  1835 
and  1849  the  increase  of  shipments  of  Western  produce  by  the 
Erie  Canal  had  increased  :  flour,  800  per  cent. ;  wheat,  1,300  per 
cent.;  staves,  4,000  per  cent,;  provisions  1,000  per  cent.;  wool, 
2,000  per  cent. 

Big  as  these  figures  are  there  was  little  to  alarm  the  river  inter- 
ests. The  canals  had  undoubtedly  captured  a  portion  of  the  valley 
trade,  but  the  lines  of  competition  between  the  canal  route  and  the 
river  route  became  more  definitely  marked,  and  the  Mississippi 
route  was  able  to  show  that  in  the  decade  1 841 -'51  it  had  kept 
ahead  of  the  Hudson  as  the  recipient  of  Western  produce,  as 
follows  : 

Received  at  seaboard  from  1841  to  185 1  : 

By  Mississippi $857,658,164 

Hudson 484,924,474 


J 


40  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


Of  the  former  receipts,  however,  only  $282,642,620  were  of 
Western  produce.  The  Hudson  was  receiving  over  three-fifths  of 
the  surplus  products  of  the  Western  country. 

Although  no  years  in  the  history  of  New  Orleans  were  appar- 
ently more  prosperous  than  the  ten  years  preceding  the  war, 
although  the  city's  receipts  of  produce  constantly  increased,  the 
trade  papers  were  continually  sounding  notes  of  alarm,  calling  at- 
tention to  lines  of  trade  lost,  and  singing  Cassandra  warnings. 

De  Bow  notices,  for  instance,  that  in  1S50  large  quantities  of 
flo,ur  were  being  shipped  East  from  Cincinnati. 

In  1859  De  Bow's  Review  congratulated  New  Orleans  that 
some  of  this  trade  was  coming  back  to  it,  and  pointed  out  that 
the  New  Orleans  route  was  the  cheaper  for  flour. 

liy  rail  and  sea : 

Cincinnati  to  New  York        ^i-7S 

New  York  to  Liverpool .50 

Total  to  Liverpool $2.25 

By  river  and  sea  : 

Cincinnati  to  New  Orleans $0.50 

New  York  to  Liverpool 96 

Total  to  Liverpool $146 

These  statistics,  flattering  as  they  were,  could  not  turn  the  course 
of  trade,  and  New  Orleans  never  regained  any  considerable  pro- 
portion of  this  flour  or  grain  trade.  In  later  years  there  was  a 
marked  movement  in  the  shipment  of  grain  from  the  upper-river 
States,  but  the  Ohio  River  wheat  and  flour  trades  were  measurably 
lost,  and  about  the  same  time  the  tobacco  trade,  which  in  the  ear- 
lier days  of  the  city  had  been  larger  than  the  cotton  trade,  grew 
relatively  less,  a  large  portion  of  the  crop  finding  an  outlet  else- 
where. The  receipts  of  tobacco  for  the  decade  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  war  showed  no  advance  over  the  receipts  during  the 
period  i840-'50,  although  there  had  been  a  large  increase  in 
the  crop. 

In  1852  the  lead  trade  from  Galena  and  Missouri,  which  had 
formerly  passed  through  New  Orleans,  was  lost  to  it,  the  railroads 
having  made  through  connections  with  Galena.  The  receipts  of 
lead  at  New  Orleans  had  reached  a  maximum  of  785,495  pigs  in 


CANALS  AND   RAILROADS   vs.  'I'lIK  M  ISSISSI  IM'I      341 

1846,  and  had  axcrai^cd  nearly  600,000  pi<2;s  for  the  previous  half- 
dozen  years.  It  sank  suddenly,  and  in  1856  was  but  18,291  pigs, 
and  soon  after  it  disappeared  altogether  from  the  commercial  rec- 
ords of  New  Orleans,  ])eing  an  item  too  small  for  consideration. 
This  trade,  howexer,  was  merely  a  transit  one,  the  shipments  being 
through  New  (Orleans  as  the  cheapest  route  to  New  York  and 
Europe.  In  1852  that  route  was  no  longer  the  cheapest,  the  rail- 
roads underbidding  it. 

Thus,  with  each  year,  did  New  Orleans  become  more  and  more 
a  cotton  city.  In  1852,  the  very  year  that  it  was  losing  the  lead 
trade  of  Missouri  and  Illinois,  and  the  flour  trade  of  Ohio,  cotton 
passed  in  value  all  the  other  products  received;  and  in  i859-'6o 
it  was  in  value  60  per  cent,  of  the  total  receipts,  and  the  bulk  of 
the  other  articles  were  imported  simply  to  supply  the  cotton-plant- 
ers and  enable  them  to  carry  on  their  places. 

^  In  order  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  amount  of  Western  prod- 
uce sent  East  over  artificial  lines  of  improvement,  we  annex  a  table 
of  the  t]iro7tgJi  Eastern  bound  freight  of  the  five  great  routes  — 
the  Erie  Canal,  New  York  Central,  New  York  and  Erie,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads,  since  1836,  in  which 
year  the  Western  trade  over  the  Erie  Canal  may  be  said  to  have 
commenced.  The  tolls  on  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  were 
removed  in  185  i,  the  Erie  Railroad  was  opened  in  the  same  year. 
The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  was  opened  in  1852,  so  as  to  com- 
mence a  through  business  in  connection  with  the  Public  Works 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  was  opened 
in  1852.  The  tons  given  are  those  received  at  the  Western 
terminus  of  each  work,  and  delivered  at  tide-water  [see  table  on 
page  342]. 

The  number  of  tons  of  Western  Produce  delivered  annually  at 
tide-water  over  these  routes,  exceed  twice  the  number  of  tons  of 
all  kinds  of  produce  delivered  at  New  Orleans  and  considerably 
exceed  the  same  in  value.  .  .  . 

^  The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the  Commercial  Relations  between  the  North 
and  South  [1861],  pp.  34-35,  37-38,  39-40. 


RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 


Tons  Western 

Tons  Western 

Tons  Western 

Tons  Western 

Tons  Western 

Produce  com- 

Produce com- 

Produce com- 

Produce com- 

Total Tons  to 

Years 

Produce  com- 

ing to  Tide  by 

ing  to  Tide 

ing  to  Tide 

ing  to  Tide 

Tide-Water 

ing  to  Tide  by 

New  Yorlc 

by  New  York 

by  Pennsyl- 

by Baltimore 

from  West- 

Erie  Canal 

Central 

and  Erie 

vania  Rail- 

and Ohio 

em  States 

Railroad 

Railroad 

road 

Railroad 

1836 

54>2i9 

54,219 

1837 

56,255 

55,255 

1838 

83,233 

83,233 

1839 

121,671 

121,671 

1840 

158,148 

158,148 

1 84 1 

224,176 

224,176 

1 84  2 

221,477 

'  221,477 

1843 

256,376 

256,376 

1S44 

308,025 

308,025 

1845 

304,551 

304,551 

1846 

506,830 

506,830 

1847 

812,840 

812,840 

1848 

650,154 

650,154 

1849 

768,659 

768,659 

1850 

773,858 

773,858 

1851 

966,993 

966,993 

1852 

1,151,978 

48,000 

48,000 

1,247,978 

1853 

1,213,690 

70,000 

70,000 

38 

S37 

21,014 

1,413,641 

1854 

1,100,526 

117,000 

77, '61 

53,825 

90,368 

1,438,880 

1855 

1,092,876 

147,500 

113,331 

106,407 

72,779 

1,532,993 

1856 

1,212,550 

172,781 

202,682 

88,707 

145,598 

1,822,323 

1857 

919,998 

179,647 

157,820 

94,905 

126,323 

1,478,693 

1858 

1,273,099 

229,275 

224,886 

141,268 

171,084 

2,039,611 

1859 

1,036,634 

234,241 

171,206 

129,767 

135,127 

1,706,775 

i860 

1,500,000 

293,520 

300,000 

1  50,000 

149,651 

2,393,171 

Total 

16,768,816 

1,495,923 

1,367,086 

803,716 

912,544 

21,348,085 

No  statement  can  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  extent  of  the 
trade  in  breadstuffs  of  the  City  of  New  York.  The  dehveries  from 
the  Canal  at  tide-water,  the  past  year,  equaled  1,367,563  tons, 
valued  at  $48,183,044.  The  Erie  and  Central  Railroads  trans- 
ported (nearly  all  to  tide-water)  540,000  tons  of  vegetable  food. 
Estimating  500,000  tons  of  this  amount  to  be  breadstuffs,  mostly 
Flour,  and  worth  $50  per  ton,  its  value  was  equal  to  $25,000,000. 
The  aggregate  tonnage  brought  to  tide-water  by  the  three  routes 
was  worth  at  least  $73,184,044.  Reducing  the  barrels  of  Flour 
to  bushels,  the  whole  number  of  bushels  that  came  to  the  New 


CANALS  AND  RATT^ROADS  vs.  THE  MISSISSIPPI      343 

York  market  the  past  \car,  through  her  three  cliannels,  equaled 
71,384,143  bushels  ! 

Of  animal  food  the  two  railroads  brought  to  tide-water  the  past 
year,  425,185  tons,  worth  on  the  average  ^200  per  ton,  and  in  the 
aggregate  $85,037,000.  The  Canal  brought  12,574  tons,  valued 
at  $2,766,694.  The  aggregate  value  brought  by  the  three  routes 
was  $87,803,694.  The  aggregate  tonnage  of  breadstuffs  and  ani- 
mal food  brought  to  tide-water,  the  past  year,  was  2,305,321  tons, 
and  their  aggregate  value  $160,906,778,  a  sum  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  equal  to  the  value  of  the  Cotton  crop  of  the  United  States 
the  past  year.  If  we  add  the  value  of  the  vegetable  and  animal 
food  brought  to  tide-water,  the  past  year,  from  the  Western  States 
over  the  Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads,  the 
aggregate  will  be  over  $200,000,000 ! 

Against  this  movement  on  the  Eastern  routes,  there  were  re- 
ceived at  New  Orleans,  the  past  year,  by  way  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  965,860  barrels  of  Flour,  13,1 16  sacks  of  Wheat,  1,722,037 
sacks  of  Corn,  659,550  bushels  of  Oats,  216,523  barrels  and  1,874 
hogsheads  of  Pork,  83,922  barrels  of  Lard,  44,934  barrels  and 
tierces  of  Beef,  and  82,819  casks  and  hogsheads  of  Bacon.  Re- 
ducing the  Flour  to  bushels,  the  total  number  of  bushels  of  grain 
received  at  New  Orleans  was  5,687,399,  against  71,384,143  re- 
ceived at  tide- water  over  the  New  York  lines,  or  at  least  85,000,000 
bushels  over  all  the  five  Eastern  outlets.  The  tons  of  animal  food 
received  at  New  Orleans  the  past  year,  was  95,700,  against  437,759 
by  the  New  York  routes,  or  adding  the  tonnage  of  animal  food 
brought  by  the  Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads, 
against,  probably,  525,000  tons  on  the  five  Eastern  outlets  of  the 
great  valley.   .   .   . 

These  facts  show  how  small  a  proportion  of  the  products  of 
the  North-Western  States  goes  to  market  by  w-ay  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River.  The  produce  received  at  New  Orleans  came  almost 
entirely  from  the  Southern  States  —  the  Plour  from  St.  Louis, 
and  the  Corn  and  Bacon  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  It  is 
not  probable  that  one-fiftieth  of  the  total  exports  of  grain  from 
the  North-West  went  down  the  Mississippi.  Of  other  articles  of 
export.  Wool,  Lumber,  Butter,  Cheese,  Hides,  etc.,  etc.,  no  portion 


344  RISE  OF  INTERNAL  COMMERCE 

whatever  is  sent  down  the  Mississippi  —  the  whole  going  direct  to 
the  Eastern  States. 

These  facts  are  stated,  not  by  way  of  invidious  comparison,  but 
to  show  the  power  that  resides  in  the  North  and  East  by  virtue  of 
their  numbers,  wealth,  industries  and  means  of  inter-communication, 
and  how  completely  these  sections  have  changed  the  direction  of 
the  great  routes  of  commerce  of  the  interior.  The  free  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi,  which  only  a  few  years  ago  was  considered  so 
indispensable,  is  for  the  North-Western  States  an  imaginary  rather 
than  a  real  necessity.  They  would  not,  of  course,  consent  that  any 
of  their  outlets  should  be  closed,  as  it  might  increase  the  exactions 
of  others,  and,  as  extraordinaiy  emergencies  might  occur,  creating 
interruptions  in  those  now  used.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  people 
of  New  Orleans  will  ever  allow  the  free  navigation  of  its  great 
feeder  to  be  interfered  with,  as  this  would  threaten  the  destruction 
of  their  wealth  and  trade.  The  peaceable  effect  of  Secession  may 
be  to  close  its  mouth  in  which  event  the  entire  trade  of  the  Valley 
could  be  easily,  and  in  the  end  to  the  convenience  and  benefit  of 
all,  sent  over  the  Northern  and  Eastern  routes. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  the  cotton  grown  in  Tennessee,  a  por- 
tion of  Alabama,  all  Mississippi  and  Arkansas,  and  a  part  of  Lou- 
isiana, can  be  delivered  at  Cairo  as  cheaply  as  at  New  Orleans. 
From  Cairo  to  New  York,  $4  a  bale,  or  $16  a  ton,  would  afford  a 
fair  business  to  the  carrier.  From  New  Orleans  to  New  York,  by 
the  outside  route,  including  charges  at  the  former  place,  and  insur- 
ance,-the  rate  cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than  a  cent  to'a  cent  and 
a  quarter  per  pound.  In  favor  of  the  interior  route  is  time,  climate 
and  uniform  health.  There  is  now  annually  consumed  in  the 
Northern  and  F2astern  States,  nearly  one  million  of  bales.  Our 
manufacturing  establishments  are  already  receiving  large  amounts 
through  the  interior  routes,  which  will  be  steadily  increased  till 
the  greater  part  consumed  reaches  them  in  this  manner.  All  the 
railroads  connecting  the  interior  with  the  Eastern  States,  are  mak- 
ing extensive  provision  for  this  new  traffic,  which  is  certain  to  be 
secured  by  our  method  of  low  charges,  and  by  the  great  advan- 
tages which  New  York,  Boston  and  Philadelphia  present  as  the 
parts  of  shipment. 


ciiAPri':R  viii 

Tl>LANSl'ORTATIC)N 

INTRODUCTION 

There  is  no  single  influence  which  has  played  so  large  a  part  in  American 
industry  as  transportation.  So  long  as  we  remained  in  the  economic  condition 
of  colonies,  depending  chiefly  upon  foreign  commerce  for  our  prosperity,  it 
was  marine  transportation  with  which  wc  were  chiefly  concerned.  Shipping 
and  the  carrying  trade  were  our  greatest  economic  interest.  After  1^15  this 
interest  did  not  decline  absolutely,  but  it  became  relatively  less  important.  It 
was  still  the  source  of  many  private  fortunes  and  of  much  accumulation  of 
capital,  and  ranked  in  importance  with  the  growing  manufactures  of  the  coun- 
try. With  the  growth  of  a  great  internal  commerce,  however,  the  creation  of 
a  national  system  of  transportation  gradually  came  to  the  front  as  the  most  im- 
portant concern  in  our  economic  affairs.  Transportation  projects  —  internal 
improvements  as  they  were  called  —  everywhere  became  the  largest  and  most 
numerous  economic  undertakings.  This  was  the  field  which  soon  came  to  ab- 
sorb the  greater  part  of  our  accumulations  of  capital  and  to  furnish  opportunity 
for  our  greatest  business  ability.'  Here  first  appeared  those  charactcrisdc  fig- 
ures of  American  society,  the  millionaire  and  the  captain  of  industry.  Here 
was  developed  more  rapidly  than  anywhere  else  that  striking  institution  of 
American  industry,  the  great  corporation. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  policy  of  internal  improvement  never  greatly 
affected  national  politics  and  after  Jackson's  time  disappeared  as  an  issue  alto- 
gether, historians  have  generally  failed  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  this 
factor  in  American  development.  Much  more  attention  has  been  given  to  the 
growth  of  manufactures,  to  currency  and  the  banking  system ;  but  none  of 
these  matters  has  exerted  a  tithe  of  the  influence  upon  our  economic  growth 
that  has  come  from  improvements  in  transportation.  In  fact  since  181  5  our 
most  conspicuous  economic  achievements  have  depended  directly  upon  this 
factor. 

The  almost  complete  monopoly  of  the  world's  cotton  market  was  the  first 
of  our  triumphs.  But  the  possession  of  a  soil  and  climate  peculiarly  suited  to 
the  production  of  this  staple  would  not  alone  have  secured  it.  It  required  the 
network  of  navigable  streams  covering  the  whole  southwest,  which  the  inven- 
tion of  the  steamboat  suddenly  converted  into  a  first-class  transportadon  sys- 
tem, to  insure  our  success.  In  the  international  trade  in  breadstuffs  we  have 
gained  only  a  little  less  prominent  place  than  in  the  cotton  trade.    Here  again 

345 


346  TRANSPORTATION 

it  was  hot  alone  the  possession  of  the  prairies  and  plains  of  the  West  —  natural 
grain  fields  —  that  gave  us  the  first  place.  It  was  the  ease  with  which  railroads 
could  be  constructed  in  those  regions,  coupled  with  the  internal  waterways  of 
the  country  that  made  those  natural  advantages  available.  Every  one  knows 
how  our  great  iron  industry  depends  absolutely  upon  the  transportation  facili- 
ties which  are  able  to  assemble  at  small  cost  the  raw  materials  separated  by  a 
thousand  miles.  No  feature  of  American  industry  is  more  remarkable  than 
that  territorial  division  of  labor  which  forms  the  basis  of  our  internal  commerce. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  world  has  anything  like  it  been  secured  over  so  great  an 
area  of  territory.  It  has  made  possible  that  great  development  of  our  rich  natu- 
ral resources  along  all  lines,  which  more  than  anything  else  is  the  basis  of  our 
prosperity.  This  also  is  largely  the  result  of  cheap  transportation,  without 
which  our  internal  freedom  of  trade  would  have  been  little  more  than  a  name. 

Down  to  the  Civil  War  the  transportation  system  of  the  country  was  based 
upon  the  natural  waterways.  The  numerous  rivers  upon  which  steamboats 
could  be  used,  connected  in  the  East  by  more  or  less  protected  tide-water  bays 
and  inlets,  and  in  the  West  by  the  great  common  trunk  of  the  Mississippi, 
formed  the  main  part  of  the  system.  The  upper  courses  of  these  streams  and 
their  tributaries  above  the  point  of  steamboat  navigation  were  of  great  service 
in  floating  produce  *down  to  the  navigable  waters.  In  many  cases  they  were 
navigated  by  small  steamboats  and  by  keel  boats  to  great  distances  into  the  in- 
terior. The  part  which  these  small  streams  played  in  the  economic  life  of  the 
country  in  early  times  has  never  been  adequately  recognized. 

Supplementing  this  natural  system  were  the  canals,  the  most  important  of 
which  were  designed  to  connect  the  natural  waterways.  Such  were  the  Erie 
and  Pennsylvania  canals  in  the  East,  the  Ohio,  Western  Pennsylvania,  Miami, 
Wabash  &  Erie  and  Illinois  &  Michigan  in  the  West.  The  Chesapeake  &  Ohio 
and  James  River  canals  would  also  have  served  the  same  purpose,  if  they  had 
ever  been  carried  to  completion.  Most  of  the  other  canals  were  either  branches 
of  the  main  lines  or  intended  to  connect  the  back  country  with  the  natural 
waterways.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio  had  an  extensive  network  of 
branches.  Elsewhere  the  canals  were  purely  local,  connecting  interior  regions 
with  navigable  waters.  Such  were  the  Middlesex,  Blackstone,  and  Farmington 
canals  in  New  England,  and  the  Delaware  &  Hudson,  Lehigh,  and  Schuylkill 
canals  in  the  anthracite  coal  region.  Like  the  canals  the  early  railway  lines 
were  designed  chiefly  to  supplement  the  waterways.  Nowhere  in  the  country 
was  there  an  important  commercial  or  manufacturing  city  that  depended  upon 
railroads.  They  were  all  situated  upon  navigable  waters  or  easily  connected 
therewith.  All  the  great  trunk  line  railways  had  their  termini  on  the  water- 
ways ;  and  the  local  lines  were  either  branches  of  the  trunk  lines  or  tributary 
to  the  waterways.  It  was  only  at  the  very  end  of  this  period  that  railways 
began  to  supersede  the  waterways. 

The  development  of  the  transportation  system  before  i860  may  be  divided 
into  three  stages.     The  first  was  marked  by  the  invention  of  the  steamboat 


INTRODUC'riON  347 

and  its  introduction  on  the  rivers,  lakes,  and  i)rotected  tide  waters  of  the  coun- 
try. It  covers  roughly  the  first  quarter  of  the  century.  The  second  stage  is 
characterized  by  the  building  of  canals  to  improve  and  connect  the  natural 
waterways.  This  stage  lasted  until  about  ICS50.  The  third  stage  is  character- 
ized by  the  building  of  numerous  railroads  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
covers  the  decade  from  1850  to  i860.  Before  this  time  only  about  eight  thou- 
sand miles  of  railroads  had  been  constructed.  The  principal  efforts  had  been 
devoted  to  canals.  But  after  1850  almost  no  new  canal  enterprises  were  under- 
taken ;  several  old  ones  were  left  uncompleted  ;  and  nearly  twenty-two  thou- 
sand miles  of  railroad  were  constructed  in  ten  years. 

The  policy  of  governmental  aid  to  transportation  enterprises  was  given  up 
by  the  federal  government  early  in  the  second  period.  It  had  been  adopted  by 
the  states  as  early  as  by  the  federal  government  and  was  eagerly  pursued  by 
them  for  a  time.  In  them,  also,  it  was  checked  by  the  financial  difficulties  of 
the  early  forties.  After  1850  this  policy  was  gradually  resumed  again  by  both 
state  and  federal  governments,  though  in  a  somewhat  different  form.  The  fed- 
eral government  began  a  policy  of  munificent  land  grants  to  aid  in  the  construc- 
tion of  railroads.  Several  of  the  southern  states,  notably  Virginia,  Tennessee, 
and  Missouri,  adopted  the  plan  of  aiding  railroad  companies  by  subscribing 
largely  to  their  stock.  Other  southern  states  were  considering  such  a  policy 
when  the  war  broke  out.  The  most  important  source  of  public  aid  to  railroads, 
however,  were  the  local  governments,  cities,  towns,  and  counties.  In  all  parts 
of  the  country  they  subscribed  liberally  to  the  stock  of  railroad  companies,  or 
granted  subsidies  to  them  to  secure  their  construction.  Thus  internal  improve- 
ments did  not  as  in  former  times  play  an  important  part  in  political  discussions, 
but  the  subject  continued  to  be  a  matter  of  the  keenest  interest  to  the  people 
everywhere.  Almost  every  community  felt  that  its  economic  future  was  vitally 
concerned  with  the  success  of  one  or  more  railroad  enterprises,  and  not  a  few 
of  them  were  eager  to  incur  debt  and  endure  taxation  to  insure  the  success  of 
their  favorite  project. 

Far  less  important  to  economic  life  than  the  means  of  transporting  commod- 
ities is  the  means  of  travel  and  communication.  At  the  present  time  these  are 
the  same.  But  until  the  era  of  railways  the  means  of  travel  were  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  different  from  the  means  by  which  commodities  were  trans- 
ported. The  traveler  was  carried  over  the  roads  of  the  country  in  stage  coaches, 
except  where  it  was  possible  for  him  to  secure  passage  on  steamboats.  Little 
use  was  made  of  the  canals  for  this  purpose,  because  better  tim^  could  be  made 
on  the  roads,  though  the  canals  were  not  entirely  avoided  by  passengers.  The 
roads  were  necessarily  of  the  rudest  construction  in  all  but  a  very  few  localities, 
and  a  journey  over  the  magnificent  distances  of  our  sparsely  setded  territory 
involved  great  hardship  and  some  danger.  Nevertheless  the  amount  of  travel 
seems  to  have  been  very  large. 

The  main  routes  were  from  the  seaboard  cities  of  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia 
westward  to  the  Ohio  River,  and  from  the  Hudson  through  central  New  York 


348  TRANSPORTATION 

to  Lake  Erie.  Fairiy  good  roads  were  constructed  along  these  routes.  Another 
much  traveled  stage  route  was  from  Boston  to  New  York  through  central  Mass- 
achusetts via  Springfield,  Hartford,  and  New  Haven.  Still  another  was  from 
New  York  through  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  to  Washington.  Less  impor- 
tant ones  were  from  Detroit  across  Michigan  to  Chicago,  and  from  the  Ohio 
River  at  Cincinnati  to  Lake  Erie  at  Cleveland  or  Sandusky,  connecting  at  all 
these  places  with  steamboats  on  the  lakes  and  river. 

Two  routes  of  travel  connected  the  commercial  centers  of  the  nation,  New 
York  and  New  Orleans.  The  one  was  by  means  of  stage  coach  or  canal  to  the 
Ohio  River  and  thence  by  steamboat  to  New  Orleans.  The  other  was  south- 
ward by  stage  to  Baltimore;  thence  by  steamboat  to  Norfolk  in  Virginia,  and 
again  by  stage  to  Wilmington ;  or  the  traveler  could  proceed  by  stage  all  the 
way  to  Wilmington  through  Washington  and  Richmond.  Here  steamers  could 
be  taken  for  Charleston,  and  thence  to  Savannah  through  the  islands  and  up 
the  river  to  Augusta.  To  avoid  the  ocean  voyage  from  Wilmington  to  Charles- 
ton the  traveler  sometimes  turned  westward  through  Raleigh  and  Columbia  to 
Augusta.  From  Augusta  another  long  journey  by  stage  must  be  made  to  Mont- 
gomery, where  steamers  could  be  taken  for  Mobile  and  along  the  Gulf  Coast 
through  Lake  Pontchartrain  to  New  Orleans.  The  roads  on  this  route  were 
always  very  poor  and  nearly  impassable  during  some  portions  of  the  year.  The 
volume  of  travel  over  it,  however,  was  large.  Almost  every  foreigner  who  vis- 
ited the  country  journeyed  between  New  York  and  New  Orleans  one  way  or 
the  other  along  this  route. 

By  1850  railroads  had  been  constructed  along  a  considerable  portion  of  this 
southern  route.  That  between  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Wash- 
ington was  the  first  to  be  constructed.  There  was  also  a  railroad  from  the 
Potomac  a  little  below  Washington  through  Richmond  to  Wilmington.  An- 
other was  early  constructed  from  Charleston  to  Augusta  and  thence  to  Atlanta. 
The  gap  between  Charleston  and  the  north  was  closed  soon  after  1850  by  a 
line  through  Raleigh  and  Columbia,  and  a  little  later  by  a  still  more  direct  line 
further  east.  At  about  the  same  time  the  Georgia  railroads  were  extended  from 
Atlanta  to  Montgomery,  thus  eliminating  entirely  the  stage  coach  as  a  means 
of  travel  on  this  long  route.  It  had  been  superseded  on  the  other  important 
routes  of  travel  some  years  earlier. 

L    SHIPPING 

^We  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  amount"  of  American 
tonnage,  from  the  peace  of  1783,  to  the  commencement  of  the  new 
government.  During  this  period,  some  states,  in  order  to  encourage 
American  shipping,  laid  discriminating  duties,  in  favor  of  vessels 

1  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America 
[1835],  PP-  346-348. 


SHIPPING  349 

belonging  to  citizens  of  the  United  States  ;  and,  in  some  instances, 
made  a  difference,  also,  in  favor  of  vessels  belonging  to  nations 
having  treaties  with  this  country.  In  Pennsylvania,  the  tonnage 
duty  on  American  vessels,  was  about  four  pence  sterling,  —  on  for- 
eign ships,  belonging  to  nations  having  treaties,  eight  pence,  —  and 
on  the  ships  of  nations  having  no  treaties,  about  two  shillings.  In 
Maryland,  the  duty  on  domestic  vessels,  was  eight  pence,  —  on 
foreign  ships  in  treaty,  one  shilling,  —  and  on  foreign  ships  not  in 
treaty,  one  shilling  and  seven  pence,  —  and  on  British  ships,  three 
shillings  and  sixpence.  In  Virginia,  while  the  duty  on  American, 
was  one  shilling  and  three  pence,  it  was  four  shillings  and  six 
pence  on  British  ships.  In  New  York,  however,  the  great  import- 
ing state,  the  duty  on  foreign  vessels  was  only  four  or  five  pence 
sterling.  This  want  of  uniformity  and  universality  in  this  counter- 
vailing and  protective  system,  rendered  the  whole  unavailing.  For- 
eign ships  would  naturally  seek  the  port  where  the  duties  were 
lowest,  especially  under  equal  advantages  for  a  market,  for  their 
import  cargoes ;  and  the  low  duty  in  New  York,  offered  a  pre- 
mium on  foreign  trade.  Under  these  partial  and  inefficient  regula- 
tions, American  shipping  received  little  benefit ;  and  foreign  vessels 
filled  the  American  ports.  This  important  subject  was  not  forgotten 
by  the  first  Congress,  that  met  under  the  new  form  of  government ; 
and  discriminating  tonnage,  and  other  duties,  were  first  laid,  in  the 
summer  of  1 789,  and  have  ever  since  been  continued.  This  encour- 
agement to  American  shipping,  was  not  confined  to  these  discrimi- 
nating duties  ;  but  foreign  ships  were  entirely  excluded  from  the 
coasting  trade,  and  from  all  participation  in  the  American  trade 
with  China.  The  latter  was  done,  by  imposing  an  additional  duty 
on  all  teas,  imported  in  foreign  vessels,  varying  from  four  to  ten 
cents  per  pound  ;  thereby,  in  fact,  giving  a  complete  monopoly  of 
the  China  trade  to  the  American  merchant. 

Under  this  protective  system,  and  in  consequence  of  the  new 
and  extraordinaiy  situation  in  which  this  countiy  was  placed  by  the 
long  wars  in  Europe,  the  increase  of  American  tonnage,  has  been 
without  a  parallel,  in  the  commercial  world. 

Under  the  new  government,  American  ships  assumed  a  national 
character,  and  a  national  flag  —  all  vessels,  employed  in  foreign 


OD^ 


TRANSPORTATION 


trade,  were  to  be  registered  by  the  collector  of  tlie  district  to  which 
they  belonged  ;  and  no  vessel  was  entitled  to  be  registered,  unless 
built  in  the  United  States,  or  had  been  taken  and  condemned  as 
lawful  prize  and  owned  by  an  American  citizen.  The  vessels  en- 
gaged in  the  coasting  trade  or  fisheries,  were  to  be  enrolled  or 
licensed  by  the  same  collector.  The  register  enrollment  or  license 
specifies  the  tonnage  of  the  vessel ;  and  an  account  of  every  vessel, 
thus  registered,  enrolled  or  licensed,  is  annually  transmitted  from 
each  district,  to  the  Treasury  Department. 

We  would  here  observe,  that,  in  the  course  of  the  wars  in  Europe, 
Americans  became  owners  of  vessels,  which  were  employed  in  for- 
eign trade,  but  which,  because  foreign  built,  or  for  some  other 
cause,  were  not  entitled  to  a  register,  or  to  be  considered  as  having 
a  national  character ;  these,  however  were  furnished  with  certain 
papers  called  sea  letters,  and  were  denominated  Sea  Letter  vessels, 
and  paid  foreign  duties.   .   ,   . 


^  The  tonnage  engaged  in  the  foreign  trade  increased  up  to  1810 
very  rapidly  under  the  influence  of  the  carrying  enjoyed  under  the 
treaties  with  Europe,  and  the  effect  of  the  wars  between  the  great 
powers.  The  coasting  trade  did  not  increase  in  the  same  ratio,  for 
the  reason  that  the  trade  enjoyed  by  the  registered  tonnage  was  not 
the  carrying  of  American  goods,  but  of  foreign  products  from  col- 
onies to  Europe.  The  comparative  increase  of  the  tonnage  is  seen 
as  follows  :  — 


Registered 
(Tons) 

Coasting 
(Tons) 

Whalers 
(Tons) 

Cod 

Fishery 
(Tons) 

Mackerel 
Fishery 
(Tons) 

Steam 

Total 
(Tons) 

Ocean 
(Tons) 

Coasting 
(Tons) 

1789 
I8I0 

123,893 
984,269 
619,896 
650,143 

899,764 
1,585,711 
2,223,121 

68,607 

405,347 

559,435 

508,858 

1,176,694 

1,755,796 
1,710,332 

1,227 

27,994 

57,278 

136,926 

146,016 

198,593 

9,062 
35,168 

51,351 

101,797 

76,035 

85,646 

110,896 

201,562 
1,424,789 
1,298,958 
1,260,797 
2,180,764 

3,535,454 
5,049,808 

1821 

1829 
1840 
1850 
1858 

35,973 
28,269 
58,111 
29,593 

44,942 
78,027 

54,036 
281,339 
481,004 

651,363 

This  table  gives  a  sort  of  chart  of  the  whole  progress  of  the  ton- 
nage.   It  is  observable  that  up  to  the  close  of  the  first  period,  viz. : 

1  Kettell,  in  Eighty  Years' Progress,  pp.  163-164,  163,  165. 


SHIPPIN(;  351 

to  the  embargo  and  noii-inlereourse  of  1S09,  the  registered  tonnage 
or  that  engaged  in  the  I'oreign  trade,  inereased  most  rapidly  ;  there 
were  then  no  large  home  produetions  to  require  mueh  inland  trans- 
portation, and  the  canying  trade  of  Eurojx'  was  very  active.  With 
the  growth  of  cotton,  however,  an  immense  freight  was  given  as 
well  to  coasting  as  to  registered  tonnage,  and  that  was  far  more 
valuable  to  the  latter  than  the  carrying  trade  which  had  been  lost. 
When  the  war  and  non-intercourse  stopped  the  growth  of  external 
tonnage,  a  great  impulse  was  given  to  that  of  the  interior.  The 
lakes  and  rivers  began  to  be  covered  with  craft,  which  swelled  the 
enrolled  tonnage.  In  the  south  a  good  portion  of  this  tonnage  was 
employed  in  the  transportation  of  cotton  to  the  seaboard,  where  it 
was  freighted  to  Europe  in  registered  vessels.  The  operation  of 
the  laws  in  relation  to  the  measuring  of  vessels  adds  an  injurious 
influence  upon  the  form.  The  making  the  beam  of  the  vessel  an 
element  in  the  calculation  of  the  tonnage  she  would  cany,  led  to 
the  construction  of  "kettle  bottoms,"  which  swelled  out  in  the 
form  of  a  kettle,  allowing  her  to  cany  much  more  than  her  register 
showed.  These  vessels  carried  cotton  mostly  to  European  ports, 
whence  there  was  little  return  cargo  ;  but  when,  after  the  war, 
migration  set  in  freely  from  Havre,  affording  a  return  freight,  the 
form  was  altered  to  give  accommodation  to  the  passengers,  and  an 
impulse  was  given  to  ship-building.  The  latter  branch  of  industry 
languished  up  to  1829,  since  there  was  little  carrying  trade,  and 
the  cotton  crop  was  only  one-fourth  its  present  quantity.  The  Brit- 
ish government  had  refused  to  allow  the  West  India  colonies  to  be 
open  to  American  vessels.  The  West  Indies,  however,  were  de- 
pendent upon  the  United  States  for  supplies  of  produce,  while 
they  were  required  to  send  their  own  sugar,  coffee,  and  rum  to  the 
mother  country  in  British  vessels.  By  refusing  to  let  American  ves- 
sels go  thither,  she  sought  to  secure  three  freights  for  British  ships. 
Thus,  a  vessel  left  England  with  goods  for  the  United  States, 
then  loaded  provisions  for  the  West  Indies,  and  took  home  thence 
sugar,  etc.,  to  England,  making  a  round  voyage.  This  the  United 
States  refused  to  permit,  unless  American  vessels  participated  ;  and 
the  trade  was  closed.  The  English  colonists,  deprived  of  Ameri- 
can supplies,  set  up  a  clamor  which  compelled  the  government  to 


352  TRANSPORTATION 

open  certain  ports  to  American  ships  on  the  same  terms  as  British 
ships  ;  and  Congress,  in  return,  authorized  the  President,  by  proc- 
lamation, to  open  United  States  ports  to  colonial  vessels,  whenever 
he  should  have  proof  of  a  reciprocal  movement.  This  took  place 
in  1830,  and  the  trade  has  rapidly  increased  since. 

The  increase  of  registered  tonnage,  as  of  all  others,  had  been  large 
up  to  1 840,  under  the  general  animation  that  trade  encountered  from 
the  speculative  action  of  those  years.  Two  circumstances  now,  how- 
ever, occurred  to  enhance  the  demand  for  shipping.  These  were  the 
English-China  war,  and  the  American-Mexican  war.  The  attempts 
of  the  English  to  force  the  opium  trade  upon  the  Chinese,  contrary  to 
their  laws,  had  induced  the  Chinese,  in  1841,  to  destroy  a  large 
quantity  of  opium.  This  brought  on  the  war,  which  resulted  in.  the 
opening  of  five  Chinese  ports  to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  by 
so  doing  had  increased  the  demand  for  American  ships  —  always  fa- 
vorites with  the  merchants  in  the  trade  between  India  and  China.  ,  ,  . 

.  .  ,  That  event  [the  Mexican  war]  caused  a  large  demand  for 
shipping  on  the  part  of  the  government,  for  transports.  The  expe 
dition  fitted  out  under  General  Scott  for  Vera  Cruz,  was  the  largest 
naval  enterprise  ever  undertaken  by  any  nation  up  to  that  time  — 
that  is,  a  like  number  of  troops  had  never  before  been  transported 
so  great  a  distance  by  sea  to  open  a  campaign  in  an  enemy's  coun- 
try. The  British  and  French  expedition  from  Varna  to  the  Crimea, 
ten  years  afterward,  was  no  greater  in  magnitude,  although  greatly 
trumpeted  by  English  writers.  The  American  expedition  was 
promptly  successful,  when  even  the  French  had  failed  in  their  pre- 
vious attack  upon  Vera  Cruz.  Following  these  two  events,  that 
absorbed  so  much  shipping,  came  the  Irish  famine.  The  same 
famine,  which  created  the  extended  demand  for  American  produce, 
also  stimulated  a  large  migration  to  the  United  States,  furnishing 
ample  freights  to  the  homeward-bound  shipping.  ,  .  . 

The  growth  of  steam  service  in  the  interior  of  the  country  was 
more  rapid  than  its  external  development.  The  amount  of  steam 
tonnage  in  ocean  navigation,  in  1850,  was  44,942,  against  none  in 
1 840.  The  inland  tonnage  engaged  on  lakes,  rivers,  and  coasting, 
was  481,004  — an  increase  of  283,000  in  ten  years,  at  a  cost  of 
$28,000,000.   .  .  . 


SHIPPING 


'>  r  -» 

o5  J 


^  The  rapid  advance  in  the  sliip-buildin*]^  interest  durinLj  the  last 
forty-seven  years,  in  which  the  northern  States  have  largely  partici- 
pated, is  shown  in  the  following  tabular  statement  of  the  tonnage 
built  in  each  decade  since  1821,  and  in  the  seven  years  previous  : 


Tonnage 

built  in 

United  States 

(Tons) 


Annual 
Average 
Crons) 


Seven  years,  1815-1821  .  .  , 
Ten  years,  1822-1831  .  .  .  , 
Ten  years,  1832-1841  .  .  .  , 
Ten  years,  1842-1851  .  .  .  , 
Ten  years,  1852-1861     ... 

Total,  forty-seven  years  , 


638,563 

901,598 

1,178,693 

1,999,263 

3.589.300 


8,307.417 


91,223 

90,159 

117,867 

199,926 

358,930 


176,753 


Maine  takes  the  lead  as  a  ship-building  State  ;  New  York  is  the 
second.  The  other  prominent  ones  are  as  follows  for  the  past 
three  years,  showing  a  more  rapid  advance  in  New  York  than  in 
other  States  : 


States 

I 860- I 86 I 
(Tons) 

1859-1860 
(Tons) 

1858-1859 
(Tons) 

Total  Three 
Years  (Tons) 

Maine 

57.343 
46,359 
37,206 

-4,754 
67.532 

57.867 
31.936 
33.461 
21,615 
68,013 

40,905 

16,313 
31,290 
14,476 
53.638 

156,115 
94,608 

101.937 
60,845 

189,183 

New  York .     . 

Massachusetts 

Pennsylvania 

All  other  States 

Tons  built,  years  1859-1861    .     .     . 

233.194 

212,892 

I  56,602 

602,688 

^  In  attempting  to  give  you  some  account  of  the  commerce  of 
this  section,  I  can  hardly  expect  to  offer  any  thing  new  ;  yet  as  you 
have  been,  perhaps,  in  the  habit  of  considering  rather  the  results 
of  the  entire  trade  of  the  United  States,  than  of  any  other  particu- 
lar part ;  a  cursory  view  of  the  commercial  resources  of  the  East- 
ern states  in  particular,  may,  by  comparison,  give  more  distinct  ideas 

1  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [i860],  pp.  106,  109. 

2  Tudor,  Letters  on  the  Eastern  States  [1819],  pp.  116-121. 


354  TRANSPORTATION 

of  the  whole.  I  do  not  mean  to  offer  you  minute  statements,  or 
amounts  in  figures,  which  would  only  be  giving  extracts  from  some 
of  our  statistical  works  ;  but  to  make  a  few  general  observations 
on  the  principal  resources  which  we  possess. 

The  first  of  these,  undoubtedly,  is  to  be  found  in  our  population, 
its  numbers  and  character.  Between  the  southern  frontiers  of  Con- 
necticut and  the  eastern  one  of  Maine,  there  are  eight  hundred 
miles  of  sea-coast,  containing  numerous  harbours  ;  several  rivers, 
navigable  for  sea  vessels,  from  twenty  to  an  hundred  miles,  empty 
themselves  within  these  limits.  Almost  the  whole  of  this  coast,  and 
the  banks  of  these  rivers,  are  lined  with  inhabitants,  accustomed  to 
commercial  and  maritime  affairs.  This  region  is  so  healthful,  that 
besides  supplying  these  increasing  branches  of  employment,  it  an- 
nually sends  off  a  surplus,  to  meet  the  demands  of  less  healthy  and 
less  populous  shores.  The  whole  of  this  population  receives  the 
rudiments  of  education  in  a  sufficient  degree,  to  qualify  even  its 
poorest  members  for  advancing  their  fortunes,  if  they  have  the  skill 
and  disposition  to  better  them.  The  excitement  produced  by  the 
great  wealth,  which  has  accrued  from  the  pursuit  of  commerce 
during  the  last  thirty  years,  keeps  this  population  in  a  state  of  rest- 
less activity,  calculating  observation,  and  adventurous  enterprise, 
which,  without  any  exaggeration,  may  be  said  to  be  unequalled  by 
any  other  country. 

A  considerable  part  of  this  population,  thus  conveniently  situated, 
is  early  accustomed  to  look  for  a  living  from  the  ocean,  which 
breaks  at  their  feet ;  a  soil  comparatively  sterile  forces  them  in  some 
sort  to  share,  by  freighting  the  products  of  richer  climes  ;  they  take 
to  the  water  as  easily,  and  almost  as  early  as  the  broods  of  water 
fowls  ;  they  pass  as  much  of  their  time  on  shore,  as  those  sea-birds 
which  only  resort  to  it  to  make  their  nests  ;  their  path  is  on  "  the 
mountain  wave,"  and  like  the  same  birds,  they  float  on  it  gaily  and 
fearlessly,  if  the  daily  reckoning  only  shows  the  desired  difference 
in  latitude  and  longitude.  As  a  nursery  of  seamen,  this  district  af- 
fords one  of  the  most  valuable  in  the  world.  The  whale  fishery, 
which  is  carried  on  in  both  oceans,  the  fisheiy  of  the  banks  of 
Newfoundland,  and  the  various  fisheries  nearer  home,  form  the 
hardiest  and  best  of  sailors.    The  manner  in  which  these  fisheries 


SHIPPING 


355 


are  prosecuted,  being  not  on  wages,  but  on  shares,  gives  habits  of 
economy,  watchfuhiess  and  industry,  that  are  invaluable.  The 
coasting  trade,  which  is  daily  increasing,  adds  a  vast  additional 
supply  of  hardy  and  excellent  seamen  ;  all  these  have  their  homes 
and  families  on  these  shores,  to  which  they  are  strongly  attached, 
though  they  are  absent  from  them  for  weeks,  months,  or  even 
years  together.  In  alluding  to  this  attachment,  I  cannot  help  re- 
calling the  mistake  of  a  very  acute  and  profound  observer,  which 
furnishes  a  veiy  striking  instance  of  the  errors,  into  which  theory 
is  apt  to  lead  even  the  ablest  minds.  Talleyrand,  in  his  Essay  on 
Colonies,  speaking  of  our  fishermen,  considers  them,  "  a  timid, 
indolent  race  ;  that  they  are  cosmopolites,  and  a  few  codfish  more 
or  less  determine  their  country."  As  to  the  timidity  and  indolence, 
the  expression  of  Burke,  —  "  Every  sea  is  vexed  by  their  fisher- 
ies," maybe  a  sufficient  answer;  as  to  their  being  cosmopolites, 
and  migrating  with  the  codfish  ;  the  latter  have  not  been  more 
steady  to  the  submarine  mountains  of  Newfoundland,  than  the 
former  have  been  to  the  rocky  and  sandy  shores,  whence  they  an- 
nually go  in  pursuit  of  them  ;  and  where  their  progenitors  have 
successively  resided  for  nearly  two  centuries,  from  the  first  settle- 
ment of  the  country. 

This  section  furnishes  supplies  of  the  various  kinds  of  timber 
used  in  ship-building,  and  abounds  with  mechanics  in  all  the  vari- 
ous branches  connected  with  naval  construction  ;  with  these  advan- 
tages, ships  are  built  here  with  great  economy,  and  a  very  large 
portion  of  the  tonnage  employed  both  in  the  foreign  and  coasting 
trade,  is  owned  in  these  states.  Having  therefore  the  advantage 
of  possessing  an  ample  supply  of  seamen,  and  being  the  chief  resi- 
dence of  the  ship-owners,  they  have  great  advantages  for  engaging 
profitably  in  the  carrying  trade,  foreign  and  domestic,  llie  produce 
of  the  fisheries,  of  the  forest,  live  stock,  salted  provisions,  potash, 
and  some  articles  of  manufactures,  are  the  principal  domestic  ex- 
ports. To  these  is  to  be  added,  the  merchandize  brought  from 
other  parts  of  the  Union,  and  from  foreign  countries.  The  trade 
of  the  United  States  with  Asia,  which  now  employs  30,000  tons 
of  shipping,  is  principally,  perhaps  three  quarters  of  it,  carried  on 
by  merchants  of  this  section.  The  vessels  engaged  in  this  commerce, 


356  TRANSPORTATION 

sail  almost  wholly  in  ballast,  taking  specie  to  purchase  their  return 
cargoes. 

This  rich  trade,  which  has  prodigiously  increased  of  late  years, 
is  prosecuted  here  with  great  activity  and  advantage.  The  vessels 
employed  in  it  are  generally  of  a  moderate  or  small  size,  between 
two  and  five  hundred  tons  ;  they  are  fitted  out  with  every  requi- 
site for  a  speedy  passage,  and  safe  transport  of  their  cargoes,  but 
with  nothing  for  ostentation.  It  is  therefore  carried  on  so  much 
more  economically,  that  the  foreign  carrier  cannot  enter  into  com- 
petition with  it  in  any  free  market,  and  even  the  merchants  in  other 
parts  of  the  United- States,  have  found  it  less  profitable  than  it 
is  here.  So  many  young  men  have  commenced  their  career,  by 
going  out  as  supercargoes  ;  so  many  able  navigators,  frequently 
also  employed  in  making  the  investments  of  the  cargo,  have 
prosecuted  this  trade,  that  it  is  now  better  understood  in  the 
eastern  states,  than  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Not  only  the 
direct  trade  with  Hindostan  and  China,  but  the  trade  between 
all  the  islands  and  countries  of  the  Indian  ocean,  they  thoroughly 
understand  ;  and  besides  our  own  countiy,  a  considerable  portion 
of  Europe  is  supplied  by  these  enterprising  merchants  with  the 
coffee  and  spices  of  the  islands,  the  sugar  and  cotton,  raw  and 
manufactured  of  the  Indian  peninsula,  and  the  silks,  teas,  and 
nankins  of  China.   .   .   . 

^  The  Anglo-Americans  have  always  displayed  a  decided  taste 
for  the  sea.  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  by  breaking  the 
commercial  bonds  which  united  them  to  England,  gave  a  fresh  and 
powerful  stimulus  to  their  maritime  genius.  P^ver  since  that  time, 
the  shipping  of  the  Union  has  increased  almost  as  rapidly  as  the 
number  of  its  inhabitants.  The  Americans  themselves  now  trans- 
port to  their  own  shores  nine  tenths  of  the  European  produce 
which  they  consume  and  they  also  bring  three  quarters  of  the  ex- 
ports of  the  New  World  to  the  European  consumer.  The  ships  of 
the  United  States  fill  the  docks  of  Havre  and  of  Liverpool,  whilst 
the  number  of  English  and  Erench  vessels  at  New  York  is  com- 
paratively small. 

1  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1S35],  I,  544-546. 


siiU'J'iNG  357 

Thus,  not  only  does  the  American  merchant  iDravc  competition 
on  his  own  ground,  but  even  successfully  supports  that  of  foreign 
nations  in  their  own  ports.  This  is  readily  explained  by  the  fact, 
that  the  vessels  of  the  Ignited  States  cross  the  seas  at  a  cheaper 
rate.  As  long  as  the  mercantile  shipping  of  the  United  States  pre- 
serves this  superiority,  it  will  not  only  retain  what  it  has  acquired, 
but  will  constantly  increase  in  prosperity. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  for  what  reason  the  Americans  can  navigate 
at  a  lower  rate  than  other  nations  ;  one  is  at  first  led  to  attribute 
this  superiority  to  the  physical  advantages  which  nature  gives  them  ; 
but  it  is  not  so.  The  American  vessels  cost  almost  as  much  to 
build  as  our  own  ;  they  are  not  better  built,  and  they  generally  last 
a  shorter  time.  The  pay  of  the  American  sailor  is  more  consider- 
able than  the  pay  on  board  European  ships,  which  is  j^roved  by  the 
great  number  of  Europeans  who  are  to  be  found  in  the  merchant- 
vessels  of  the  United  States.  How  happens  it,  then,  that  the 
Americans  sail  their  vessels  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  we  can  ours  ?  I 
am  of  the  opinion,  that  the  true  cause  of  their  superiority  must  not 
be  sought  for  in  physical  advantages  but  that  it  is  wholly  attribut- 
able to  moral  and  intellectual  qualities. 

The  following  comparison  will  illustrate  my  meaning.  During 
the  campaigns  of  the  Revolution,  the  Erench  introduced  a  new  sys- 
tem of  tactics  into  the  art  of  war,  which  perplexed  the  oldest  gen- 
erals, and  very  nearly  destroyed  the  most  ancient  monarchies  of 
Europe.  They  first  undertook  to  make  shift  without  a  number  of 
things  which  had  always  been  held  to  be  indispensable  in  warfare  ; 
they  required  novel  exertions  of  their  troops,  which  no  civilized 
nations  had  ever  thought  of  ;  they  achieved  great  actions  in  an 
incredibly  short  time,  and  risked  human  life  without  hesitation  to 
obtain  the  object  in  view.  The  Erench  had  less  money  and  fewer 
men  than  their  enemies  ;  their  resoiu'ces  were  infinitely  inferior  ; 
nevertheless,  they  were  constantly  victorious,  until  their  adversaries 
chose  to  imitate  their  example. 

The  Americans  have  introduced  a  similar  system  into  commerce, 
—  they  do  for  cheapness  what  the  Erench  did  for  conquest.  The 
European  sailor  navigates  with  prudence  ;  he  sets  sail  only  when 
the  weather  is  favorable  ;  if  an  unforeseen  accident  befalls  him,  he 


358  TRANSPORTATION 

puts  into  port ;  at  night,  he  furls  a  portion  of  his  canvas  ;  and  when 
the  whitening  billows  intimate  the  vicinity  of  land,  he  checks  his 
course,  and  takes  an  observation  of  the  sun.  The  American  neg- 
lects these  precautions,  and  braves  these  dangers.  He  weighs  an- 
chor before  the  tempest  is  over ;  by  night  and  by  day  he  spreads 
his  sheets  to  the  wind  ;  he  repairs  as  he  goes  along  such  dam- 
age as  his  vessel  may  have  sustained  from  the  storm  ;  and  when 
he  at  last  approaches  the  term  of  his  voyage,  he  darts  onward  to 
the  shore  as  if  he  already  descried  a  port.  The  Americans  are 
often  shipwrecked,  but  no  trader  crosses  the  seas  so  rapidly.  And, 
as  they  perform  the  same  distance  in  a  shorter  time,  they  can  per- 
form it  at  a  cheaper  rate. 

The  European  navigator  touches  at  different  ports  in  the  course 
of  a  long  voyage  ;  he  loses  precious  time  in  making  the  harbor,  or 
in  waiting  for  a  favorable  wind  to  leave  it ;  and  he  pays  daily  dues 
to  be  allowed  to  remain  there.  The  American  starts  from  Boston 
to  purchase  tea  in  China :  he  arrives  at  Canton,  stays  there  a  few 
days,  and  then  returns.  In  less  than  two  years,  he  has  sailed  as  far 
as  the  entire  circumference  of  the  globe,  and  has  seen  land  but  once. 
It  is  true  that,  during  the  voyage  of  eight  or  ten  months,  he  has 
drunk  brackish  water,  and  lived  upon  salt  meat ;  that  he  has  been 
in  a  continual  contest  with  the  sea,  with  disease,  and  with  weari- 
ness ;  but,  upon  his  return,  he  can  sell  a  pound  of  his  tea  for  a 
half-penny  less  than  the  English  merchant,  and  his  purpose  is 
accomplished. 

I  cannot  better  explain  my  meaning,  than  by  saying  that  the 
Americans  show  a  sort  of  heroism  in  their  manner  of  trading. 
The  European  merchant  will  always  find  it  difficult  to  imitate  his 
American  competitor,  who,  in  adopting  the  system  which  I  have 
just  described,  does  not  follow  calculation,  but  an  impulse  of  his 
nature. 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM  359 

II.    THE   TRANSPORTATION    SYSTEM  1 

2  No  quarter  of  tlic  globe  presents  a  natural  apparatus  of  internal 
communication  so  stupendous  as  that  which  the  European  settlers 
found  at  their  disposal  on  the  North  American  continent. 

The  immense  tract,  included  between  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains  on  the  east  and  west,  the  great  chain  of  lakes 
extending  from  Lake  Superior  to  Lake  Ontario  on  the  north, 
and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south,  is  divided  into  two  districts 
by  the  ridge  of  the  Alleghanies,  which  traverses  it  in  a  direction 
north  and  south.  The  western  division  consists  of  the  vast  valley 
drained  by  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  a  territory  greater 
in  superficial  extent  than  Western  Europe.  The  eastern  district 
consists  of  that  portion  between  the  Alleghany  ridge  and  the  At- 
lantic, falling  toward  the  ocean  and  drained  by  innumerable  rivers, 
navigable  for  vessels  of  greater  or  less  burden,  and  running  gen- 
erally eastward.  .  .  . 

Besides  the  internal  communication  supplied  by  rivers,  properly 
so  called,  a  vast  apparatus  of  water  transport  is  derived  from  the 
geographical  character  of  the  extensive  coast,  stretching  for  about 
four  thousand  miles,  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  delta  of 
the  Mississippi,  indented  and  serrated  in  every  part  with  natural 
harbors  and  sheltered  bays,  fringed  with  islands,  forming  sounds, 
throwing  out  capes  and  promontories,  which  inclose  arms  of  the 
sea,  in  which  the  waters  are  free  from  the  roll  of  the  ocean,  and 
which,  for  all  the  purposes  of  internal  navigation,  have  the  character 
of  rivers  and  lakes.  The  lines  of  communication,  formed  by  the 
vast  and  numerous  rivers,  are  completed  in  the  interior  by  chains 
of  lakes,  presenting  the  most  extensive  bodies  of  fresh  water  in 
the  known  world.  .  .  . 

The  spectacle  of  a  machinery  of  commerce  so  imposing  in  mag- 
nitude and  power,  and  so  remarkably  co-extensive  with  the  vastness, 

1  See  also  extracts  from  Andrews'  Report  on  Colonial  and  Lake  Trade,  from 
Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States  for  1887,  and  from  The 
Effects  of  Secession  on  the  Commercial  Relations  between  the  North  and  South, 
on  pp.  326-344  of  this  volume. 

2  Lardner,  Railway  Economy  ;  A  Treatise  on  the  New  Art  of  Transport  [1850], 
pp.  308-312. 


36o  TRANSPORTAllON 

the  fertility,  and  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  territor)'  of  which  this 
emigrant  people  found  themselves  possessors,  only  provoked  their 
ambition  to  rival  the  enterprise  of  the  parent  country,  and  to  im- 
port and  naturalize  its  improvements  and  its  arts.  Their  independ-' 
ence  was  scarcely  established  before  the  same  resources  of  arts  and 
sciences  which  ages  had  not  been  more  than  sufficient  to  develop 
in  Britain  were  invoked  ;  and  a  system  of  artificial  communication 
was  undertaken,  and  finally  executed,  on  the  new  continent,  for 
which,  all  things  considered,  there  is  no  parallel  in  the  history  of 
civilization.   .   .   . 

According  to  M.  Michel  Chevalier,  whose  work  on  this  subject 
supplies  most  voluminous  and  valuable  details,  the  extent  of  canals 
which  were  in  operation  in  the  United  States  on  January  i,  1843, 
was  4333  miles.  There  was  a  further  extent  projected,  but  not 
executed,  amounting  to  2359  miles. 

The  total  cost  of  executing  the  canals  which  were  completed 
was,  according  to  M.  Chevalier,  ^^27, 870,964,  being  at  the  average 
rate  of  ^6,432  per  mile.  .  .  . 

It  appears,  from  what  has  been  stated,  that  in  the  United  States, 
the  population  of  which,  according  to  the  census  of  1840,  was 
17,069,493,  there  was  one  mile  of  canal  navigation  for  3939 
inhabitants.  Now,  in  the  United  Kingdom,  there  are  only  3000 
miles  of  canal  navigation.  The  population,  according  to  the  cen- 
sus of  1840,  was  twenty-seven  millions.  There  is,  therefore,  only 
one  mile  of  canal  to  every  9000  inhabitants.   .   .   . 

In  France,  the  entire  length  of  canal  navigation  is  2700  miles, 
with  a  population  of  thirty-five  millions.  There  is,  therefore,  one 
mile  of  canal  for  every  12,962  inhabitants.   .   .  . 

^  There  is  a  region  where,  by  simply  perfecting  the  mean^  of 
water-transportation,  a  revolution  has  been  produced,  the  conse- 
quences of  which  on  the  balance  of  power  in  the  New  World  are 
incalculable.  It  is  the  great  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  had, 
indeed,  been  conquered  from  the  wild  beasts  and  Red  Skins  pre- 
vious to  the  invention  of  I'ulton,  but  which,  without  the  labours  of 

1  Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States  [1836],  pp. 
212,  213-216,  218-219,  229-230. 


THE  TRANSPORIATION  SVSTP:M  36 1 

his  genius,  would  never  have  been  covered  vvilh  lich  and  popu- 
lous States.   .   .   . 

In  181 1,  although  the  formidable  Tecumseh  and  his  brother  the 
Prophet,  had  not  yet  been  conc|uered  by  General  Harrison,  the 
American  had  extended  his  undisputed  empire  over  the  most  fer- 
tile districts  of  the  West.  Here  and  there  villages  had  been  built ; 
and  the  forest  every  where  showed  clearings,  in  the  midst  of  which 
stood  the  log-house  of  some  squatter  or  some  more  legal  proprietor. 
On  the  left  bank  of  the  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  had  been 
erected  into  States,  and  Western  Virginia  had  been  settled.  A  cur- 
rent of  emigration  had  transported  the  industrious  sons  of  New 
England  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  and  by  their  energy  the 
State  of  Ohio  had  been  founded,  and  already  contained  nearly 
250,000  inhabitants.  Indiana  and  Illinois,  then  mere  Territories, 
gave  fair  promise  of  the  future.  The  treaty  of  1803  had  added  to 
the  Union  our  Louisiana,  in  which  one  State  and  several  Terri- 
tories, with  a  total  population  of  160,000  souls  had  already  been 
organised.  The  whole  West,  at  that  time,  had  a  population  of 
nearly  a  million  and  a  half :  Pittsburg  and  Cincinnati  were  consid- 
erable towns.  The  West  had,  then,  made  a  rapid  progress,  but 
separated  as  it  was  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  the  circuitous 
windings  and  the  gloomy  swamps  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the 
eastern  cities  by  the  seven  or  eight  ridges  that  form  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  destitute  of  outlets  and  markets,  its  further  progress 
seemed  to  be  arrested.  The  embryo  could  grow  but  slowly  and 
painfully,  for  want  of  the  proper  channels  through  which  the 
sources  of  life  might  circulate. 

At  present,  routes  of  communication  have  been  made  or  are 
making  from  all  sides,  connecting  the  rivers  of  the  W^est  with  the 
Eastern  coast,  on  which  stand  the  great  marts,  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Richmond,  and  Charleston.  At  that  time, 
there  was  not  one  which  was  practicable  through  the  whole  year, 
and  there  was  not  capital  enough  to  undertake  one.  All  the  com- 
merce of  the  West  was  carried  on  by  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi, 
which  is,  indeed,  still,  and,  probably,  always  will  be,  the  most  eco- 
nomical route  for  bulky  objects.  The  western  boatmen  descended 
the  rivers  with  their  corn  and  salt-meat  in  fiat-boats,  like  the  Seine 


362  TRANSPORTATION 

coal-boats  ;  the  goods  of  Europe  and  the  produce  of  the  Antilles, 
were  slowly  transported  up  the  rivers  by  the  aid  of  the  oar  and  the 
sail,  the  voyage  consuming  at  least  one  hundred  days,  and  some- 
times two  hundred.  One  hundred  days  is  nearly  the  length  of  a 
voyage  from  New  York  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  Canton  ;  in 
the  same  space  of  time  France  was  twice  conquered,  once  by  the 
allies  and  once  by  Napoleon.  The  commerce  of  the  West,  was, 
therefore,  necessarily  veiy  limited,  and  the  inhabitants,  separated 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  had  all  the  rudeness  of  the  forest.  It 
was  in  this  period  and  this  state  of  manners,  that  the  popular  say- 
ing, which  describes  the  Kentuckian  as  half  horse,  half  alligator, 
had  its  origin.  The  number  of  boats,  which  made  the  voyage  up 
and  down  once  a  year,  did  not  exceed  ten,  measuring  on  an  aver- 
age about  100  tons;  other  small  boats,  averaging  about  30  tons 
measurement,  carried  on  the  trade  between  different  points  on  the 
rivers,  beside  which  there  were  numerous  flat-boats,  which  did  not 
make  a  return  voyage.  Freight  from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville 
or  Cincinnati  was  six,  seven,  and  even  nine  cents  a  pound.  At 
present  [1836]  the  passage  from  Louisville  to  New  Orleans  is  made 
in  about  8  or  9  days,  and  the  return  voyage  in  10  or  12,  and  freight 
is  often  less  than  half  a  cent  a  pound  from  the  latter  to  the  former. 
In  181 1,  the  first  steamboat  in  the  West,  built  by  Fulton,  started 
from  Pittsburg  for  New  Orleans  ;  it  bore  the  name  of  the  latter 
city.  But  such  are  the  difficulties  in  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi,  and  such  was  the  imperfection  of  the  first  boats, 
that  it  was  nearly  six  years  before  a  steamboat  ascended  from  New 
Orleans,  and  then  not  to  Pittsburg,  but  to  Louisville,  600  miles 
below  it.  The  first  voyage  was  made  in  twenty-five  days,  and  it 
caused  a  great  stir  in  the  West ;  a  public  dinner  was  given  to  Cap- 
tain Shreve,  who  had  solved  the  problem.  Then  and  not  before, 
was  the  revolution  completed  in  the  condition  of  the  West,  and 
the  hundred-day  boats  were  supplanted.  In  18 18,  the  number  of 
steamboats  was  20,  making  an  aggregate  of  3,642  tons;  in  18 19 
the  whole  number  that  had  been  built  was  40,  of  which  33  were 
still  running;  in  1821,  there  were  72  in  actual  service.  In  that 
year  the  Car  of  Commerce,  Captain  Pierce,  made  the  passage  from 
New  Orleans  to  Shawneetown,  a  little  below  Louisville,  in  10  days. 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM  363 

In  1825,  after  fourteen  years  of  trials  and  experiments,  the  proper 
proportion  between  the  machinery  and  the  boats  was  finally  settled. 
In  1827,  the  Tecumseh  ascended  from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville 
in  eight  da)s  and  two  hours.  In  1829,  the  number  of  boats  was 
200,  with  a  total  tonnage  of  35,000  tons  ;  in  1832,  there  were  220 
boats  making  an  aggregate  of  40,000  tons,  and  at  jsresent  there 
are  240,  measuring  64,000  tons.  According  to  statements  made 
to  me  by  experienced  and  well-informed  persons,  the  whole  amount 
of  merchandise  annually  transported  by  them  between  New  Orleans 
and  the  upper  country,  is  at  least  140,000  tons.  The  trade  between 
the  basins  of  the  Ohio,  the  Tennessee,  and  the  Upper  Mississippi, 
not  included  in  this  amount,  forms  another  considerable  mass.  To 
have  an  idea  of  the  whole  extent  of  the  commerce  on  the  western 
waters,  we  must  also  add  from  1 60,000  to  1 80,000  tons  of  provi- 
sions and  various  objects,  which  go  down  in  flat-boats.  This  amount 
is,  indeed,  enormous,  and  yet  it  is  probably  but  a  trifle  compared 
with  what  will  be  transported  on  the  rivers  of  the  West  in  20  years 
from  this  time  ;  for  on  the  Erie  canal,  which,  compared  with  the 
Mississippi  is  a  line  of  but  secondary  importance,  and  at  a  single 
point,  Utica,  420,000  tons  passed  in  a  period  of  seven  months  and 
a  half.  .   .   . 

The  number  of  passengers  which  these  boats  carry,  is  very  con- 
siderable ;  they  are  almost  always  crowded,  although  there  are  some 
w'hich  have  two  hundred  beds.  I  have  myself  been  in  one  of  these 
boats  which  could  accommodate  only  30  cabin  passengers,  with  72. 
A  river  voyage  w-as  formerly  equivalent  to  an  Argonautic  expedi- 
tion, at  present  it  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world.  The 
rate  of  fare  is  low  ;  you  go  from  Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans  for  50 
dollars,  all  found,  and  from  Louisville  to  New  Orleans  for  25  dol- 
lars. It  is  still  lower  for  the  boatmen,  who  run  down  the  river  in 
flat-boats  and  return  by  the  steamers  ;  there  are  sometimes  500  or 
600  of  them  in  a  separate  part  of  the  boat,  where  they  have  a  shel- 
ter, a  berth,  and  fire,  and  pay  from  4  to  6  dollars  for  the  passage 
from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville  ;  they  are,  however,  obliged  to  help 
take  in  wood.  The  rapidity  with  which  these  men  return,  has  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  the  extension  of  the  commerce  of  the  West ; 
they  can  now  make  three  or  four  trips  a  year  instead  of  one,  an 


364  TRANSPORTATION 

important  consideration  in  a  country  where  there  is  a  deficiency  of 
hands.  On  the  downward  voyage,  their  place  is  occupied  by  horses 
and  cattle,  which  are  sent  to  the  South  for  sale,  and  by  slaves,  hu- 
man cattle  destined  to  enrich  the  soil  of  the  South  with  their  sweat, 
to  supply  the  loss  of  hands  on  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana, 
or  to  make  the  fortune  of  some  cotton  planters.  Virginia  is  the 
principal  seat  of  this  traffic,  "the  native  land  of  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson and  Madison,  having  become,"  as  one  of  her  sons  sorrow- 
fully observed  to  me,  "the  Guinea  of  the  United  States." 

The  United  States  may  be  divided  hydrographically  into  two 
distinct  regions,  the  one  to  the  east,  the  other  to  the  west,  of  the 
Alleghanies  ;  or  into  three,  as  under  :  i .  the  Mississippi  valley : 
2.  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  with  the  great  lakes  :  3..  the 
Atlantic  coast.  This  vast  country  may  also  be  divided  into  the 
North  and  the  South,  and  it  has  two  commercial  capitals,  New 
York  and  New  Orleans,  which  are,  as  it  were,  the  two  lungs  of 
this  great  body,  the  two  galvanic  poles  of  the  system.  Between 
these  two  divisions,  the  North  and  the  South,  there  are  radical 
differences,  both  in  a  political  and  an  industrial  point  of  view.  The 
social  frame  in  the  South  is  founded  on  slavery ;  in  the  North,  on 
universal  suffrage.  The  South  is  a  great  cotton-plantation,  yielding 
also  some  subsidiary  articles,  such  as  tobacco,  sugar,  and  rice.  The 
North  acts  as  factor  or  agent  for  the  South,  selling  the  productions 
of  the  latter,  and  furnishing  her  in  return  with  those  of  Europe ; 
as  a  sailor,  carrying  her  cotton  beyond  sea  ;  as  an  artisan,  making 
all  her  household  utensils  and  farming  tools,  her  cotton-gins,  her 
sugar-mills,  her  furniture,  wearing  apparel,  and  all  other  articles 
of  daily  use,  and  finding  her  also  in  corn  and  salted  provisions. 

From  these  views  it  appears  that  the  great  public  works  in  the 
United  ^States  must  have  the  following  objects  :  i.  To  connect  the 
Atlantic  coast-region  with  the  region  beyond  the  Alleghanies  ;  that 
is,  to  unite  the  rivers  of  the  former,  such  as  the  Hudson,  the  Sus- 
quehanna, the  Potomac,  the  James,  or  its  bays,  such  as  the  Dela- 
ware and  the  Chesapeake,  either  with  the  Mississippi  or  its  tributary 
the  Ohio,  or  with  the  St.  Lawrence,  or  the  great  lakes  Erie  and 
Ontario,  whose  waters  are  carried  by  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Ocean : 


THE  TRAx\SPORTAl'ION  SYSTEM  365 

2.  To  form  communications  between  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
that  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  is,  between  one  of  the  great  tributa- 
ries of  the  Mississippi,  such  as  the  Ohio,  the  Illinois,  or  the  Wa- 
bash, and  Lake  Erie,  or  Lake  Michigan,  which,  of  all  the  great 
lakes  of  the  St.  Lawrence  basin,  reach  the  furthest  southwards. 

3.  To  connect  together  the  northern  and  southern  poles  of  the 
Union,  New  York  and  New  Orleans. 

Independently  of  these  three  new  systems  of  public  works, 
which  are  in  fact,  in  progress,  and  even  in  part  completed,  there 
are  numerous  secondary  lines,  intended  to  make  the  access  to  the 
centres  of  consumption  more  easy,  or  to  open  outlets  from  certain 
centres  of  production,  whence  arise  two  new  classes  of  works  ;  the 
one  including  the  various  canals  and  railroads,  which,  starting  from 
the  great  cities  as  centres,  radiate  from  them  in  all  directions,  and 
the  other,  comprising  the  similar  works  executed  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  coal  from  the  coal-regions. 

Section  I.    Lines  extending  across  the  AllcgJianies 

The  works  which  have  hitherto  almost  wholly  occupied,  and  still 
chiefly  occupy,  the  attention  of  statesmen  and  business  men  in  the 
United  States,  are  those  designed  to  form  communications  between 
the  East  and  the  West.  There  are  on  the  Atlantic  coast  four  prin- 
cipal towns,  which  long  strove  with  each  other  for  the  supremacy ; 
namely,  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore.^  All  four 
aimed  to  secure  the  command  of  the  commerce  of  the  new  States 
which  are  springing  up  in  the  fertile  regions  of  the  West.   .  .  . 

First  Link.    Erie  Canal 

[This  canal  was  begun  by  the  State  of  New  York  on  the  4th 
of  July,  18 17,  and  completed  in  1825  at  an  expense  of  8,400,000 
dollars.]  Since  that  time  it  has  continued  to  add  numerous  branches, 
covering  almost  every  part  of  the  State,  as  with  network.  In 
1836,  the  state  had  completed  656  miles  of  canal  including  slack- 
water  navigation,  at  the  expense  of  11,962,712  dollars,  or  18,235 
dollars  per  mile. 

^  For  an  account  of  this  rivalry,  see  pp.  326-337. 


366  TRANSPORTATION 

Second  Line.    Pennsylvania  Canal 

What  is  called  the  Pennsylvania  canal  is  a  long  line  of  400 
miles,  starting  from  Philadelphia,  and  ending  at  Pittsburg  on  the 
Ohio.  It  was  begun  simultaneously  with  several  other  works,  at 
the  expense  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  in  1826.  It  is  not  en- 
tirely a  canal ;  from  Philadelphia  a  railroad  8 1  miles  in  length, 
extends  to  the  Susquehanna  at  Columbia.  To  the  Columbia  rail- 
road, succeeds  a  canal,  172  miles  in  length,  which  ascends  the 
Susquehanna  and  Juniata  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains  at  Holidays- 
burg,  Thence  the  Portage  railroad  passes  over  the  mountain  to 
Johnstown  a  distance  of  37  miles,  by  means  of  several  inclined 
plains.  .  .  .  P"rom  Johnstown  a  second  canal  goes  to  Pittsburg 
104  miles.  This  route  is  subject  to  the  inconvenience  of  three 
transhipments,  .  .  .  one  of  these  may  be  avoided  by  means  of 
two  canals  constructed  by  incorporated  companies,  namely,  the 
Schuylkill  canal,  which  extends  up  the  river  of  that  name,  and  the 
Union  canal,  which  forms  a  junction  between  the  upper  Schuylkill 
and  the  Susquehanna.  .  .   . 

The  Pennsylvania  canal  begun  in  1826,  was  finished  in  1834. 
The  State  has  connected  with  this  work  a  general  system  of  canali- 
zation, which  embraces  all  the  principal  rivers,  and  especially  the 
Susquehanna,  with  its  two  great  branches  (the  North  Branch  and 
the  West  Branch),  and  also  works  preparatory  to  a  canal  connect- 
ing Pittsburg  with  Lake  Erie  at  Erie.   .   .   . 

Third  Line.    Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad 

Still  less  than  Philadelphia,  could  Baltimore  think  of  a  continu- 
ous canal  to  the  Ohio.  Wishing  to  avoid  the  transhipments  which 
are  necessary  on  the  Pennsylvania  line  the  Baltimoreans  decided 
on  the  construction  of  a  railroad  extending  from  their  city  to 
Pittsburg  or  Wheeling.  .   .   ,   [Opened  to  Wheeling  in  1853.] 

Fourth  Line.    The  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal 

.  .  .  The  old  idea,  which  Washington  had  cherished,  of  making 
the  political  capital  of  the  Union  a  great  city,  was  not  less  to  the 
taste  of  Mr.  Adams  and  his  friends.  It  was,  therefore,  resolved  to 
undertake  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  and  a  company  was 


thp:  transportation  systi<:m  367 

incorporated  for  this  i:)urposc.  Congress  voted  a  subscription  of 
1,000,000  dollars;  the  city  of  Washington,  without  commerce, 
without  manufactures,  with  its  population  of  16,000  souls  sub- 
scribed the  same  sum  ;  the  other  little  cities  of  the  I^'ederal  Dis- 
trict, Georgetown  and  Alexandria,  having  both  together  a  population 
of  about  10,000,  furnished  a  half  a  million  ;  Virginia  contributed 
250,000,  and  Maryland  500,000  dollars  ;  and  600,000  was  raised 
by  individual  subscriptions.  This  work  was  begun  July  4th,  1828. 
Next  year  [1836]  by  aid  of  a  loan  of  3,000,000  from  Maryland, 
this  great  work  will  be  carried  to  the  coal  bed  of  Cumberland  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountains.   .   .   . 

Fifth   Line.    Jamp:s  Rivkr  and  Kanawha  Communication 

...  A  company,  whose  means  consist  of  little  more  than  the 
subscriptions  of  the  State  and  of  the  Capital,  Richmond,  is  about  to 
open  a  canal  from  the' East  to  the  West.  .  .  .  On  the  East  of  the 
mountains  the  canal,  starting  from  Richmond,  will  follow  the  course 
of  James  River,  and  on  the  West  it  will  descend  the  Kanawha,  one 
of  the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  to  Charleston,  at  the  head  of  steam- 
boat navigation.  The  Alleghany  crest  will  be  passed  by  a  railroad. 
.  .  .  [This  canal  was  built  as  far  as  Buchanan  before  1 860,  from 
which  point  a  railroad  was  built  southwest  to  Knoxville.  After  1850 
Virginia  sought  to  secure  a  Western  connection  by  the  Chesapeake 
and  Ohio  railroad.  The  people  of  South  Carolina  attempted  to 
secure  the  construction  of  a  railroad  to  connect  Charleston  and 
Cincinnati,  but  the  project  was  ruined  by  the  crisis  of  1837 -'39. 
They  built  one  from  Charleston  to  Augusta  on  the  Savannah  river 
which  was  extended  by  the  people  of  Georgia  to  Atlanta,  and  the 
State  of  Georgia  then  constructed  the  Western  and  Atlantic  road 
from  that  point  to  Chattanooga,  between  1839  and  185  i.] 

Section  II.    lines  of  Connnnnieation  bctiveen  the  Mississippi 
Valley- and  that  of  the  St.  lazurence 

First  Line.    Ohio  Canal 

Only  one  work  connecting  the  two  valleys  is  as  yet  completed, 
this  is  the  Ohio  Canal,  which  traverses  that  State  from  North  to 


368  TRANSPORrATION 

South,  extending  from  Portsmouth,  on  the  Ohio,  to  the  little  city 
of  Cleveland,  which  has  sprung  up  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  since 
the  canal  was  made.  It  is  334  miles  in  length,  and  cost  nearly 
4,500,000  dollars,  or  about  13,500  dollars  per  mile.  .   .  . 

Second  Line.    Miami  Canal 

Ohio  has  constructed  another  canal,  which,  starting  from  Cin- 
cinnati on  the  Ohio,  runs  north  to  Dayton,  and  is  called  the  Miami 
Canal.  It  is  65  miles  in  length,  and  cost  nearly  1,000,000  dollars, 
or  15,400  dollars  a  mile.  By  the  aid  of  a  grant  of  land  from  Con- 
gress, and  the  State's  resources,  its  prolongation  is  now  in  progress 
to  Defiance,  on  the  Maumee,  .  .  .  [It  united  at  this  point  with  the 
Wabash  and  Erie  Canal,  thus  forming  a  second  line  of  connection 
between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio  River  within  the  State  of  Ohio.] 

Third  Line.   Wabash  and  Erie  Canal 

Ohio  and  Indiana,  with  the  aid  of  a  grant  of  land  from  Congress, 
have  undertaken  in  concert  a  canal,  which  will  connect  the  Wabash, 
one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  with  the  Maumee.  The  greater 
part  of  the  canal  will  be  parallel  to  the  two  rivers,  or  in  their  beds ; 
the  length  of  the  whole  work  will  be  382  miles,  of  which  195  are 
in  Indiana,  and  87  in  Ohio.  The  greater  portion  of  the  Indiana 
section  lateral  to  the  Wabash  has  been  completed.  .  .  .  [The  canal 
was  opened  from  Lake  Erie  to  La  Fayette  at  the  head  of  naviga- 
tion on  the  Wabash  in  1848.  It  was  subsequently  extended  down 
the  Wabash  to  Terre  Haute  and  thence  by  way  of  White  River  to 
Evansville  on  the  Ohio  River.] 

Fourth  Line.    Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal 

The  project  of  a  canal  from  the  Chicago,  at  the  southern  end  of 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  head  of  steam  navigation  ...  in  the  River 
Illinois,  has  long  been  discussed.  It  is  said  to  be  of  very  easy  con- 
struction ;  and  that  by  means  of  a  cut  of  the  maximum  depth  of  26 
feet,  the  summit  level  can  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, so  that  the  lake  can  be  used  as  a  feeder.  It  will  be  96  miles 
in  length.  .  .  .  [This  canal  was  begun  July  4,  1836  by  the  State 
of  Illinois  and  was  completed  in  1851.] 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM  369 

Fifth  Lixi:.    Wkstkkx  Pennsylvania  Canal 

The  canal  whicli  has  been  eonimenced  by  Pennsyh'ania  between 
the  Ohio  and  the  town  of  Erie,  1 12  miles  in  length  .  .  .  will  make 
another  and  shorter  line  of  water  communication  between  the 
basins  of  the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence.^ 

Different  Lines 

Lastly,  two  canals  are  about  to  be  undertaken,  which  will  con- 
nect the  Pennsylvania  works  with  those  of  Ohio,  and  of  conse- 
quence, form  new  connections  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  St. 
Lawrence.  One  of  these  is  the  Sandy  and  Beaver  canal,  which, 
beginning  with  the  confluence  of  the  Big  Beaver  with  the  Ohio, 
follows  the  latter  to  the  mouth  of  the  Little  Beaver,  ascends  the 
valley  of  this  stream  and  passes  down  that  of  the  Sandy  River  to 
the  Ohio  canal  at  Bolivar ;  the  length  will  be  90  miles.  .  .  .  The 
Mahoning  canal  leaves  the  Ohio  canal  at  Akron,  following  the  val- 
leys of  the  Little  Cuyahoga,  the  Mahoning,  a  tributar)^  of  the  Big 
Beaver,  and  the  Big  Beaver,  to  the  Ohio ;  it  is  about  90  miles  in 
length  ;  the  distance  from  Akron  to  the  River  Ohio  is  1 1  5  miles. 
[Both  these  canals  were  built  before  1850]: 

Works  for  improving  the  Navigation  of  the  Ohio,  Mississippi, 
and  the  St.  Lawrence 

To  this  head  belong  the  works  executed  in  the  beds  of  the  riv- 
ers themselves.  [The  United  States  Government  did  something  to 
clear  the  channels  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  of  snags  and  other 
dangerous  obstructions  to  navigation  ;  a  canal  was  built  around  the 
falls  of  the  Ohio  at  Louisville,  and  another  around  the  Muscle 

1  "  In  the  western  portion  of  the  state  [of  Pennsylvania]  several  important 
works  were  projected  as  part  of  the  great  system  originally  proposed.  ...  Of 
these  are,  first,  the  Beaver  division  of  the  Pennsylvania  canal,  commencing  at 
Beaver,  on  the  Ohio,  at  the  mouth  of  Beaver  river,  and  extending  to  Newcastle, 
about  twenty-five  miles.  This  canal  forms  the  trunk  of  the  Mahoning  canal,  ex- 
tending from  the  state  line  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  Ohio  canal,  at  Akron,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  seventy-six  miles;  and  also  of  the  Erie  extension  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania canal,  commencing  near  Newcastle  and  extending  to  Erie,  a  distance  of 
about  one  hundred  and  six  miles. 

"  This  last  named  work  has  passed  into  private  hands.  It  is  at  the  present  time 
chiefly  employed   in   the   transportation  of  coal,  and  is  the  principal  avenue  for 


370  TRANSPORTATION 

shoals  on  the  Tennessee  River  in  northern  Alabama  ;  slack  water 
navigation  was  created  on  all  the  principal  rivers  of  Kentucky  by 
the  construction  of  dams  and  locks  ;  and  the  Canadian  Government 
built  the  Welland  Canal  to  connect  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario  as 
well  as  numerous  canals  and  locks  around  the  rapids  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.] 

Section  III.    Lines  of  Connnnnieation  along  the  Atlantic 

FuiST  Line.    Inland  Channels  by  the  Sounds 
AND  Bays  along  the  Atlantic 

Upon  examining  the  coast  of  the  United  States  from  Boston  to 
Florida,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  almost  a  continuous  line  of  in- 
land navigation,  extending  from  northeast  to  southwest  in  a  direc- 
tion parallel  to  that  of  the  coast,  formed,  in  the  north  by  a  series  of 
bays  and  rivers,  and  in  the  south,  by  a  number  of  long  sounds,  or 
by  the  narrow  passes  between  the  mainland  and  the  chain  of  low 
islands  that  lie  in  front  of  the  former.  The  necks  of  land  that 
separate  these  bays,  rivers,  and  lagoons,  are  all  flat  and  of  incon- 
siderable breadth.  [That  between  the  waters  of  the  Hudson  and 
the  Delaware  rivers  was  cut  by  the  Delaware  and  Raritan  canal. 
The  waters  of  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  bays  were  connected 
by  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  canal.  The  Dismal  Swamp  canal 
connected  Chesapeake  bay  with  Albemarle  sound.  Thus  was  an 
inland  water  route  opened  from  Providence  to  North  Carolina. 
The  inland  route  was  interrupted  here  but  was  resumed  again  at 
Charleston  from  which  city  steamboats  could  run  between  the  low 
islands  and  the  main  land  to  Savannah,  and  thence  up  the  Savan- 
nah river  to  Augusta.] 

Second  Line.    Communication  between  the  North  and  the 
South  by  the  Maritime  Capitals 

Parallel  to  the  preceding  line  which  is  designed  for  the  trans- 
portation of  bulky  articles,  is  another  further  inland  for  the  use 

the  supply  of  this  article  to  Lake  Erie.  Connected  with  the  Erie  extension  is  a 
state  work  called  the  P^ench  Creek  feeder  and  Franklin  branch,  extending  from 
Franklin,  on  the  Alleghany  river,  to  Conneaut  lake,  by  way  of  Meadville,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  fifty  miles.  .  .  ."  —  Poor,  in  Andrews'  Report  on  Colonial  and 
Lake   Trade   [1852],  Part  IV,  p.  263. 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM 


171 


of  travellers,  and  the  lighter  and  more  valuable  merchandise,  on 
which  steam  is  becoming  the  only  motive  power,  both  by  land  and 
by  water  ;  by  land  on  railways,  and  by  water  in  steamboats.  You 
go  from  Boston  to  Providence  b)-  a  railroad.  .  .  .  P'rom  Providence 
to  New  York,  passengers  are  carried  by  the  steamboats  in  from  1 4 
to  18  hours  ;  some  boats  have  made  the  passage  in  12  hours.  .  .  . 

Between  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  you  go  by  steamboat  to 
South  Amboy  on  Raritan  Bay,  28  miles,  whence  a  railroad  extends 
across  the  peninsula  to  Bordentown,  and  down  along  the  Delaware 
to  Camden,  opposite  Philadelphia.   .  .  . 

From  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore,  the  route  is  continued  by  a 
steamboat  to  Newcastle,  and  a  railroad  from  thence  to  French- 
town,  across  the  peninsula,  i6|  miles  long,  whence  another 
steamboat  takes  the  traveller  to  Baltimore,  in  8  or  9  hours  after 
starting  from  Philadelphia.   .   .   . 

From  Baltimore  southwardly  two  routes  offer  themselves ; 
you  may  take  the  steamboat  to  Norfolk,  a  distance  of  200  miles, 
which  is  accomplished  in  18  or  20  hours,  whence  another  boat 
ascends  the  James  River  to  Richmond  still  more  rapidly,  the  dis- 
tance of  about  135  miles  being  passed  over  in  10  hours;  or  you 
may  go  from  Norfolk  to  Weldon  on  the  Roanoke  by  a  railroad  J  J 
miles  in  length,  of  which  two  thirds  are  completed. 

From  Baltimore  you  may  also  go  to  Washington,  by  a  branch 
of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  and  thence  by  steamboat  down 
the  Potomac  to  a  little  village,  i  5  miles  from  Fredericksburg,  from 
which  a  railroad  is  now  in  progress  to  Richmond.  .  .  .  P'rom  Peters- 
burg, 20  miles  from  Richmond,  a  railroad  extends  to  Blakely  on 
the  Roanoke,  60  miles,  ... 

There  is  a  great  void  of  325  miles,  between  the  Roanoke  and 
Charleston,  the  chief  city  of  South  Carolina,  or  rather  275  miles 
between  the  Roanoke  and  Columbia,  the  capital  of  that  State. 
P'rom  Charleston,  a  railroad  1 36  miles  in  length,  extends  through 
the  uncultivated  and  feverish  zone  of  sand  and  pine-barrens  to  the 
cotton-region  ;  it  terminates  at  Hamburg,  on  the  River  Savannah, 
opposite  Augusta,  which  is  the  principal  interior  cotton-market.  .  .  . 

From  Augusta,  the  Georgia  railroad  has  lately  been  begun,  and 
will  traverse  some  of  the  most  fertile  cotton  districts  in  the  State ; 


372  TRANSPORTATION 

it  will  extend  to  Athens,  a  distance  of  1 1 5  miles.  To  continue  the 
line  from  North  to  South,  or  from  Boston  to  New  Orleans,  it 
would  be  necessary  that  this  railroad  should  be  prolonged  in  the 
direction  of  Montgomery,  Alabama,  whence  a  steamer  takes  the 
traveller  to  Mobile,  on  the  River  Alabama.  Between  Mobile  and 
New  Orleans,  there  are  regular  lines  of  steamboats  running 
through  Mobile  Bay,  Pascagoula  Sound,  and  Lakes  Borgne  and 
Pontchartrain.   .   .   . 

Section  IV.    Lines  radiating  around  the  Large  Tozvns 

First  Centre,  Boston,  Second  Centre,  New  York.  Third  Centre, 
Philadelphia.  P^ourth  Centre,  Baltimore.  P^ifth  Centre,  Charleston. 
Sixth  Centre,  New  Orleans.    Seventh  Centre,  Saratoga. 

Section  V.     Works  connected  zvith  Coal- Mines 

The  anthracite  beds  of  Pennsylvania  have  caused  the  construc- 
tion of  a  much  more  extensive  series  of  works.  At  present  hardly 
any  other  fuel  is  consumed  on  the  coast  for  domestic  and  manu- 
facturing purposes  than  the  anthracite,  which  is  found  only  in  a 
small  section  of  Pennsylvania,  lying  between  the  Susquehanna 
and  the  Delaware.   .   .   . 

The  principal  of  these  lines  are  the  following  :  i .  The  Schuyl- 
kill canal,  which  extends  from  Philadelphia  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
mines  about  the  head  of  the  Schuylkill.  ...  2.  The  Lehigh  canal 
runs  from  the  Delaware  to  the  mines  near  the  heads  of  the  Lehigh. 
...  3.  The  lateral  canal  along  the  Delaware  starts  from  P^aston, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Lehigh,  and  ends  at  Bristol,  the  head  of  navi- 
gation for  sea-vessels.  It  transports  to  Philadelphia,  the  coal  that 
is  brought  down  the  Lehigh  canal.  ...  4.  The  Morris  canal  starts 
from  Easton,  and  ends  at  Jersey  City,  opposite  New  York.  It 
serves  to  supply  the  New  York  market  with  coal.  ...  5.  The  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  canal  extends  from  the  Roundout  creek  on  the 
Hudson,  near  Kingston,  90  miles  above  New  York,  to  the  anthra- 
cite mines  near  the  upper  Delaware.  ...  6.  The  Pottsville  and 
Sunbury  railroad  is  designed  to  bring  down  to  the  Schuylkill  the 
products  of  the  mines  lying  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains  between 


THE  TRANSI'OR'IW'I'ION  SYSTEM  t^'j T) 

the  Susquehanna  and  the  heads  of  tlie  Schuylkill.  ...  7.  The 
Philadelphia  and  Reading  railroad,  now  in  progress,  will  enter 
into  competition  with  the  Schu)lkill  canal.   .   .   . 

Rauavay    I  )KVKI,01'MKNT 

^The  decade  which  terminated  in  i<S6o  was  particularly  distin- 
guished hy  the  progress  of  railroads  in  the  United  States.  At  its 
commencement  the  total  extent  in  operation  was  8,588.79  miles, 
costing  $296,260,128;  at  its  close,  30,598.77  miles,  costing 
$1,134,452,909  ;  the  increase  in  mileage  having  been  22,004.08 
miles,  and  in  cost  of  construction  $838,192,781. 

While  the  increase  in  mileage  was  nearly  300  per  cent.,  and  the 
amount  invested  still  greater,  the  consequences  that  have  resulted 
from  these  works  have  been  augmented  in  vastly  greater  ratio. 
Up  to  the  commencement  of  the  decade  our  railroads  sustained 
only  an  unimportant  relation  to  the  internal  commerce  of  the  coun- 
tiy.  Nearly  all  the  lines  then  in  operation  were  local  or  isolated 
works,  and  neither  in  extent  nor  design  had  begun  to  be  formed 
into  that  vast  and  connected  system  which,  like  a  web,  now  covers 
every  portion  of  our  wide  domain,  enabling  each  work  to  contribute 
to  the  traffic  and  value  of  all,  and  supplying  means  of  locomotion 
and  a  market,  almost  at  his  own  door,  for  nearly  every  citizen  of 
the  United  States. 

Previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  last  decade  only  one  line 
of  railroad  had  been  completed  between  tide-water  and  the  great 
interior  basins  of  the  country,  the  products  of  which  now  perform 
so  important  a  part  in  our  internal  and  f(M"eign  commerce.  Even 
this  line,  formed  by  the  several  links  that  now  compose  the  New 
York  Central  road,  was  restricted  in  the  carriage  of  freight  except 
on  the  payment  of  canal  tolls,  in  addition  to  other  .charges  for 
transportation,  which  restriction  amounted  to  a  virtual  prohibition. 
The  commerce  resulting  from  our  railroads  consecjuently  has  been, 
with  comparatively  slight  exceptions,  a  creation  of  the  last  decade. 

The  line  next  opened,  and  connecting  the  western  system  of 
lakes  and  rivers  with  tide-water,  was  that  extending  from  Boston 

1  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  of  the  United  States  [i860],  pp. 
103-105. 


374  TRANSPORTATION 

to  Ogdensburg,  composed  of  distinct  links,  the  last  of  which  was 
completed  during  1850.  The  third  was  the  New  York  and  Erie, 
which  was  opened  on  the  22d  of  April,  185  i.  The  fourth,  in  geo- 
graphical order,  was  the  Pennsylvania,  which  was  completed  in 
1852,  although  its  mountain  division  was  not  opened  till  1854. 
Previous  to  this  time  its  summit  was  overcome  by  a  series  of  in- 
clined planes,  with  stationary  engines,  constructed  by  the  State. 
The  fifth  great  line,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  was  opened,  in  1853, 
still  further  south.  The  Tennessee  river,  a  tributary  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, was  reached,  in  1850,  by  the  Western  and  Atlantic  railroad 
of  Georgia,  and  the  Mississippi  itself,  by  the  Memphis  and  Charles- 
ton railroad,  in  1859.  In  the  extreme  north  the  Atlantic  and  St. 
Lawrence,  now  known  as  the  Grand  Trunk,  was  completed  early 
in  1853.  In  1858,  the  Virginia  system  was  extended  to  a  connex- 
ion [at  Chattanooga]  with  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  and  with 
the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  railroads. 

The  eight  great  works  named,  connecting  the  interior  with  the 
seaboard,  are  the  trunks  or  base  lines  upon  which  is  erected  the 
vast  system  that  now  overspreads  the  whole  country.  They  serve 
as  outlets  to  the  interior  for  its  products,  which  would  have  little 
or  no  commercial  value  without  improved  highways,  the  cost  of 
transportation  over  which  does  not  equal  one-tenth  that  over 
ordinary  roads.  The  works  named,  assisted  by  the  Erie  canal, 
now  afford  ample  means  for  the  expeditious  and  cheap  trans- 
portation of  produce  seeking  eastern  markets,  and  could,  without 
being  over  taxed,  transport  the  entire  surplus  products  of  the 
interior. 

Previous  to  1850  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  railroads  con- 
structed were  in  the  States  bordering  the  Atlantic,  and,  as  before 
remarked,  were  for  the  most  part  isolated  lines,  whose  limited  traf- 
fics were  altogether  local.  Up  to  the  date  named,  the  internal  com- 
merce of  the  country  was  conducted  almost  entirely  through  water 
lines,  natural  and  artificial,  and  over  ordinary  highways.  The  period 
of  the  settlement  of  California  marks  really  the  commencement  of 
the  new  era  in  the  physical  progress  of  the  United  States.  The  vast 
quantities  of  gold  it  produced  imparted  new  life  and  activity  to  every 
portion  of  the  Union,  particularly  the  western  States,  the  people  of 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTP:M  375 

which,  at  tlie  commencement  of  1H50,  were  thoroughly  aroused  as 
to  the  value  and  importance  of  railroads.  Kixch  presented  great 
facilities  for  the  construction  of  such  works,  which  promised  to  be 
almost  equally  productive.  Enterprises  were  undertaken  and  speed- 
ily executed  which  have  literall)'  converted  them  into  a  net- work 
of  lines,  and  secured  their  advantages  to  almost  every  farmer  and 
producer. 

The  progress  of  these  works  in  the  aggregate,  year  by  year,  will 
be  seen  by  the  tabular  statements  at  the  close  of  the  report.  The 
only  important  line  opened  in  the  west,  previous  to  1850,  was  the 
one  from  Sandusky  to  Cincinnati,  formed  by  the  Mad  River  and 
Little  Miami  roads.  But  these  pioneer  works  were  rude,  unsub- 
stantial structures  compared  with  the  finished  works  of  the  present 
day,  and  were  employed  almost  wholly  in  the  transportation  of 
passengers.  Within  the  decade,  in  place  of  this  one  line,  railroads 
have  been  constructed  radiating  from  lakes  Erie  and  Michigan, 
striking  the  Mississippi  at  trn  and  the  Ohio  at  c2^/it  different 
points,  and  serve  as  trunk  lines  between  the  two  great  hydro- 
graphic  systems  of  the  west.  These  trunk  lines  are  cut  every 
few  miles  by  cross  lines,  which,  in  the  States  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, are  sufficiently  numerous  to  meet  every  public  and  private 
want,  and  to  afford  every  needful  encouragement  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  this  country. 

The  southern  States  have  been  behind  the  northern  in  their 
public  enterprises,  though,  at  the  date  of  the  census,  they  were 
prosecuting  them  with  great  energy  and  vigor.  The  progress  in- 
land of  the  great  trunk  lines  of  the  south  has  been  already  noted. 
The  opening  of  the  Mobile  &  Ohio,  and  of  the  Mississippi  Central, 
which  will  soon  take  place,  will  give  completeness  to  the  system  of 
the  southwestern  States,  and  leave  little  to  be  done  to  make  it  all 
that  is  wanted  for  that  section  of  the  countr}-'. 

West  of  the  Mississippi  less  has  been  done,  for  the  reason  that 
the  settlements  are  of  a  more  recent  date,  and  the  people  less  able 
to  provide  the  means  for  their  construction  than  those  of  the  older 
States.  But  even  upon  our  western  frontier  extensive  systems  have 
been  undertaken  and  veiy  considerable  progress  made  in  their 
execution. 


376  TRANSPORTATION 

A  more  interesting  subject  than  the  progress  of  our  pubhc 
works  would  be  their  results,  as  shown  in  the  increased  commerce 
and  wealth  of  the  country.  But  such  inquiries  do  not  come  within 
the  scope  of  this  report.  It  is  well  ascertained,  however,  that  our 
railroads  transport  in  the  aggregate  at  least  850  tons  of  merchan- 
dise per  annum  to  the  mile  of  road  in  operation.  Such  a  rate 
would  give  26,000,000  tons  as  the  total  annual  tonnage  of  rail- 
roads for  the  whole  country.  If  we  estimate  the  value  of  this 
tonnage  at  $150  per  ton,  the  aggregate  value  of  the  whole  would 
be  $3,900,000,000.  Vast  as  this  commerce  is,  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  it  has  been  created  since  1850.   ... 

III.    ECONOMICAL  VIEW    OF   RAILROADS   AND    CANALS 

1  Taking  into  consideration  the  surface  of  the  country,  its  pro- 
ductiveness, the  small  amount  of  lockage  on  the  Erie  Canal,  and 
the  fact  that  it  connects  the  tide  water  of  one  of  the  noblest  rivers 
in  the  world  [the  Hudson],  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the 
ocean,  with  four  great  inland  seas,  and,  by  means  of  the  canals  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  [its  tributaries],  connects  the  Hudson 
with  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  it  has 
greater  advantages  than  any  other  canal  on  the  globe.  Perhaps  this 
is  the  only  canal  in  our  country,  which  yields  a  clear  income  equal 
to  the  interest  on  its  cost.  The  canals  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio 
generally,  yield  less  than  three  per  cent,  net  income  on  their  cost ; 
and  some  of  those  of  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Indiana  and 
the  other  States,  are  like  the  Royal  Canal  in  Ireland,  and  pay  little 
more  than  the  expenses  of  tending  them,  and  keeping  them  in 
repair.  The  canal  of  Languedoc  in  France,  and  most  of  the  other 
canals  in  that  country,  have  been  equally  unproductive. 

The  main  lines  of  railroad  first  constructed  in  New  York,  New 
England,  New  Jersey,  and  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  and  some  few  other  roads,  have  proved  veiy  profitable 
to  the  stockholders.  Their  profits  are  mostly  derived  from  the  trans- 
portations of  passengers,  carrying  the  mails,  and  tolls  on  valuable 
merchandise,  and  but  a  small  proportion  of  it  from  tolls  on  the  raw 

1  Seaman,  Progress  of  Nations  [1852],  pp.  508-511. 


ECONOMICS  Ol-    RAILROADS   AM)  CANALS         377 

materials  of  agriculture.  l"he  most  of  the  canals  and  railroads  of 
Pennsylvania  have  never  been  very  profitable,  and  there  is  scarcely 
a  single  road  or  canal  south  or  south-west  from  the  Potomac,  which 
yields  a  net  income  equal  to  the  interest  on  its  cost. 

The  history  and  effects  of  canals  and  railroads  seem  to  establish 
the  following  propositions  :  ist.  That  the  principal  income  of  all 
the  most  profitable  railroads  in  America,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  is 
derived  from  carr}dng  passengers,  and  the  ti'ansportation  of  the 
products  of  mining  and  manufacturing  industry. 

2dly.  That  the  greater  part  of  agricultural  products  are  so  cheap 
in  proportion  to  their  weight  and  bulk,  that  very  few,  if  any,  rail- 
roads or  canals  can  yield  much  profit,  if  their  principal  income  is 
derived  from  the  transportation  of  such  articles. 

3dly.  That  canals  and  railroads  aid  commerce,  and  mining  and 
mamifacturing  industry,  much  more  than  they  do  agriculture. 

And,  4thly.  That  they  should  follow  population  and  business, 
and  not  attempt  to  penetrate  the  wilderness  in  advance  of  them. 

Whether  we  look  to  the  canals  of  F'rance,  of  Ireland,  those  of 
New  Jersey  or  Ohio,  or  any  other  State  or  country,  the  result 
is  the  same  ;  those  which  depend  for  their  income  mostly  on 
the  transportation  of  agricultural  products  have  never  been  found 
very  productive.  The  products  of  warm  and  hot  climates,  worth 
from  two  to  fifty  cents  per  pound,  can  be  advantageously  trans- 
ported great  distances  to  market  on  canals  and  railroads  ;  and  the 
products  of  manufacturing  industry,  which  are  worth  from  six  cents 
to  six  pounds  sterling  per  pound,  may  be  carried  the  world  over  on 
railroads,  or  on  camels'  backs,  mules  or  pack-horses,  and  yet  the 
cost  of  transportation  will  bear  such  a  moderate  proportion  to  the 
value  of  the  article,  that  the  manufacturer  may  be  well  rewarded 
for  his  industry.  Some  agricultural  products  of  cold  and  temperate 
climates,  such  as  wool,  butter,  cheese,  wheat  flour,  and  salted  beef 
and  pork,  may  be  carried  great  distances  on  navigable  waters  to  a 
market,  provided  they  will  command  a  ready  sale  and  high  prices  ; 
but  it  is  impossible  to  transport  rye,  buckwheat,  Indian  corn,  oats, 
potatoes,  and  other  vegetables,  hay,  &c.,  very  far  on  canals  and 
railroads,  before  the  cost  of  transportation  consumes  the  whole  value 
of  the  product  when  brought  to  market  ;  and  the  articles  which 


^^yS  TRANSPORTATION 

may  be  profitably  taken  to  a  distant  market  are  so  few,  that  it  re- 
quires a  very  great  extent  of  country  to  supply  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  them  to  make  a  railroad  or  canal  profitable.  The  Erie  Canal 
transports  nearly  all  the  merchandise  consumed,  and  the  agricul- 
tural products  sent  to  a  distant  market  produced  by  many  millions 
of  inhabitants.  No  other  work,  either  of  Europe  or  America,  does 
the  business  of  so  numerous  a  people.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
Erie  Canal  is  profitable,  when  nearly  all  the  other  canals  and  rail- 
roads of  agricultural  countries  are  unprofitable. 

Many  railroads  and  canals,  however,  which  have  not  proved  good 
investments  of  capital  to  the  stockholders,  have  been  valuable  to 
the  country  through  which  they  run,  and  have  increased  the  value 
of  property  to  the  full  amount  of  their  cost.  But  where  two  such 
improvements  run  near  each  other,  either  of  which  would  accom- 
modate the  whole  country  accommodated  by  the  two,  though  a  few 
villages  may  be  benefited  by  the  second  improvement,  yet  others  are 
injured  by  the  competition,  and  in  the  aggregate,  no  benefit  what- 
ever to  the  nation  arises  from  it.  In  a  comparatively  new  countr)', 
however,  like  the  most  of  the  United  States,  an  expensive  improve- 
ment may  in  many  districts  be  nearly  valueless  at  'the  present  time, 
which  may  be  of  great  value  within  the  next  twenty  years,  when 
the  country  shall  have  become  more  populous,  and  its  resources 
more  fully  developed. 

If  the  people  of  a  state  or  country  have  not  sufficient  capital  to 
construct  a  railroad  or  other  improvement,  it  will  not,  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances,  improve  their  condition  to  incur  a  heavy  debt, 
and  build  it  by  loans,  the  burthens  of  which  generally  overbalance 
all  the  advantages  of  the  work.  If  foreign  capitalists  will  take  stock 
in  an  incorporated  company,  and  furnish  capital  to  do  the  work,  the 
evil  will  be  much  less  to  the  community  than  to  do  it  by  loans  ; 
but  even  then,  the  payment  to  distant  capitalists  of  the  income  of 
the  work,  serves  to  drain  the  country  of  money,  and  is  no  trifling 
evil. 

Roads,  canals,  railroads,  steamboats,  and  other  means  of  com- 
munication and  transportation,  serve  as  instruments  and  agents  to 
aid  production,  and  to  promote  both  industry  and  commerce.  Min- 
ing for  iron  cannot  be  prosecuted  without  facilities  for  transporting 


ECONOMICS  OF  RAILROADS  AND  CANALS         379 

the  ore,  and  fuel  to  smelt  it,  to  the  furnace  ;  and  manufacturing 
establishments  must  have  facilities  of  collecting  and  conveying 
to  them  the  raw  materials  to  be  manufactured,  and  also  fuel,  as 
well  as  facilities  at  cheap  rates,  to  transport  their  manufactured 
products  to  market.  Manufactures  and  mining  (except  for  the 
precious  metals)  cannot  be  carried  on  extensively  without  such 
facilities  ;  for  without  cheap  transportation,  the  products  cannot  be 
conveyed  far  enough  to  command  an  extensive  market.  But  coarse 
agricultural  products  cannot  generally  be  transported  very  far,  with 
all  the  facilities  which  man  has  been  able  to  invent,  before  the  cost 
of  transportation  will  equal  the  value  of  the  product,  and  leave  noth- 
ing to  the  farmer.  Mining  for  iron  and  coal,  as  well  as  manufac- 
turing on  a  large  scale,  cannot  be  carried  on  without  the  aid  of 
either  navigable  waters,  canals,  or  railroads.  Hence  railroads,  and 
other  internal  improvements,  aid  mining  and  manufacturing  indus- 
try much  more  than  they  do  agriculture.  And  hence  the  people  of 
agricultural  districts  have  been  very  generally  disappointed,  in  not 
deriving  as  great  advantages  from  canals  and  railroads  as  they  an- 
ticipated, unless  they  availed  themselves  of  such  improvements  to 
introduce  manufactures,  and  thereby  create  a  market  at  home  for 
their  agricultural  products.   .   .   . 

1  The  first  step  toward  a  correct  idea  of  our  railroads,  as  far  as 
their  uses,  objects,  costs,  and  results,  are  concerned,  is  a  thorough 
understanding  of  the  social  and  industrial  character  of  our  people, 
the  geographical  and  topographical  features  of  the  countiy,  the 
uniformity  in  the  pursuits  of  the  great  mass  of  our  people,  and 
the  great  distance  that  separates  the  consuming  from  the  produc- 
ing regions. 

Assuming  the  occupied  area  of  that  portion  of  our  territory  east 
of  the  Rocky  mountains  to  be  1,100,000  square  miles,  at  least 
1,050,000  are  devoted  to  agriculture,  while  not  more  than  50,000 
are  occupied  by  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  classes.  These 
compose  a  narrow  belt  of  territory  lying  upon  the  seacoast,  extend- 
ing from  Baltimore  to  the  eastern  part  of  Maine,  and  are  more 

1  Poor,  Railroads  and  Canals  of  the  United  States,  in  Andrews'  Report  on 
Colonial  and  Lake  Trade  [1852],  pp.  331-332,  334-336,  336-337>  338-340. 


o 


So  TRANSPORTATION 


widely  separated  from  the  great  producing  regions  than  any  other 
settled  portion  of  the  country.  The  great  peculiarity  that  distin- 
guishes our  own  from  older  countries  is,  that  we  have  no  Ulterior 
markets.  The  greater  part  of  our  territory  has  not  been  long 
enough  settled  for  the  development  of  a  variety  of  industrial  pur- 
suits, which  constitute  them.  So  entirely  are  our  people  devoted  to 
agriculture,  and  so  uniformly  distributed  are  they  over  the  whole 
country,  that  some  of  our  largest  States,  Tennessee  and  Indiana  for 
instance,  had  no  towns  in  1850  containing  a  population  of  over 
10,000. 

This  homogeneousness  in  the  pursuits  of  the  great  mass  of  our 
people,  and  the  wide  space  that  separates  the  producing  and  con- 
suming classes,  as  they  are  popularly  termed,  necessarily  implies 
the  exportation  of  the  sitrphts  products  of  eaeJi.  The  western 
farmer  has  no  home  demand  for  the  wheat  he  raises,  as  the  surplus 
of  all  his  neighbors  is  the  same  in  kind.  The  aggregate  surplus  of 
the  district  in  which  he  resides  has  to  be  exported  to  find  a  con- 
sumer ;  and  the  producer  for  a  similar  reason  is  obliged  to  import 
all  the  various  articles  that  enter  into  consumption  which  his  own 
industry  does  not  immediately  supply  ;  and  farther,  as  the  markets 
for  our  agricultural  products  lie  either  upon  the  extreme  verge  of 
the  country,  or  in  Europe,  the  greater  part  of  our  domestic  com- 
merce involves  a  through  movement  of  nearly  all  the  articles  of 
which  it  is  composed. 

In  older  countries  this  necessity  of  distant  movement,  as  will  be 
the  case  in  this,  in  time,  is  obviated  by  the  existence  of  a  great  variety 
of  occupations  in  the  same  district,  which  supply  directly  to  each 
class  nearly  all  the  leading  articles  that  enter  into  consumption.  .  .  . 

Railroads  in  the  United  States  exert  a  much  greater  influence 
upon  the  value  of  property,  than  in  other  countries.  Take  Eng- 
land for  example.  There  a  railroad  may  be  built  without  necessa- 
rily increasing  the  value  of  property  or  the  profits  of  a  particular 
interest.  Every  farmer  in  England  lives  in  sight  of  a  market. 
Large  cities  are  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  the  island,  which  con- 
sume the  products  of  the  different  portions  of  it  almost  on  the  spot 
where  they  are  raised.  Railroads  are  not  needed  to  transport  these 
products  hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles  to  market ;  consequently 


ECONOMICS  OF  RAILROADS  AND  CANALS    38 1 

they  may  be  of  no  advantage  to  the  farmer  hving  upon  their  lines. 
So  with  many  branehes  of  manufaetiires.  These  estal:)Hshments 
may  be  situated  immediately  upon  tide-water,  and  as  the  fabriesare 
mostly  exported,  they  would  not  be  thrown  uj)on  railroads  in  any 
event.  Sueh  works  may  exist  in  that  country  without  exerting  any 
perceptible  infiuence  in  adding  to  the  vakie  of  the  property  of  a 
community.  The  cases  of  the  two  countries  would  be  parallel,  were 
the  farmer  in  the  neighborhood  of  Liverpool  compelled  to  send 
everything  he  could  raise  to  London  for  a  market,  or  were  their 
manufacturing  establishments  so  far  from  the  consumers  of  their 
goods,  that  their  value  would  be  sunk  before  these  could  be  reached. 
We  have  in  this  country  what  is  equivalent  to  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments in  Great  Britain,  in  good  order  and  well  stocked  for 
business,  a  fertile  soil,  that  will  produce  bountifully  for  years  with- 
out rotation  or  dressing.  All  that  the  farmer  has  to  do  is  to  cast 
his  seed  on  the  soil  and  to  reap  an  abundant  crop.  The  only  thing 
wanting  to  our  highest  prosperity  is  markets,  or  their  equivalents, 
railroads,  which  give  access  to  them. 

The  actual  increase  in  the  value  of  lands,  due  to  the  construction 
of  railroads,  is  controlled  by  so  many  circumstances,  that  an  accu- 
rate estimate  can  only  be  approximated,  and  must  in  most  cases 
fall  far  short  of  the  fact.  Not  only  are  cultivated  lands,  and  city 
and  village  lots,  lying  immediately  upon  the  route  affected,  but  the 
real  estate  in  cities,  hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles  distant.  The 
railroads  of  Ohio  exert  as  much  infiuence  in  advancing  the  prices 
of  real  property  in  the  city  of  New  York,  as  do  the  roads  lying 
within  that  State.  This  fact  will  show  how  very  imperfect  every 
estimate  must  be.  But  taking  only  the  farming  lands  of  the  particu- 
lar district  traversed  by  a  railroad,  where  the  influence  of  such  a 
work  can  be  more  directly  seen,  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  such  case 
the  increased  value  is  many  times  greater  than  the  cost  of  the  road. 
It  is  estimated  by  the  intelligent  president  of  the  Nashville  and 
Chattanooga  railroad,  that  the  increased  value  of  a  belt  of  land  ten 
miles  wide,  lying  upon  each  side  of  its  line,  is  equal  to  at  least  $7.50 
per  acre,  or  $96,000  for  every  mile  of  road,  which  will  cost  only 
about  $20,000  per  mile.  That  work  has  already  created  a  value 
in  its  influence  upon  real  property  alone,  equal  to  about  five  times 


382  TRANSPORTATION 

its  cost.  What  is  true  of  the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  road,  is 
equally  so,  probably,  of  the  average  of  roads  throughout  the  country. 
It  is  believed  that  the  construction  of  the  three  thousand  miles  of 
railroad  of  Ohio  will  add  to  the  value  of  the  landed  property  in  the 
State  at  least  five  times  the  cost  of  the  roads,  assuming  this  to  be 
^60,000,000.  In  addition  to  the  very  rapid  advance  in  the  price  of 
farming  lands,  the  roads  of  Ohio  are  stimulating  the  growth  of  her 
cities  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  so  that  there  is  much  greater  prob- 
ability that  the  above  estimate  will  be  exceeded,  than  not  reached, 
by  the  actual  fact.  We  are  not  left  to  estimate  in  this  matter.  In 
the  case  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  what  is  conjecture  in  re- 
gard to  the  new  States  has  with  her  become  a  matter  of  history. 
The  valuation  of  that  State  went  up,  from  1840  to  1850,  from 
^290,000,000  to  ^580,000,000 — an  immense  increase,  and  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  it  due  to  the  numerous  railroads  she  has  con- 
structed. This  increase  is  in  a  much  greater  ratio  to  the  cost  of  her 
roads  than  has  been  estimated  of  those  of  Ohio. 

We  have  considered  the  effect  of  railroads  in  increasing  the 
value  of  property  in  reference  only  to  lands  devoted  to  agriculture  ; 
but  such  results  do  not  by  any  means  give  the  most  forcible  illustra- 
tion of  their  use.  An  acre  of  farming  land  can  at  most  be  made 
to  yield  only  a  small  annual  income.  An  acre  of  coal  or  iron  lands, 
on  the  other  hand,  may  produce  a  thousand-fold  more  in  value 
than  the  former.  These  deposits  may  be  entirely  valueless  with- 
out a  railroad.  With  one,  every  ton  of  ore  they  contain  is  worth 
one,  two,  three,  or  four  dollars,  as  the  case  may  be.  Take  for  ex- 
ample the  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania.  The  value  of  the  coal  sent 
yearly  from  them,  in  all  the  agencies  it  is  called  upon  to  perform, 
is  beyond  all  calculation.  Upon  this  article  are  based  our  manufac- 
turing establishments,  and  our  government  and  merchant  steam- 
ships, representing  values  in  their  various  relations  and  ramifications, 
equal  to  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars.  Without  coal  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  the  spectacle  that  we  should  have  presented  as  a 
people,  so  entirely  different  would  it  have  been  from  our  present 
condition.  Neither  our  commercial  nor  our  manufacturing,  nor, 
consequently,  our  agricultural  interests,  could  have  borne  any  rela- 
tion whatever  to  their  present  enormous  magnitude.     Yet  all  this 


ECONOMICS  OF  RAILROADS  AXl)  CANALS         383 

result  has  l)ccn  achieved  b\-  a  few  raih'oads  and  canals  in  Penn- 
sylvania, which  have  not  cost  over  $50,000,000.  With  these 
works,  coal  can  be  brought  into  the  New  York  market  for  about  $3.50 
per  ton  ;  without  them,  it  could  not  have  beep  made  available  either 
for  ordinar)'  fuel  or  as  a  motive  power.  So  small,  comparativel)-, 
are  the  agencies  by  which  such  immense  results  have  been  effected, 
that  the  former  are  completely  lost  sight  of  in  the  magnitude  of 
the  latter.   .   .   . 

There  is  no  other  country  in  the  world  where  an  equal  amount 
of  labor  produces  an  equal  bulk  of  freight  for  railroad  transportation. 
One  reason  is,  that  the  great  mass  of  our  products  is  of  a  coarse, 
bulky  character,  of  very  low  comparative  value,  and  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  products  of  the  soil  and  forest.  We  manufacture 
very  few  high-priced  goods,  labor  being  more  profitably  employed 
upon  what  are  at  present  more  appropriate  objects  of  industry. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  articles  carried  upon  railroads  is  grains,  cot- 
ton, sugar,  coal,  iron,  live  stock,  and  articles  of  a  similar  character. 
The  difference  between  the  value  of  a  pound  of  raw  and  manufac- 
tured cotton  is  measured  frequently  by  dollars,  yet  both  may  pay  the 
same  amount  of  freight.  Wheat,  corn,  cattle,  and  lumber,  all  pay 
a  very  large  sum  for  transportation  in  proportion  to  their  values. 

Again,  for  the  want  of  domestic  markets,  the  transportation  of 
many  of  our  important  products  involves  a  tliroiigh  transportation. 
Take,  for  instance,  a  cotton-producing  State  like  Mississippi. 
Nearly  the  whole  industry  of  this  State  is  engaged  in  the  culti\a- 
tion  of  this  article.  Of  the  immense  amount  produced  no  part  is 
consumed  or  used  within  the  State.  The  entire  staple  goes  abroad  ; 
but  as  the  aggregate  industry  of  the  people  is  confined  to  the  pro- 
duction of  one  staple,  it  follows  that  all  articles  entering  into  con- 
sumption must  be  imported  ;  so  that,  over  the  channels  through 
which  the  cotton  of  this  State  is  sent  to  market,  an  equal  value  or 
tonnage  must  be  imported,  as  the  case  may  be.  This  necessity, 
both  of  an  inward  and  outward  movement,  equal  to  the  whole  bulk 
of  the  surplus  agricultural  product,  is  peculiar  to  the  United  States, 
and  is  one  of  the  reasons  of  the  large  receipts  of  our  roads.  While 
this  is  the  case,  it  is  equally  true  that  newly  settled  sections  of  coun- 
try will  often  supply  a  larger  amount  of  traffic  than  an  older  one. 


384  TRANSPORTATION 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  an  equal  amount  of  labor  would  pro- 
duce four  times  as  much  corn  and  wheat  in  Illinois  as  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  consequently,  a  man  living  in  the  former  would  contribute 
four  times  as  much  business  to  a  railroad  as  one  in  the  latter.  In 
clearing  the  soil,  it  often  happens  that  the  transportation  of  lumber 
supplies  a  larger  traffic  for  two  or  three  years  than  agricultural 
products  for  an  equal  length  of  time. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that,  because  a  country 
is  new,  it  cannot  yield  a  large  traffic  to  a  railroad.  In  the  southern 
and  western  States  only  one  year  is  frequently  required  to  prepare 
the  soil  for  crops,  which  may  be  renewed,  the  same  in  kind,  for  a 
long  series  of  years.  The  amount  raised,  and  consequently  the  sur- 
plus, is  much  larger  in  the  more  recent  than  in  the  longer  settled 
portions  of  the  country.  In  the  more  recent,  too  —  the  number  of 
inhabitants  being  the  same  in  both  cases  —  the  amount  sent  to  dis- 
tant markets  is  greater  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  diversity  of 
pursuits,  which  in  older  communities  supply  from  a  limited  circle 
nearly  all  the  prime  necessaries  of  life  that  enter  into  consumption. 
In  newly  settled  districts,  all  these  are  often  imported  from  distant 
markets  at  a  very  heavy  cost  of  transportation. 

The  general  views  above  stated,  in  reference  to  the  earnings  of 
the  railroads  in  the  United  States,  are  fully  borne  out  by  the  result. 
Investments  in  these  works  have  probably  yielded  a  better  return, 
independently  of  the  incidental  advantages  connected  with  them, 
than  the  ordinary  rates  of  interest  prevailing  throughout  the  coun- 
try. Such  is  the  case  with  the  roads  of  Massachusetts,  the  State  in 
which  these  works  have  been  carried  to  the  greatest  extent,  and 
have  cost  the  most  per  mile,  and  amongst  which  are  embraced  a 
number  of  expensive  and  unproductive  lines.   .   .   . 

The  most  productive  railroads  in  Massachusetts  are  those  con- 
necting the  manufacturing  and  commercial  towns,  while  the  most 
unproductive  arc  those  depending  upon  the  ai^ricnltnral  interests 
for  support.  The  agriculture  of  this  State  supplies  nothing  for  cx- 
pOTt ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  hardly  a  town  that  does  not  depend 
upon  other  and  distant  portions  of  the  country  for  many  of  the 
more  important  articles  of  food.  The  small  surplus  raised  is  wanted 
for  consumption  in  the  immediate   neighborhood  of  production. 


ECONOMICS  OF  RAILROADS  AND  CANALS         385 

VV'herc  there  are  no  manufacturing"  establishments  upon  a  route, 
the  movement  of  property  upon  New  England  roads  is  limited,  and 
hence  the  comparative  unproductiveness  of  what  may  be  termed 
agricultural  lines.  In  the  eastern  States  other  sources  of  business 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  agricultural  products  for  transportation, 
and  the  aggregate  investment  is  productive.  In  the  southern  and 
western  States  the  soil  supplies  a  very  large  surplus  for  exportation, 
affording  often,  per  mile,  a  greater  /;////•  for  transportation  than  is 
supplied  to  eastern  roads,  either  from  agriculture,  manufacture,  or 
commerce.  The  cost  of  the  former,  however,  will  not  on  the  aver- 
age, equal  one-half  that  of  the  latter  ;  and  as  the  rates  of  charges 
are  pretty  uniform  upon  all,  and  if  anything  higher  upon  the  soiitJi- 
crn  and  ivcstcrn  than  upon  the  eastern  roads,  the  revenues  of  the 
former  must  of  course  be  very  much  greater  than  the  latter.  Such 
is  the  fact.  The  greater  income  of  the  one  results,  both  from  a 
larger  traffic,  which  the  western  country  in  particular  is  adapted  to 
suppl)',  and  from  the  higher  rates  of  charges  in  proportion  to  the 
cost  of  the  respective  lines  of  the  two  different  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. Numerous  illustrations  of  this  fact  might  be  readily  given. 
The  earnings  of  the  Cleveland  and  Colunibus  road  have  been 
greater  than  those  of  the  Hudson  river  since  the  opening  of  their 
respective  lines,  though  the  former  is  only  135  miles  long  and  cost 
$3,000,000,  while  the  latter  is  144  miles  and  cost  $10,000,000. 
Railroads  in  the  newly  settled  portions  of  the  countiy,  as  a  general 
rule,  command  a  much  larger  traffic,  and  of  course  yield  a  better 
return  upon  their  cost,  than  those  of  the  older  States.   .   .   . 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  our  roads  in  progress  are  in  the 
interior  of  the  country  —  in  our  agricultural  districts,  that  do  not 
possess  an  amount  of  accuviulatcd  capital  equal  to  their  cost.  A 
business  adequate  to  the  support  of  a  railroad  may  exist  without  the 
means  to  construct  one.  The  construction  of  a  railroad,  too,  creates 
opportunities  for  investment  which  promise  a  much  greater  return 
than  the  stock  in  such  a  work.  While,  therefore,  our  people  are 
disposed  to  make  every  reasonable  sacrifice  to  secure  a  railroad, 
they  prefer,  and  in  fact  they  find  it  more  for  their  interest,  to  bor- 
row a  portion  of  the  amount  required,  than  to  invest  the  whole 
means  directly  in  the  project.    They  can  better  afford  to  secure  the 


386  TRANSPORTATION 

co-operation  of  foreign  capital,  by  offering  high  premiums  for  its 
use,  than  to  embarrass  themselves  by  making  a  permanent  invest- 
ment of  too  large  a  proportion  of  their  own  immediate  means. 
These  facts  sufficiently  explain  the  reasons  why  the  borrowing  of 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  cost  of  our  roads  has  become  so 
universal  a  rule. 

It  is  only  by  the  co-operation  of  capitalists  residing  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  having  no  interest  in  the  collateral  advantages  due  to 
railroads,  that  the  great  majority  of  our  works  could  have  been 
constructed.  In  the  outset,  money  was  furnished  slowly  and  cau- 
tiously, and  then  only  upon  the  most  unquestioned  security.  As 
the  result  began  to  demonstrate  the  safety  and  productiveness  of 
these  investments,  capital  was  more  freely  afforded,  and  became 
less  exacting  in  its  conditions.  The  result  has  been,  that  a  confi- 
dence in  the  safety  of  our  railroads,  as  investments  of  capital,  has 
become  general,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  Europe ;  and  com- 
panies whose  means  and  prospective  advantages  entitle  them  to 
credit,  find  no  difficulty  in  borrowing  a  reasonable  sum  upon  the 
security  of  their  roads,  with  which  to  complete  them.  The  amount 
usually  borrowed  for  our  roads  in  progress  averages  from  $5,000 
to  $10,000  per  mile.  The  general  custom  requires  that  a  sum 
equal  to  the  one  sought  to  be  borrowed  shall  be  first  paid  in,  or 
secured  for  construction.  A  road  that  will  cost  $20,000  per  mile 
is  considered  a  sufficient  security  for  a  loan  of  $10,000  per  mile  ; 
and  as  the  cost  of  new  works  will  not  much  exceed  the  former  sum, 
the  latter  is  not,  as  a  general  rule,  considered  so  large  as  to  create 
distrust  as  to  the  safety  of  the  investment,  on  account  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  loan. 

This  rule,  which  establishes  the  proportions  to  be  supplied  by 
those  engaged  in  the  construction,  and  capitalists,  is  well  calculated 
to  promote  the  best  advantage  of  both  parties.  The  fact  that  the 
people  on  the  line  of  the  contemplated  road  are  willing  to  furnish 
one-half  of  the  means  requisite  for  construction,  and  to  pledge  this 
for  an  equal  sum  to  complete  the  road,  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
in  the  opinion  of  such  people,  the  construction  of  such  work  is 
justified  by  a  prospective  business.  The  interest  they  have  in  it 
also  is  a  sufficient  guarantee  that  its  affairs  will  be  carefully  and 


TIIK  POLICY  OF   INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      387 

prudcnU}'  managed.  The  large  amounl  paid  in  and  at  stake  divests 
the  projeet  of  all  speculative  features.  Where  the  advantages  and 
success  are  merely  contingent,  prudent  persons  do  not  usually  haz- 
ard large  sums.  The  lender  has,  therefore,  all  the  guarantees  of 
safety,  both  from  the  character  of  the  project  and  its  prospective 
income  and  proper  management. 

It  is  on  this  account  that  the  credits  furnished  l)y  municipal 
bodies  for  the  construction  of  railroads  should  be  resorted  to  only 
in  extreme  cases.  Individuals  making  up  the  aggregate  community 
may  be  induced  to  vote  the  credits  of  the  latter  in  aid  of  a  project, 
when  they  by  no  means  could  be'  induced  to  venture  their  own  cap- 
ital in  its  success.  In  this  manner  projects  may  be  set  afoot  the 
consummation  of  which  are  not  justified  by  these  commercial  and 
pecuniary  considerations,  which  are  the  only  safe  guides  of  action 
in  such  cases.  Railroads  are  purely  couwicrcial  enterprises,  and 
their  construction  should  be  made  to  depend  upon  the  same  rules 
of  conduct  that  control  the  building  of  ships,  or  the  erection  of 
manufacturing  establishments.   .  .  . 


IV.    THE    POLICY    OF    INTERNAL    IMPROVEMENTS 
^  Gallatiii  s  Report  on  Roads  and  Canals,  1808 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  obedience  to  the  resolution  of 
the  Senate  of  the  2d  March,  1807,  respectfully  submits  the  follow- 
ing report  on  roads  and  canals. 

The  general  utility  of  artificial  roads  and  canals,  is  at  this  time 
so  universally  admitted,  as  hardly  to  require  any  additional  proofs. 
It  is  sufificiently  evident  that,  whenever  the  annual  expense  of  trans- 
portation on  a  certain  route  in  its  natural  state,  exceeds  the  interest 
on  the  capital  employed  in  improving  the  communication,  and  the 
annual  expense  of  transportation  (exclusively  of  the  tolls,)  by  the 
improved  route  ;  the  difference  is  an  annual  additional  income  to 
the  nation.  Nor  does  in  that  case  the  general  result  vary,  although 
the  tolls  may  not  have  been  fixed  at  a  rate  sufficient  to  pay  to  the 
undertakers  the  interest  on  the  capital  laid  out.    They  indeed,  when 

1  American  State  Papers,  XX,  724. 


388  TRANSPORTATION 

that  happens,  lose  ;  but  the  eommunity  is  nevertheless  benefited  by 
the  undertaking.  The  general  gain  is  not  confined  to  the  differ- 
ence between  the  expenses  of  the  transportation  of  those  articles 
which  had  been  formerly  conveyed  by  that  route,  but  many  which 
were  brought  to  market  by  other  channels,  will  then  find  a  new  and 
more  advantageous  direction  ;  and  those  which  on  account  of  their 
distance  or  weight  could  not  be  transported  in  any  manner  what- 
ever, will  acquire  a  value,  and  become  a  clear  addition  to  the  na- 
tional wealth.  Those  and  many  other  advantages  have  become  so 
obvious,  that  in  countries  possessed  of  a  large  capital,  where  prop- 
erty is  sufficiently  secure  to  induce  individuals  to  lay  out  that  capi- 
tal on  permanent  undertakings,  and  where  a  compact  population 
creates  an  extensive  commercial  intercourse,  within  short  distances, 
those  improvements  may  often,  in  ordinary  cases,  be  left  to  indi- 
vidual exertion,  without  any  direct  aid  from  government. 

There  are  however  some  circumstances,  which,  whilst  they 
render  the  facility  of  communications  throughout  the  United 
States  an  object  of  primary  importance,  naturally  check  the  ap- 
plication of  private  capital  and  enterprise,  to  improvements  on  a 
large  scale. 

The  price  of  labor  is  not  considered  as  a  formidable  obstacle, 
because  whatever  it  may  be,  it  equally  affects  the  expense  of  trans- 
portation, which  is  saved  by  the  improvement,  and  that  of  effecting 
the  improvement  itself.  The  want  of  practical  knowledge  is  no 
longer  felt :  and  the  occasional  influence  of  mistaken  local  inter- 
ests, in  sometimes  thwarting  or  giving  an  improper  direction  to 
public  improvements,  arises  from  the  nature  of  man,  and  is  com- 
mon to  all  countries.  The  great  demand  for  capital  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  extent  of  territory  compared  with  the  population, 
are,  it  is  believed,  the  true  causes  which  prevent  new  undertakings, 
and  render  those  already  accomplished,  less  profitable  than  had 
been  expected. 

I .  Notwithstanding  the  great  increase  of  capital  during  the  last 
fifteen  years,  the  objects  for  which  it  is  required  continue  to  be 
more  numerous,  and  its  application  is  generally  more  profitable 
than  in  Europe.  A  small  portion  therefore  is  applied  to  objects 
which  offer  only  the  prospect  of  remote  and  moderate  profit.   And 


THE  POLICY  OF  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      389 

it  also  happens  that  a  less  sum  beiiii;  subscribed  at  first,  than  is 
actually  requisite  for  completing;"  the  work,  this  proceeds  slowly  ; 
the  capital  applied  remains  unpnxluctive  for  a  much  longer  time 
than  was  necessary,  and  the  interest  accruing  during  that  period, 
becomes  in  fact  an  injurious  addition  to  the  real  expense  of  the 
undertaking. 

2.  The  present  population  of  the  United  States,  compared  witli 
the  extent  of  territory  over  which  it  is  spread,  does  not,  except  in- 
the  vicinity  of  the  seaports,  admit  that  extensive  commercial  inter- 
course within  short  distances,  which,  in  England  and  some  other 
countries,  forms  the  principal  support  of  artificial  roads  and  canals. 
With  a  few  exceptions,  canals  particularly,  cannot  in  America  bc' 
undertaken  with  a  view  solely  to  the  intercourse  between  the  two 
extremes  of,  and  along  the  intermediate  ground  which  they  occupy. 
It  is  necessary,  in  order  to  be  productive,  that  the  canal  should  open 
a  communication  with  a  natural  extensive  navigation  which  will  flow 
through  that  new  channel.  It  follows  that  whenever  that  navigation 
requires  to  be  improved,  or  when  it  might  at  some  distance  be  con- 
nected by  another  canal  to  another  navigation,  the  first  canal  will 
remain  comparatively  unproductive,  until  the  other  improvements 
are  effected,  until  the  other  canal  is  also  completed.  Thus  the  in- 
tended canal  between  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware,  will  be  de- 
prived of  the  additional  benefit  arising  from  the  intercourse  between 
New  York  and  the  Chesapeake,  until  an  inland  navigation,  shall 
have  been  opened  between  the  Delaware  and  New  York.  Thus 
the  expensive  canals  completed  around  the  Falls  of  Potomac,  will 
become  more  and  more  productive  in  proportion  to  the  improve- 
ment, first  of  the  navigation  of  the  upper  branches  of  the  river, 
and  then  of  its  communication  with  the  western  waters.  Some 
works  already  executed  are  unprofitable,  many  more  remain  unat- 
tempted,  because  their  ultimate  productiveness  depends  on  other 
improvements,  too  extensive  or  too  distant  to  be  embraced  by  the 
same  individuals. 

The  general  government  can  alone  remove  these  obstacles. 

With  resources  amply  sufficient  for  the  completion  of  every  prac- 
ticable improvement,  it  will  always  supply  the  capital  wanted  for 
any  work  which  it  may  undertake,  as  fast  as  the  work  itself  can 


390 


TRANSPORTATION 


progress,  avoiding  thereby  the  ruinous  loss  of  interest  on  a  dor- 
mant capital,  and  reducing  the  real  expense  to  its  %west  rate.    . 

With  these  resources,  and  embracing  the  whole  ^tinion,  it  will 
complete  on  any  given  line  all  the  improvements,  however  distant, 
which  may  be  necessary  to  render  the  whole  productive,  and  emi- 
nently beneficial. 

The  early  and  efficient  aid  of  the  federal  government  is  recom- 
mended by  still  more  important  considerations.  The  inconveniences, 
complaints,  and  perhaps  dangers,  which  may  result  from  a  vast 
extent  of  territory,  can  no  otherwise  be  radically  removed,  or  pre- 
vented, than  by  opening  speedy  and  easy  communications  through 
all  its  parts.  Good  roads  and  canals,  will  shorten  distances,  facili- 
tate commercial  and  personal  intercourse,  and  unite  by  a  still  more 
intimate  community  of  interests,  the  most  remote  quarters  of  the 
United  States.  No  other,  single  operation,  within  the  power  of 
government,  can  more  effectually  tend  to  strengthen  and  perpetu- 
ate that  union,  which  secures  external  independence,  domestic 
peace,  and  internal  liberty.   .  .  . 

It  must  not  be  omitted  that  the  facility  of  communications,  con- 
stitutes, particularly  in  the  United  States,  an  important  branch  of 
national  defence.  Their  extensive  territory  opposes  a  powerful  ob- 
stacle to  the  progress  of  an  enemy.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the 
number  of  regular  forces,  which  may  be  raised,  necessarily  lim- 
ited by  the  population,  will  for  many  years  be  inconsiderable  when 
compared  with  that  extent  of  territory.  That  defect  cannot  other- 
wise be  supplied  than  b)-  those  great  national  improvements,  which 
will  afford  the  means  of  a  rapid  concentration  of  that  regular 
force,  and  of  a  formidable  body  of  militia,  on  any  given  point. 

Amongst  the  resources  of  the  union,  there  is  one  which  fn^ii 
its  nature  seems  more  particularly  applicable  to  internal  improve- 
ments. Exclusively  of  Louisiana,  the  general  government  possesses, 
in  trust  for  the  people  of  the  United  States,  about  one  hundred 
millions  of  acres  fit  for  cultivation,  north  of  the  river  Ohio,  and 
near  fifty  millions  south  of  the  state  of  Tennessee.  For  the  dispo- 
sition of  those  lands  a  plan  has  been  adopted,  calculated  to  enable 
eveiy  industrious  citizen  to  become  a  freeholder,  to  secure  indis- 
putable titles  to  the  purchasers,  to  obtain  a  national  revenue,  and 


THE  POLICY  C)l'    INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      391 

above  all  to  suppress  monojDoly.  Its  success  has  surijasscd  that 
of  every  former  attempt,  and  exceeded  the  expectations  of  its 
authors.  But  a  higher  price  than  had  usually  been  paid  for  waste 
lands  by  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  frontier  became  an  unavoidable 
ingredient  of  a  system  intended  for  general  benefit,  and  was  neces- 
sary in  order  to  prevent  the  public  lands  being  engrossed  by  indi- 
viduals possessing  greater  wealth,  activity  or  local  advantages.  It 
is  believed  that  nothing  could  be  more  gratifying  to  the  purchas- 
ers, and  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  western  states  generally,  or  better 
calculated  to  remove  popular  objections,  and  to  defeat  insidious 
efforts,  than  the  application  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  to  improve- 
ments conferring  general  ad\-antages  on  the  nation,  and  an  imme- 
diate benefit  on  the  purchasers  and  inhabitants  themselves.  It  may 
be  added,  that  the  United  States,  considered  merely  as  owners  of 
the  soil,  are  also  deeply  interested  in  the  opening  of  those  com- 
munications, which  must  necessarily  enhance  the  value  of  their 
property.  Thus  the  opening  of  an  inland  navigation  from  tide 
water  to  the  great  lakes,  would  immediately  give  to  the  great  body 
of  lands  bordering  on  those  lakes,  as  great  value  as  if  they  were 
situated  at  the  distance  of  one  hundred  miles  by  land  from  the  sea 
coast.  And  if  the  proceeds  of  the  first  ten  millions  of  acres  which 
may  be  sold,  were  applied  to  such  improvements,  the  Ignited  States 
would  be  amply  repaid  in  the  sale  of  the  other  ninet}-  millions.  .  .  . 

The  manner  in  which  the  public  monies  may  be  applied  to  such 
objects,  remains  to  be  considered. 

It  is  evident  that  the  United  States  cannot  under  the  constitu- 
tion open  any  road  or  canal,  without  the  consent  of  the  state 
through  which  such  road  or  canal  must  pass.  In  order  therefore 
to  remove  every  impediment  to  a  national  plan  of  internal  improve- 
ments, an  amendment  to  the  constitution  was  suggested  by  the 
executive  when  the  subject  was  recommended  to  the  consideration 
of  Congress.  Until  this  be  obtained,  the  assent  of  the  states  being 
necessary  for  each  improvement,  the  modifications  under  which 
that  assent  may  be  given,  will  necessarily  control  the  manner  of 
applying  the  money.  It  may  be  however  observed  that  in  relation 
to  the  specific  improvements  which  have  been  suggested,  there  is 
hardly  any  which  is  not  either  already  authorized  by  the  states 


392  TRANSPORTATION 

respectively,  or  so  immediately  beneficial  to  them,  as  to  render  it 
highly  probable  that  no  material  difiiculty  will  be  experienced  in 
that  respect. 

The  monies  may  be  applied  in  two  different  manners :  the 
United  States  may  with  the  assent  of  the  states,  undertake  some 
of  the  works  at  their  sole  expense  ;  or  they  may  subscribe  a  certain 
number  of  shares  of  the  stock  of  companies  incorporated  for  the 
purpose.  Loans  might  also  in  some  instances  be  made  to  such  com- 
panies. The  first  mode  would  perhaps,  by  effectually  controlling 
local  interests,  give  the  most  proper  general  direction  to  the  work. 
Its  details  would  probably  be  executed  on  a  more  economical  plan 
by  private  companies.  Both  modes  may  perhaps  be  blended  to- 
gether so  as  to  obtain  the  advantages  pertaining  to  each.  But  the 
modifications  of  which  the  plan  is  susceptible  must  vary  according 
to  the  nature  of  the  work,  and  of  the  charters,  and  seem  to  belong 
to  that  class  of  details,  which  are  not  the  immediate  subject  of 
consideration.   .   .   . 

^  Madisoii s  J  'do  Message,  Alareh  J,  iSl'J 

Having  considered  the  bill  this  day  presented  to  me  entitled 
"An  act  to  set  apart  and  pledge  certain  funds  for  internal  improve- 
ments," and  which  sets  apart  and  pledges  funds  '"  for  constructing 
roads  and  canals,  and  improving  the  navigation  of  water  courses,  in 
order  to  facilitate,  promote,  and  give  security  to  internal  commerce 
among  the  several  States,  and  to  render  more  easy  and  less  expen- 
sive the  means  and  provisions  for  the  common  defense,  "  I  am 
constrained  by  the  insuperable  difficulty  I  feel  in  reconciling 
the  bill  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  return  it 
with  that  objection  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  which  it 
originated. 

The  legislative  powers  vested  in  Congress  are  specified  and  enu- 
merated in  the  eighth  section  of  the  first  article  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  it  does  not  appear  that  the  power  proposed  to  be  exercised 
by  the  bill  is  among  the  enumerated  powers,  or  that  it  falls  by  any 
just  interpretation  within  the  power  to  make  laws  necessary  and 

1  Kirliardson,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  I,  584,  5S5. 


THE  POLICV  OF  INTERNAL   1MJ'K(  )\'I':MEX'1'S       393 

proper  for  carrying-  into  execution  liiose  or  other  powers  vested  by 
the  Constitution  in  the  (jovernment  of  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  great  importance  of  roads  and  canals  and 
the  improved  navigation  of  water  courses,  and  that  a  power  in  the 
National  Legislature  to  provide  for  them  might  be  exercised  with 
signal  advantage  to  the  general  prosperity'.  But  seeing  that  such  a 
.power  is  not  expressly  given  by  the  Constitution,  and  believing 
that  it  can  not  be  deduced  from  any  part  of  it  without  an  inadmis- 
sible latitude  of  construction  and  a  reliance  on  insufficient  prece- 
dents ;  believing  also  that  the  permanent  success  of  the  Constitution 
depends  on  a  definite  partition  of  powers  between  the  General  and 
the  State  Governments,  and  that  no  adequate  landmarks  would 
be  left  by  the  constructive  extension  of  the  powers  of  Congress 
as  proposed  in  the  bill,  I  have  no  option  but  to  withhold  my 
signature  from  it,  and  to  cherish  the  hope  that  its  beneficial 
objects  may  be  attained  by  a  resort  for  the  necessary  powers  to 
the  same  wisdom  and  virtue  in  the  nation  which  established  the 
Constitution  in  its  actual  form  and  providently  marked  out  in 
the  instrument  itself  a  safe  and  practicable  mode  of  improving  it 
as  experience  might  suggest. 

^  Clay  s  Speech  on  Internal  luipnreenients,  1S18 

Some  principles  drawn  from  political  economists  ha\'e  been 
alluded  to,  and  we  are  advised  to  leave  things  to  themselves,  upon 
the  ground  that,  when  the  condition  of  society  is  ripe  for  internal 
improvements  —  that  is,  when  capital  can  be  so  invested  with  a 
fair  prospect  of  adequate  remuneration,  they  will  be  executed  by 
associations  of  individuals,  unaided  by  government.  With  my  friend 
from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Lowndes)  I  concur  in  this  as  a  general 
maxim  ;  and  I  also  concur  with  him  that  there  are  exceptions  to  it. 
The  foreign  policy  which  I  think  this  countiy  ought  to  adopt,  pre- 
sents one  of  those  exceptions.  It  would,  perhaps,  be  better  for 
mankind  if,  in  the  intercourse  between  nations,  ■  all  would  leave 
skill  and  industry  to  their  unstimulated  exertions.  But  this  is  not 
done  ;  and  if  other  powers  will  incite  the  industiy  of  their  subjects, 

1  Works,  V,  133-135. 


394  TRANSPORTATION 

and  depress  that  of  our  citizens,  in  instances  where  they  may  come 
into  competition,  we  must  imitate  their  selfish  example.  Hence 
the  necessity  to  protect  our  manufactures.  In  regard  to  internal 
improvements,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  will  always  be  con- 
structed whenever  they  will  afford  a  competent  dividend  upon  the 
capital  invested.  It  may  be  true,  generally,  that  in  old  countries 
where  there  is  a  great  accumulation  of  surplus  capital,  and  a  con- 
sequent low  rate  of  interest,  they  will  be  niade.  But,  in  a  new  coun- 
try, the  condition  of  society  may  be  ripe  for  public  works  long 
before  there  is,  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  the  necessary  accumu- 
lation of  capital  to  effect  them  ;  and  besides,  there  is,  generally,  in 
such  a  country,  not  only  a  scarcity  of  capital,  but  such  a  multi- 
plicity of  profitable  objects  presenting  themselves  as  to  distract  the 
judgment.  Further  ;  the  aggregate  benefit  resulting  to  the  whole 
society,  from  a  public  improvement,  may  be  such  as  to  amply  jus- 
tify the  investment  of  capital  in  its  execution,  and  yet  that  benefit 
may  be  so  distributed  among  different  and  distant  persons  that 
they  can  never  be  got  to  act  in  concert.  The  turnpike  roads 
wanted  to  pass  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and  the  Delaware  and 
Chesapeake  Canal  are  objects  of  this  description.  Those  who  will 
be  most  benefited  by  these  improvements  reside  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  sites  of  them  ;  many  of  those  persons  never  have 
seen  and  never  will  see  them.  How  is  it  possible  to  regulate  the 
contributions,  or  to  present  to  individuals  so  situated  a  sufficiently 
lively  picture  of  their  real  interests,  to  get  them  to  make  exertions 
in  effectuating  the  object  commensurate  with  their  respective  abili- 
ties .''  I  think  it  very  possible  that  the  capitalist  who  should  invest 
his  money  in  one  of  these  objects,  might  not  be  reimbursed  three 
per  centum  annually  upon  it ;  and  yet  society,  in  various  forms, 
might  actually  reap  fifteen  or  twenty  per  centum.  The  benefit  re- 
sulting from  a  turnpike  road,  made  by  private  association,  is  divided 
between  the  capitalist  who  receives  his  tolls,  the  lands  through  which 
it  passes,  and  which  are  augmented  in  their  value,  and  the  com- 
modities whose  value  is  enhanced  by  the  diminished  expense  of 
transportation.  A  combination,  upon  any  terms,  much  less  a  just 
combination  of  all  thosfe  interests,  to  effect  the  improvement,  is  im- 
practicable.   And  if  you  await  the  arrival  of  the  period  when  the 


THE  POLICY  OF  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      395 

tolls  alone  can  produce  a  competent  dividend,  it  is  evident  that  }-ou 
will  have  to  suspend  its  execution  lony;  after  the  general  interests 
of  society  would  have  authorized  it. 

Again,  improvements,  made  by  jirix-ate  associations,  are  gener- 
ally made  by  local  capital.  But  ages  must  elapse  before  there  will 
be  concentrated  in  certain  places,  where  the  interests  of  the  whole 
community  may  call  for  improvements,  sufficient  capital  to  make 
them.  The  place  of  the  improvement,  too,  is  not  always  the  most 
interested  in  its  accomplishment.  Other  parts  of  the  Union — the 
whole  line  of  the  seaboard  —  are  quite  as  much,  if  not  more  inter- 
ested, in  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  Canal,  as  the  small  tract  of 
countr)^  through  which  it  is  proposed  to  pass.  The  same  observa- 
tion will  apply  to  turnpike  roads  passing  through  the  Alleghany 
mountain.  Sometimes  the  interest  of  the  place  of  the  improvement 
is  adverse  to  the  improvement  and  to  the  general  interest.  I  would 
cite  Louisville,  at  the  rapids  of  the  Ohio,  as  an  example,  whose 
interest  will  probably  be  more  promoted  by  the  continuance,  than 
the  removal  of  the  obstruction.  Of  all  the  modes  in  which  a  gov- 
ernment can  employ  its  surplus  revenue,  none  is  more  permanently 
beneficial  than  that  of  internal  improvement.  Fixed  to  the  soil,  it 
becomes  a  durable  part  of  the  land  itself,  diffusing  comfort,  and 
activity,  and  animation,  on  all  sides.  The  first  direct  effect  is  on 
the  agricultural  community,  into  whose  pockets  comes  the  differ- 
ence in  the  expense  of  transportation  between  good  and  bad  ways. 
Thus,  if  the  price  of  transporting  a  barrel  of  flour  by  the  erection 
of  the  Curiiberland  turnpike  should  be  lessened  two  dollars,  the 
producer  of  the  article  would  receive  that  two  dollars  more  now 
than  formerly. 

But,  putting  aside  all  pecuniary  considerations,  there  may  be 
political  motives  sufficiently  powerful  alone  to  justify  certain  inter- 
nal improvements.  Does  not  our  country  present  such  .?  How  are 
they  to  be  effected,  if  things  are  left  to  themselves  ?  I  will  not 
press  the  subject  further.  I  am  but  too  sensible  how  much  I  have 
abused  the  patience  of  the  committee  by  trespassing  so  long  upon 
its  attention.  The  magnitude  of  the  question,  and  the  deep  inter- 
est I  feel  in  its  rightful  decision,  must  be  my  apolog}'.  We  are 
now  making  the  last  effort  to  establish  our  power,  and  I  call  on 


396  TRANSPORTATION 

the  friends  of  Congress,  of  this  House,  or  the  true  friends  of  the 
State  rights  (not  charging  others  with  intending  to  oppose  them), 
to  rally  round  the  Constitution,  and  to  support  by  their  votes,  on 
this  occasion,  the  legitimate  powers  of  the  Legislature.  If  we  do 
nothing  this  session  but  pass  an  abstract  resolution  on  the  subject, 
I  shall,  under  all  circumstances,  consider  it  a  triumph  for  the  best 
interests  of  the  country,  of  which  posterity  will,  if  we  do  not,  reap 
the  benefit.  I  trust,  that  by  the  decision  which  shall  be  given,  we 
shall  assert,  uphold,  and  maintain,  the  authority  of  Congress  not- 
withstanding all  that  has  been  or  may  be  said  against  it. 

1  Cal]ionii  s  Report  on  Roads  and  Canals,  l8ig 

A  judicious  system  of  roads  and  canals,  constructed  for  the 
convenience  of  commerce,  and  the  transportation  of  the  mail  only, 
without  any  reference  to  military  operations,  is  itself  among  the 
most  efficient  means  for  "  the  more  complete  defence  of  the  United 
States."  Without  adverting  to  the  fact,  that  the  roads  and  canals 
which  such  a  system  would  require,  are,  with  few  exceptions, 
precisely  those  which  would  be  required  for  the  operation  of  war, 
such  a  system,  by  consolidating  our  Union,  and  increasing  our 
wealth  and  fiscal  capacity,  would  add  greatly  to  our  resources  in 
war.  It  is  in  a  state  of  war,  when  a  nation  is  compelled  to  put 
all  of  its  resources  in  men,  money,  skill,  and  devotion  to  country', 
into  requisition,  that  its  Government  realizes,  in  its  security,  the 
beneficial  effects  from  a  people  made  prosperous  and  happy  by  a 
wise  direction  of  its  resources  in  peace.  But  I  forbear  to  pursue 
this  subject,  though  so  interesting,  and  which,  the  further  it  is  pur- 
sued, will  the  more  clearly  establish  the  intimate  connection  be- 
tween the  defence  and  safety  of  the  country  and  its  improvement 
and  prosperity,  as  I  do  not  conceive  that  it  constitutes  the  imme- 
diate object  of  this  report. 

There  is  no  country  to  which  a  good  system  of  military  roads 
and  canals  is  more  indispensable  than  to  the  United  States.  As 
great  as  our  military  capacity  is,  when  compared  with  the  number 

1  Works,  V,  41-4:2.  The  report  was  made  as  Secretary  of  War,  and  was  tlfere- 
fore  primarily  concerned  with  roads  and  canals  as  means  of  defense. 


THE  POLICY  OF  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      397 

of  our  people,  yet,  when  eonsidered  in  relation  to  the  vast  extent  of 
our  eountry,  it  is  very  small ;  and  if  so  great  an  extent  of  territory 
renders  it  very  difficult  to  conquer  us,  as  has  frequently  been  ob- 
served, it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  it  renders  it  no  less  diffi- 
cult for  the  Government  to  afford  protection  to  every  portion  of  the 
community.  In  the  very  nature  of  things  the  difficulty  of  protect- 
ing every  part,  so  long  as  our  pojiulation  bears  so  small  a  propor- 
tion to  the  extent  of  the  country,  cannot  be  entirely  overcome,  but 
it  may  be  very  greatly  diminished,  by  a  good  system  of  military 
roads  and  canals.  The  necessity  of  such  a  system  is  still  more  ap- 
parent, if  we  take  into  consideration  the  character  of  our  political 
maxims  and  institutions.  Opposed  in  principle  to  a  large  standing 
army,  our  main  reliance  for  defence  must  be  on  the  militia,  to  be 
called  out  frequently  from  a  great  distance,  and  under  the  pressure 
of  an  actual  invasion.  The  experience  of  the  late  war  amply  proves, 
in  the  present  state  of  our  internal  improvements,  the  delay,  the 
uncertainty,  the  anxiety,  and  exhausting  effects  of  such  calls.  The 
facts  are  too  recent  to  require  details,  and  the  impression  too  deep 
to  be  soon  forgotten.  As  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  profit  by  experi- 
ence, so  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  a 
similar  state  of  things,  by  the  application  of  a  portion  of  our  means 
to  the  construction  of  such  roads  and  canals  as  are  required,  "  with 
a  view  to  militaiy  operations  in  time  of  war,  the  transportation  of 
the  munitions  of  war,  and  more  complete  defence  of  the  United 
States." 

1  Monroe  s  Veto  Message,  May  4th,  1 822 

Having  now  examined  all  the  powers  of  Congress  under  which 
the  right  to  adopt  and  execute  a  system  of  internal  improvement  is 

1  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  II,  175,  176,  176-177, 
178-179,  179-180.  This  message  accompanied  the  veto  of  a  bill  entitled,  "An  act 
for  the  preservation  and  repair  of  the  Cumberland  road  "  and  was  the  result  of 
"a  conviction  that  Congress  do  not  possess  the  power  under  the  Constitution 
to  pass  such  a  law."  Like  Madison,  Monroe  favored  internal  improvements,  but 
thought  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  necessary  to  enable  the  federal  gov- 
ernment to  undertake  them.  Two  years  after  this  veto  he  signed  an  act  (April  30, 
1824)  which  authorized  the  President  to  cause  a  survey  to  be  made,  with  the 
necessary  plans  and  estimates  of  such  roads  and  canals  as  he  might  deem  of 


398  TRANSPORTATION 

claimed  and  the  reasons  in  support  of  it  in  each  instance,  I  think 
that  it  may  fairly  be  concluded  that  such  a  right  has  not  been 
granted.  It  appears  and  is  admitted  that  much  may  be  done  in  aid 
of  such  a  system  by  the  right  which  is  derived  from  several  of 
the  existing  grants,  and  more  especially  from  that  to  appropriate 
the  public  money,  l^ut  still  it  is  manifest  that  as  a  system  for  the 
United  States  it  can  never  be  carried  into  effect  under  that  grant 
nor  under  all  of  them  united,  the  great  and  essential  power  being 
deficient,  consisting  of  a  right  to  take  up  the  subj  ect  on  principle  ; 
to  cause  our  Union  to  be  examined  by  men  of  science,  with  a  view 
to  such  improvements ;  to  authorize  commissioners  to  lay  off  the 
roads  and  canals  in  all  proper  directions  ;  to  take  the  land  at  a 
valuation  if  necessary,  and  to  construct  the  works  ;  to  pass  laws 
with  suitable  penalties  for  their  protection  ;  and  to  raise  a  revenue 
from  them,  to  keep  them  in  repair,  and  make  further  improvement 
by  the  establishment  of  turnpikes  and  tolls,  with  gates  to  be  placed 
at  the  proper  distances.   .   .   . 

In  the  preceding  incjuiry  little  has  been  said  of  the  advantages 
which  would  attend  the  exercise  of  such  a  power  by  the  General 
Government.  I  have  made  the  inquiiy  under  a  deep  conviction 
that  they  are  almost  incalculable,  and  that  there  was  a  general  con- 
currence of  opinion  among  our  fellow-citizens  to  that  effect.  Still, 
it  may  not  be  improper  for  me  to  state  the  grounds  upon  which  my 
own  impression  is  founded.   .   .   . 

I  think  that  I  may  venture  to  affirm  that  there  is  no  part  of  our 
globe  comprehending  so  many  degrees  of  latitude  on  the  main 
ocean  and  so  many  degrees  of  longitude  into  the  interior  that  ad- 
mits of  such  great  improvement  and  at  so  little  expense.  The 
Atlantic  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Lakes,  forming  almost  inland 
seas,  on  the  other,  separated,  by  high  mountains,  which  rise  in  the 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  determine  in  that  of  the  Mississippi, 

national  importance  in  a  commercial  or  military  point  of  view  or  for  the  trans- 
portation of  the  mail,  and  began  a  vigorous  exercise  of  these  powers  during  the 
closing  year  of  his  administration.  The  friends  of  internal  improvements  expected 
this  act  to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  national  system.  It  did,  in  fact,  go  far  toward 
accomplishing  this  result,  as  surveys  were  carried  out  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  would  probably  have  resulted  in  an  extensive  system,  had  it  not  encountered 
the  executive  veto  under  Jackson. 


THE  POLICY  OF  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS   399 

traversini;;  from  nortli  to  soulh  almost  the  whole  interior,  with 
innumerable  rivers  on  every  side  of  those  mountains,  some  of  vast 
extent,  many  of  which  tiike  their  sources  near  to  each  other,  give 
the  great  outline.  The  details  are  to  be  seen  on  the  valuable  maps 
of'our  country. 

It  appears  by  the  light  already  before  the  public  that  it  is  prac- 
ticable and  easy  to  connect  by  canals  the  whole  coast  from  its 
southern  to  its  northern  extremity  in  one  continued  inland  naviga- 
tion, and  to  connect  in  like  manner  in  many  parts  the  Western 
lakes  and  rivers  with  each  other.  It  is  equally  practicable  and  easy 
to  facilitate  the  intercourse  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Western 
countr}'  by  improving  the  navigation  of  many  of  the  rivers  which 
have  their  sources  near  to  each  other  in  the  mountains  on  each 
side,  and  by  good  roads  across  the  mountains  between  the  highest 
navigable  points  of  those  rivers.  In  addition  to  the  example  of  the 
Cumberland  road,  already  noticed,  another  of  this  kind  is  now  in 
train  from  the  head  waters  of  the  river  James  to  those  of  the 
Kanawha  ;  and  in  like  manner  may  the  Savannah  be  connected  with 
the  Tennessee.  In  some  instances  it  is  understood  that  the  P2astern 
and  Western  waters  may  be  connected  together  directly  by  canals. 
One  great  work  of  this  kind  is  now  in  its  progress  and  far  advanced 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  two  others  may  be  formed,  one  at  each  extremity  of  the  high 
mountains  above  mentioned,  connecting  in  the  one  instance  the 
waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  with  Lake  Champlain,  and  in  the 
other  some  of  the  most  important  of  the  Western  rivers  with  those 
emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  advantage  of  which  will  be 
seen  at  the  first  glance  by  an  enlightened  observer.  .  .   . 

The  advantages  which  would  be  derived  from  such  improve- 
ments are  incalculable.  The  facility  .which  would  thereby  be  af- 
forded to  the  transportation  of  the  whole  of  the  rich  productions  of 
our  country  to  market  would  alone  more  than  amply  compensate 
for  all  the  labor  and  expense  attending  them.  Great,  how'ever,  as 
is  that  advantage,  it  is  one  only  of  many  and  by  no  means  the 
most  important.  Every  power  of  the  General  Government  and  of 
the  State  governments  connected  with  the  strength  and  resources 
of  the  country  would  be  made  more  efficient  for  the  purposes 


400 


TRANSPORTATION 


intended  by  them.  In  war  they  would  faciUtate  the  transportation 
of  men,  ordnance,  and  provisions,  and  munitions  of  war  of  every 
kind  to  every  part  of  our  extensive  coast  and  interior  on  which  an 
attack  might  be  made  or  threatened.  Those  who  have  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  occurrences  of  the  late  war  must  know  the  good  effect 
which  would  result  in  the  event  of  another  war  from  the  command 
of  an  interior  navigation  alone  along  the  coast  for  all  the  purposes 
of  war  as  well  as  of  commerce  between  the  different  parts  of  our 
Union.  The  impediments  to  all  military  operations  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  want  of  such  a  navigation  and  the  reliance  which 
was  placed,  notwithstanding  those  impediments,  on  such  a  com- 
merce can  not  be  forgotten.  In  every  other  line  their  good  effect 
would  be  most  sensibly  felt.  Intelligence  by  means  of  the  Post- 
Office  Department  would  be  more  easily,  extensively,  and  rapidly 
diffused.  Parts  the  most  remote  from  each  other  would  be  brought 
more  closely  together.  Distant  lands  would  be  made  more  valuable, 
and  the  industry  of  our  fellow-citizens  on  every  portion  of  our  soil 
be  better  rewarded.   .   .  . 

It  can  not  be  doubted  that  improvements  for  great  national  pur- 
poses would  be  better  made  by  the  National  Government  than  by 
the  governments  of  the  several  States.  Our  experience  prior  to  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  demonstrated  that  in  the  exercise  by 
the  individual  States  of  most  of  the  powers  granted  to  the  United 
States  a  contracted  rivalry  of  interest  and  misapplied  jealousy  of 
each  other  had  an  important  influence  on  all  their  measures  to  the 
great  injury  of  the  whole.  This  was  particularly  exemplified  by  the 
regulations  which  they  severally  made  of  their  commerce  with  for- 
eign nations  and  with  each  other.  It  was  this  utter  incapacity  in 
the  State  governments,  proceeding  from  these  and  other  causes,  to 
act  as  a  nation  and  to  perform  all  the  duties  which  the  nation  owed 
to  itself  under  any  system  which  left  the  General  Government  de- 
pendent on  the  States,  which  produced  the  transfer  of  these  powers 
to  the  United  States  by  the  establishment  of  the  present  Constitu- 
tion. The  reasoning  which  was  applicable  to  the  grant  of  any  of 
the  powers  now  vested  in  Congress  is  likewise  so,  at  least  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  to  that  in  question.  It  is  natural  that  the  States  indi- 
vidually in  making  improvements  should  look  to  their  particular 


TlIK  I'OTJCV  OF  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS      40I 

and  local  interests.  The  members  composing"  tlieir  respectixe  le<^is- 
latLires  represent  the  people  of  each  State  only,  and  mi<;ht  not  feel 
themselves  at  liberty  to  look  to  objects  in  these  respects  beyond 
that  limit.  If  the  resources  of  the  Union  were  to  be  brought  into 
operation  under  the  direction  of  the  State  assemblies,  or  in  concert 
with  them,  it  may  be  apprehended  that  every  measure  would  become 
the  object  of  negotiation,  of  bargain  and  barter,  much  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  system,  as  well  as  discredit  to  both  governments. 
But  Congress  would  look  to  the  whole  and  make  improvements  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  It  is  the  peculiar  felicity  of  the 
proposed  amendment  that  while  it  will  enable  the  United  States  to 
accomplish  every  national  object,  the  improvements  made  with 
that  view  will  eminently  promote  the  welfare  of  the  individual 
States,  who  may  also  add  such  others  as  their  own  particular 
interests  may  require.   .   .   . 

I  have  now  essentially  executed  that  part  of  the  task  which  I 
imposed  on  myself  of  examining  the  right  of  Congress  to  adopt 
and  execute  a  system  of  internal  improvements,  and,  I  think,  have 
shown  that  it  does  not  exist.  It  is,  I  think,  equally  manifest  that 
such  a  power  vested  in  Congress  and  wisely  executed  would  have 
the  happiest  effect  on  all  the  great  interests  of  our  Union. 

'^Jackson's  Veto  Message,  May  2'/tJi,  iSjO 

Gentlemen  :  I  have  maturely  considered  the  bill  proposing  to 
authorize  "a  subscription  of  stock  in  the  Maysville,  Washington, 
Paris,  and  Lexington  Turnpike  Road  Company,"  and  now  return 
the  same  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  which  it  originated, 
with  my  objections  to  its  passage.   ,   .   , 

The  bill  before  me  does  not  call  for  a  more  definite  opinion  upon 
the  particular  circumstances  which  will  warrant  appropriations  of 
money  by  Congress  to  aid  works  of  internal  improvement.  .  .  . 
Such  grants  have  always  been  professedly  under  the  control  of 
the  general  principle'  that  the  works  which  might  thus  be  aided 
should  be  "of  a  general,  not  local,  national,  not  State,"  character. 

1  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  II,  4S3,  4S7,  488,  489- 
490. 


402  TRANSPORTATION 

A  disregard  of  this  distinction  would  of  necessity  lead  to  the  sub- 
version of  the  federal  system.  ...  I  have  given  to  its  provisions 
all  the  reflection  demanded  by  a  just  regard  for  the  interests  of 
those  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  have  desired  its  passage,  and  by  the 
respect  which  is  due  to  a  coordinate  branch  of  the  Government,  but 
I  am  not  able  to  view  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  measure  of 
purely  local  character.   ... 

But  although  I  might  not  feel  it  to  be  my  official  duty  to  inter- 
pose the  Executive  veto  to  the  passage  of  a  bill  appropriating 
money  for  the  construction  of  such  works  as  are  authorized  by  the 
States  and  are  national  in  their  character,  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
understood  as  expressing  an  opinion  that  it  is  expedient  at  this 
time  for  the  General  Government  to  embark  in  a  system  of  this 
kind  ;  and  anxious  that  my  constituents  should  be  possessed  of  my 
views  on  this  as  well  as  on  all  other  subjects  which  they  have  com- 
mitted to  my  discretion,  I  shall  state  them  frankly  and  briefly. 

Although  many  of  the  States,  with  a  laudable  zeal  and  under 
the  influence  of  an  enlightened  policy,  are  successfully  applying 
their  separate  efforts  to  works  of  this  character,  the  desire  to  enlist 
the  aid  of  the  General  Government  in  the  construction  of  such 
as  from  their  nature  ought  to  devolve  upon  it,  and  to  which  the 
means  of  the  individual  States  are  inadequate,  is  both  rational  and 
patriotic,  and  if  that  desire  is  not  gratified  now  it  does  not  follow 
that  it  never  will  be.  The  general  intelligence  and  public  spirit  of 
the  American  people  furnish  a  sure  guaranty  that  at  the  proper 
time  this  policy  will  be  made  to  prevail  under  circumstances  more 
auspicious  to  its  successful  prosecution  than  those  which  now  exist. 
But  great  as  this  object  undoubtedly  is,  it  is  not  the  only  one  which 
demands  the  fostering  care  of  the  Government.  The  preservation 
and  success  of  the  republican  principle  rest  with  us.  To  elevate  its 
character  and  extend  its  influence  rank  among  our  most  important 
duties,  and  the  best  means  to  accomplish  this  desirable  end  are 
those  which  will  rivet  the  attachment  of  our  citizens  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  their  choice  by  the  comparative  lightness  of  their  public 
burthens  and  by  the  attraction  which  the  superior  success  of  its 
operations  will  present  to  the  admiration  and  respect  of  the  world. 
Through  the  favor  of  an  overruling  and  indulgent  Providence  our 


THE  POLICY  OF  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS      403 

country  is  blessed  with  i^eneral  prosperity  and  our  citizens  exempted 
from  the  pressure  of  taxation,  which  other  less  favored  portions  of 
the  human  family  are  obliged  to  bear  ;  yet  it  is  true  that  many  of 
the  taxes  collected  from  our  citizens  through  the  medium  of  im- 
posts have  for  a  considerable  period  been  onerous.  In  many  partic- 
ulars these  taxes  have  borne  severely  upon  the  laboring  and  less 
prosperous  classes  of  the  community,  being  imposed  on  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  and  this,  too,  in  cases  where  the  burthen  was  not 
relieved  by  the  consciousness  that  it  would  ultimately  contribute  to 
make  us  independent  of  foreign  nations  for  articles  of  prime  neces- 
sity by  the  encouragement  of  their  growth  and  manufacture  at 
home.  They  have  been  cheerfully  borne  because  they  are  thought 
to  be  necessaiy  to  the  support  of  Government  and  the  payment  of 
the  debts  unavoidably  incurred  in  the  acquisition  and  maintenance  of 
our  national  rights  and  liberties.  But  have  we  a  right  to  calculate 
on  the  same  cheerful  acquiescence  when  it  is  known  that  the  neces- 
sity for  their  continuance  w^ould  cease  were  it  not  for  irregular, 
improvident,  and  unequal  appropriations  of  the  public  funds  ?  Will 
not  the  people  demand,  as  they  have  a  right  to  do,  such  a  prudent 
system  of  expenditure  as  will  pay  the  debts  of  the  Union  and 
authorize  the  reduction  of  ever}^  tax  to  as  low  a  point  as  the  wise 
observance  of  the  necessity  to  protect  that  portion  of  our  manufac- 
tures and  labor  whose  prosperity  is  essential  to  our  national  safety 
and  independence  will  allow  .''  When  the  national  debt  is  paid,  the 
duties  upon  those  articles  which  we  do  not  raise  may  be  repealed 
with  safety,  and  still  leave,  I  trust,  without  oppression  to  any  sec- 
tion of  the  countiy,  an  accumulating  surplus  fund,  which  may  be 
beneficially  applied  to  some  well-digested  system  of  improvement. 
Lender  this  view  the  question  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
Federal  Government  can  or  ought  to  embark  in  the  construction 
of  roads  and  canals,  and  the  extent  to  which  it  may  impose  bur- 
thens on  the  people  for  these  purposes,  may  be  presented  on  its 
own  merits,  free  of  all  disguise  and  of  eveiy  embarrassment,  except 
such  as  may  arise  from  the  Constitution  itself.  Assuming  these 
suggestions  to  be  correct,  will  not  our  constituents  require  the 
obsen-ance  of  a  course  by  which  they  can  be  effected  ?  Ought  they 
not  to  require  it .''    With  the  best  disposition  to  aid,  as  far  as  I  can 


404  TRANSPORTATION 

conscientiously,  in  furtherance  of  works  of  internal  improvement, 
my  opinion  is  that  the  soundest  views  of  national  policy  at  this 
time  point  to  such  a  course.  Besides  the  avoidance  of  an  evil 
influence  upon  the  local  concerns  of  the  country,  how  solid  is  the 
advantage  which  the  Government  will  reap  from  it  in  the  elevation 
of  its  character  !  How  gratifying  the  effect  of  presenting  to  the 
world  the  sublime  spectacle  of  a  Republic  of  more  than  12,000,- 
000  happy  people,  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  her  existence,  after 
having  passed  through  two  protracted  wars  —  the  one  for  the  acqui- 
sition and  the  other  for  the  maintenance  of  liberty  —  free  from 
debt  and  with  all  her  immense  resources  unfettered  !  What  a  sal- 
utary influence  would  not  such  an  exhibition  exercise  upon  the 
cause  of  liberal  principles  and  free  government  throughout  the 
world  !  Would  we  not  ourselves  find  in  its  eftect  an  additional 
guaranty  that  our  political  institutions  will  be  transmitted  to  the 
most  remote  posterity  without  decay  ?  A  course  of  policy  destined 
to  witness  events  like  these  can  not  be  benefited  by  a  legislation 
which  tolerates  a  scramble  for  appropriations  that  have  no  relation 
to  any  general  system  of  improvement,  and  whose  good  effects 
must  of  necessity  be  very  limited.  In  the  best  view  of  these  appro- 
priations, the  abuses  to  which  they  lead  far  exceed  the  good  which 
they  are  capable  of  promoting.  They  may  be  resorted  to  as  artful 
expedients  to  shift  upon  the  Government  the  losses  of  unsuccess- 
ful private  speculation,  and  thus,  by  ministering  to  personal  ambi- 
tion and  self-aggrandizement,  tend  to  sap  the  foundations  of  public 
virtue  and  taint  the  administration  of  the  Government  with  a 
demoralizing  influence.   .   .  . 

V.     METHODS    OF   TRAVEL 
A.    General  Description  of  Conditions,  1830-1840 

1  There  is  much  comprehended  in  tlie  simple  word  travelling 
which  heads  this  chapter,  and  it  is  by  no  means  an  unimportant 
subject,  as  the  degree  of  civilization  of  a  country,  and  many  im- 
portant peculiarities,  bearing  strongly  upon  the  state  of  society,  are 

1  Marryat,  Diary  in  America,  with  Remarks  on  its  Institutions  [1S40],  pp.  2, 
3-5'  7-8.  9-10.  I'.  3°'  3--33'  34- 


METHODS  OF  TRAVI<:L 


405 


to  be  gathered  from  the  high  road,  and  tlie  variety  of  entertainment 
for  man  and  horse  ;  and  1  think  that  my  remarks  on  this  subjeet 
will  throw  as  mueh  light  upon  American  society  as  will  be  found 
in  any  chapter  which   1   ha\e  written. 

In  a  country  abounding  as  America  does  with  rivers  and  rail- 
roads, and  where  locomotion  by  steam,  wherever  it  can  be  applied, 
supersedes  every  other  means  of  conveyance,  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
jsected  that  the  roads  will  be  remarkably  good  ;  they  are,  however, 
in  consequence  of  the  excellent  arrangements  of  the  townships  and 
counties,  in  the  Eastern  States,  as  good,  and  much  better,  than 
could  be  expected.  The  great  objection  to  them  is  that  they  are 
not  levelled,  but  follow  the  undulations  of  the  country,  so  that 
you  have  a  variety  of  short,  steep  ascents  and  descents  which  are 
very  trying  to  the  carriage-springs  and  very  fatiguing  to  the  trav- 
eller. Of  course  in  a  new  country  you  must  expect  to  fall  in  with 
the  delightful  varieties  of  Corduroy,  &c.,  but  wherever  the  country 
is  settled  and  the  population  sufficient  to  pay  the  expense,  the  roads 
in  America  may  be  said  to  be  as  good  as  under  circumstances  could 
possibly  be  expected.  There  are  one  or  two  roads,  I  believe,  not 
more,  which  are  government  roads  ;  but,  in  general,  the  expense 
of  the  roads  is  defrayed  by  the  States.   .  .  . 

The  American  stage-coaches  are  such  as  experience  has  found 
out  to  be  most  suitable  to  the  American  roads,  and  you  have  not 
ridden  in  them  five  miles  before  you  long  for  the  delightful  spring- 
ing of  four  horses  upon  the  level  roads  of  England.  They  are  some- 
thing between  an  English  stage  and  a  French  diligence,  built  with 
all  the  panels  open,  on  account  of  the  excessive  heat  of  the  sum- 
mer months.  In  wet  weather  these  panels  are  covered  with  leather 
aprons,  which  are  fixed  on  with  buttons,  a  very  insufficient  protec- 
tion in  the  winter,  as  the  wind  blows  through  the  intermediate 
spaces,  whistling  into  your  ears,  and  rendering  it  more  piercing 
than  if  all  was  open.  Moreover,  they  are  no  protection  against  the 
rain  or  snow,  both  of  which  find  their  way  in  t(j  you.  The  coach 
has  three  seats,  to  receive  nine  passengers  ;  those  on  the  middle 
seat  leaning  back  upon  a  strong  and  broad  leather  brace,  which 
nms  across.  This  is  very  disagreeable,  as  the  centre  passengers, 
when  the  panels  are  closed,  deprive  the  others  of  the  light  and  air 


4o6  TRANSPORTATION 

from  the  windows.  But  the  most  disagreeable  feehng  arises  from 
the  body  of  the  coach  not  being  upon  springs,  but  hung  upon 
leather  braces  running  under  it  and  supporting  it  on  each  side  ; 
and  when  the  roads  are  bad,  or  )'ou  ascend  or  rapidly  descend  the 
pitches  (as  they  term  short  hills)  the  motion  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  being  tossed  in  a  blanket,  often  throwing  you  up  to  the  top  of 
the  coach,  so  as  to  flatten  your  hat  —  if  not  your  head. 

The  drivers  are  very  skilful,  although  they  are  generally  young 
men  —  indeed  often  mere  boys  —  for  they  soon  better  themselves 
as  they  advance  in  life.  Very  often  they  drive  six  in  hand  ;  and  if 
you  are  upset,  it  is  generally  more  the  fault  of  the  road  than  of  the 
driver.  I  was  upset  twice  in  one  half  hour  when  I  was  travelling 
in  the  winter  time  ;  and  no  one  thinks  anything  of  an  upset  in 
America.  More  serious  accidents  do,  however,  sometimes  happen. 
When  I  was  in  New  Hampshire,  a  neglected  bridge  broke  down, 
and  precipitated  coach,  horses,  and  passengers  into  a  torrent  which 
flowed  into  the  Connecticut  river.  Some  of  the  passengers  were 
drowned.  Those  who  were  saved,  sued  the  township  and  recovered 
damages  ;  but  these  mischances  must  be  expected  in  a  new  coun- 
try. The  great  annoyance  of  these  public  conveyances  is,  that  nei- 
ther the  proprietor  or  driver  consider  themselves  the  servants  of 
the  public  ;  a  stage-coach  is  a  speculation  by  which  as  much  money 
is  to  be  made  as  possible  by  the  proprietors  ;  and  as  the  driver 
never  expects  or  demands  a  fee  from  the  passengers,  they  or  their 
comforts  are  no  concern  of  his.  The  proprietors  do  not  consider 
that  they  are  bound  to  keep  faith  with  the  public,  nor  do  they  care 
about  any  complaints. 

The  stages  which  run  from  Cincinnati  to  the  eastward  are  very 
much  interfered  with  when  the  (3hio  river  is  full  of  water,  as  the 
travellers  prefer  the  steam-boats  ;  but  the  very  moment  that  the 
water  is  so  low  on  the  Ohio  that  the  steam-boats  cannot  ascend 
the  river  up  to  Wheeling,  double  the  price  is  demanded  by  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  coaches.  They  are  quite  regardless  as  to  the  opinion 
or  good-will  of  the  public  ;  they  do  not  care  for  either,  all  they 
w'ant  is  their  money,  and  they  are  perfectly  indifferent  whether  you 
break  your  neck  or  not.  The  great  evil  arising  from  this  state  of 
hostility,  as  you  may  almost  call  it,  is  the  disregard  of  life  which 


MKTIIODS  OF  TRAYia.  407 

renders  travelling  so  dangerous  in  America.  You  are  com]5letely 
at  the  mercy  of  the  drivers,  who  are,  generally  speaking,  very  good- 
tempered,  but  sometinies  quite  the  contraiy;  and  I  have  often  been 
amused  with  the  scenes  which  have  taken  place  between  them  and 
the  passengers.  As  for  myself,  when  the  weather  permitted  it,  I 
invariably  went  outside,  which  the  Americans  seldom  do,  and  was 
always  very  good  friends  with  the  drivers.  The)-  are  full  of  local 
information,  and  often  veiy  amusing.  There  is,  however,  a  great 
difference  in  the  behaviour  of  the  drivers  of  the  mails,  and  coaches 
which  are  timed  by  the  post-ofifice,  and  others  which  are  not. 
If  beyond  his  time,  the  driver  is  mulcted  by  the  proprietors  ;  and 
when  dollars  are  in  the  cpestion,  there  is  an  end  to  all  urbanity 
and  civility.   .   .   . 

In  making  my  observations  upon  the  rail-road  and  steam-boat  trav- 
elling in  the  United  States,  I  shall  point  out  some  facts  with  which 
the  reader  must  be  made  acquainted.  The  Americans  are  a  rest- 
less, locomotive  people :  whether  for  business  or  pleasure,  they  are 
ever  on  the  move  in  their  own  country,  and  they  move  in  masses. 
There  is  but  one  conveyance,  it  may  be  said,  for  every  class  of 
people,  the  coach,  rail-road,  or  steam-boat,  as  well  as  most  of  the 
hotels,  being  open  to  all  ;  the  consequence  is  that  the  society  is  very 
much  mixed  —  the  millionaire,  the  well-educated  woman  of  the 
highest  rank,  the  senator,  the  member  of  Congress,  the  farmer, 
the  emigrant,  the  swindler,  and  the  pick-pocket,  are  all  liable  to 
meet  together  -in  the  same  vehicle  of  conveyance.  Some  conven- 
tional rules  were  therefore  necessary,  and  those  rules  have  been 
made  by  public  opinion  —  a  power  to  which  all  must  submit  in 
America.  The  one  most  important,  and  without  which  it  would  be 
impossible  to  travel  in  such  a  gregarious  way,  is  an  universal  def- 
erence and  civility  shewn  to  the  women,  who  may  in  consequence 
travel  without  protection  all  over  the  United  States  without  the 
least  chance  of  annoyance  or  insult.  This  deference  paid  to  the 
sex  is  highly  creditable  to  the  Americans  ;  it  exists  from  one  end 
of  the  Union  to  the  other  ;  indeed,  in  the  Southern  and  more  law- 
less States,  it  is  even  more  chivalric  than  in  the  more  settled.  .  .  . 

Of  all  travelling,  I  think  that  by  railroad  the  most  fatiguing,  es- 
pecially in  America.   After  a  certain  time  the  constant  coughing  of 


4o8  TRANSPORTATION 

the  locomotive,  the  dazzhng  of  the  vision  from  the  rapidity  with 
which  objects  are  passed,  the  sparks  and  ashes  which  fly  in  your 
face  and  on  your  clothes  become  very  annoying ;  your  only  conso- 
lation is  the  speed  with  which  you  are  passing  over  the  ground. 

The  railroads  in  America  are  not  so  well  made  as  in  England, 
and  are  therefore  more  dangerous  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
at  present  nothing  is  made  in  America  but  to  last  a  certain  time  ; 
they  go  to  the  exact  expense  considered  necessary  and  no  further ; 
they  know  that  in  twenty  years  they  will  be  better  able  to  spend 
twenty  dollars  than  one  now.  The  great  object  is  to  obtain  quick 
returns  for  the  outlay,  and,  except  in  few  instances,  durability  or 
permanency  is  not  thought  of.  One  great  cause  of  disasters  is,  that 
the  railroads  are  not  fenced  on  the  sides,  so  as  to  keep  the  cattle 
off  them,  and  it  appears  as  if  the  cattle  who  range  the  woods  are 
veiy  partial  to  take  their  naps  on  the  roads,  probably  from  their  be- 
ing drier  than  the  other  portions  of  the  soil.  It  is  impossible  to  say 
how  many  cows  have  been  cut  into  atoms  by  the  trains  in  America, 
but  the  frequent  accidents  arising  from  these  causes  have  occasioned 
the  Americans  to  invent  a  sort  of  shovel,  attached  to  the  front  of 
the  locomotive,  which  takes  up  a  cow,  tossing  her  off  right  or  left. 
At  every  fifteen  miles  of  the  railroads  there  are  refreshment  rooms ; 
the  cars  stop,  all  the  doors  are  thrown  open,  and  out  rush  the  pas- 
sengers like  boys  out  of  school,  and  crowd  round  the  tables  to  sol- 
ace themselves  with  pies,  patties,  cakes,  hard-boiled  eggs,  ham, 
custards,  and  a  variety  of  railroad  luxuries,  too  numerous  to  men- 
tion. The  bell  rings  for  departure,  in  they  all  hurry  with  their 
hands  and  mouths  full,  and  off  they  go  again,  until  the  next  stop- 
ping place  induces  them  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  journey  by 
masticating  without  being  hungry.   .   .   . 

The  most  general,  the  most  rapid,  the  most  agreeable,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  the  most  dangerous,  of  American  travelling  is  by 
steam-boats.  .  .   . 

The  American  steam-boats  are  very  different  from  ours  in  ap- 
pearance, in  consequence  of  the  engines  being  invariably  on  deck. 
The  decks  also  are  carried  out  many  feet  wider  on  each  side  than 
the  hull  of  the  vessel,  to  give  space ;  these  additions  to  the  deck 
are  called  guards.    The  engine  being  on  the  first  deck,  there  is  a 


METHODS  OI"    TRAVFX  409 

second  deck  for  tlic  passengers,  state-rooms,  and  saloons  ;  and  above 
this  deck  there  is  another,  covered  with  a  white  awning.  They  have 
something  tlie  ajjpearance  of  two-deckers,  and  when  filled  with 
company,  the  variety  of  colours  worn  by  the  ladies  have  a  very 
novel  and  pleasing  effect.  The  boats  which  run  from  New  York 
to  Boston,  and  up  the  Hudson  river  to  Albany,  are  very  splendid 
vessels  ;  they  have  low-pressure  engines,  are  well  commanded,  and 
I  never  heard  of  any  accident  of  any  importance  taking  place  ;  their 
engines  are  also  very  superior  —  one  on  board  of  the  Narragansett, 
with  a  horizontal  stroke,  was  one  of  the  finest  I  e\-er  saw.  On  the 
Mississippi,  Ohio,  and  tln'ir  tributary  rivers,  the  high-pressure  en- 
gine is  invariably  used  ;  the)-  have  tried  the  low-pressure,  but  have 
found  that  it  will  ncjt  answer,  in  consequence  of  the  great  quantity 
of  mud  contained  in  solution  on  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi, 
which  destroys  all  the  valves  and  leathers  ;  and  this  is  the  principal 
cause  of  the  many  accidents  which  take  place.  At  the  same  time 
it  must  be  remembered,  that  there  is  a  recklessness  —  an  indiffer- 
ence to  life  —  shown  throughout  all  America ;  which  is  rather  a 
singular  feature,  inasmuch  as  it  extends  East  as  well  as  West.  It 
can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  insatiate  pursuit  of  gain  among  a 
people  who  consider  that  time  is  money,  and  who  are  blinded  by 
their  eagerness  in  the  race  for  it,  added  to  that  venturous  spirit  so 
naturally  imbibed  in  a  new  country  at  the  commencement  of  its 
occupation.  .   .   . 

The  American  innkeeper  is  still  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  your 
host;  he  and  his  wife  sit  at  the  head  of  the  table  d'hote  at  meal 
times  ;  when  you  arrive  he  greets  you  with  a  welcome,  shaking  your 
hand  ;  if  you  arrive  in  company  with  those  who  know  him,  you  are 
introduced  to  him  ;  he  is  considered  on  a  level  with  you  ;  you  meet 
him  in  the  most  respectable  companies,  and  it  is  but  justice  to  say 
that,  in  most  instances,  they  are  a  veiy  respectable  portion  of 
society.  Of  course,  his  authority,  like  that  of  the  captains  of  the 
steam-boats,  is  undisputed  ;  indeed  the  captains  of  these  boats  may 
be  partly  considered  as  classed  under  the  same  head. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  features  in  American  society, 
and  I  think  it  is  likely  to  last  longer  than  most  others  in  this  land 
of  change,  because  it  is  upheld  by  public  opinion,  which  is  so 


4IO 


TRANSPORTATION 


despotic.  The  mania  for  travelling,  among  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  renders  it  most  important  that  everything  connected 
with  locomotion  should  be  well  arranged  ;  society  demands  it,  pub- 
lic opinion  enforces  it,  and  therefore,  with  few  exceptions,  it  is  so. 
The  respect  shown  to  the  master  of  a  hotel  induces  people  of  the 
highest  character  to  embark  in  the  profession  ;  the  continual  stream 
of  travellers  which  pours  through  the  countiy,  gives  sufficient  sup- 
port by  moderate  profits,  to  enable  the  innkeeper  to  abstain  from 
excessive  charges ;  the  price  of  eveiything  is  known  by  all,  and  no 
more  is  charged  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  than  to  other 
people.  Every  one  knows  his  expenses  ;  there  is  no  surcharge,  and 
fees  to  waiters  are  voluntary,  and  never  asked  for.  At  first  I  used 
to  examine  the  bill  when  presented,  but  latterly  I  looked  only  at 
the  sum  total  at  the  bottom  and  paid  it  at  once,  reserving  the  ex- 
amination of  it  for  my  leisure,  and  I  never  in  one  instance  found 
that  I  had  been  imposed  upon.  This  is  veiy  remarkable,  and  shows 
the  force  of  public  opinion  in  America ;  for  it  can  produce,  when 
required,  a  very  scarce  article  all  over  the  world,  and  still  more 
scarce  in  the  profession  referred  to,  —  Honesty.  Of  course  there 
will  be  exceptions,  but  they  are  veiy  few,  and  chiefiy  confined  to 
the  cities.   .  .  . 

Of  course,  where  the  population  and  traf^c  are  great,  and  the 
travellers  who  pass  through  numerous,  the  hotels  are  large  and 
good  ;  where,  on  the  contraiy,  the  road  is  less  and  less  frequented, 
so  do  they  decrease  in  importance,  size,  and  respectability,  until 
you  arrive  at  the  farm-house  entertainment  of  Virginia  and  Ken- 
tucky ;  the  grocery,  or  mere  grog-shop,  or  the  log-house  of  the  Far 
West.  The  way-side  inns  are  remarkable  for  their  uniformity;  the 
furniture  of  the  bar-room  is  invariably  the  same  :  a  wooden  clock, 
a  map  of  the  United  States,  map  of  the  State,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  a  looking-glass,  with  a  hair-brush  and  comb  hang- 
ing to  it  b)-  strings,  pro  bono  publico,  sometimes  with  the  extra 
embellishment  of  one  or  two  miserable  pictures,  such  as  General 
Jackson  scrambling  upon  a  horse,  with  fire  or  steam  coming  out 
of  his  nostrils,  going  to  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  &c.  &c. 

He  who  is  of  the  silver-fork  school,  will  not  find  much  comfort 
out  of  the  American  cities  and  large  towns.    There  are  no  neat, 


METHODS  Ol-   TRAVEL  41I 

quiet  little  inns,  as  in  England.  It  is  all  the  "  rough  and  tumble  " 
system,  and  when  you  stop  at  humble  inns  you  must  expect  to  eat 
peas  with  a  two-pronged  fork,  and  to  sit  down  to  meals  with  people 
whose  exterior  is  any  thing  but  agreeable,  to  attend  upon  yourself, 
and  to  sleep  in  a  room  in  which  there  are  three  or  four  other  beds 
(I  have  slept  in  one  with  nearly  twenty,)  most  of  them  carrying 
double,  even  if  you  do  not  have  a  companion  in  your  own.    .    .    . 

^  Nature  has  done  so  much  for  the  United  States  in  this  article 
[Transport  and  Markets]  of  their  economy,  and  has  indicated  so 
clearly  what  remained  for  human  hands  to  do,  that  it  is  very  com- 
)rehensible  to  the  traveller  why  this  new  country  so  far  transcends 
Others  of  the  same  age  in  markets  and  means  of  transport.  The 
ports  of  the  United  States  are,  singularly  enough,  scattered  round 
the  whole  of  their  boundaries.  Besides  those  on  the  seaboard, 
there  are  man)-  in  the  interior  ;  on  the  northern  lakes,  and  on  thou- 
sands of  miles  of  deep  rivers.  No  nook  in  the  country  is  at  a  de- 
spairing distance  from  a  market ;  and  where  the  usual  incentives 
to  enterprise  exist,  the  means  of  transport  are  sure  to  be  provided, 
in  the  proportion  in  which  they  are  wanted. 

Even  in  the  south,  where,  the  element  of  wages  being  lost,  and 
the  will  of  the  labourer  being  lost  with  them,  there  are  no  adequate 
means  of  executing  even  the  best-conceived  enterprises,  more  has 
been  done  than  could  have  been  expected  under  the  circumstances. 
The  mail  roads  are  still  extremely  bad.  I  found,  in  travelling 
through  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  that  the  drivers  consider  them- 
selves entitled  to  get  on  by  any  means  they  can  devise  :  that  no- 
body helps  and  nobody  hinders  them.  It  was  constantly  happening 
that  the  stage  came  to  a  stop  on  the  brink  of  a  wide  and  a  deep 
puddle,  extending  all  across  the  road.  The  driver  helped  himself, 
without  scruple,  to  as  many  rails  of  the  nearest  fence  as  might 
serve  to  fill  up  the  bottom  of  the  hole,  or  break  our  descent  into  it. 
On  inquiry,  I  found  it  was  not  probable  that  either  road  or  fence 
would  be  mended  till  both  had  gone  to  absolute  destruction. 

The  traffic  on  these  roads  is  so  small,  that  the  stranger  feels 
himself  almost  lost  in  the  wilderness.    In  the  course  of  several 

1  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834],  II,  1-5,  6-7,  15,  17-18,  19-20,  21-23. 


412 


TRANSPORTATION 


days'  journey,  we  saw,  (with  the  exception  of  the  wagons  of  a  few 
encampments,)  only  one  vehicle  besides  our  own.  It  was  a  stage 
returning  from  Charleston.  Our  meeting  in  the  forest  was  like  the 
meeting  of  ships  at  sea.  We  asked  the  passengers  from  the  south 
for  news  from  Charleston  and  Europe  ;  and  they  questioned  us 
about  the  state  of  politics  at  Washington.  The  eager  vociferation 
of  drivers  and  passengers  was  such  as  is  very  unusual,  out  of 
exile.  We  were  desired  to  give  up  all  thoughts  of  going  by  the 
eastern  road  to  Charleston.  The  road  might  be  impassable  ;  and 
there  was  nothing  to  eat  by  the  way.  So  we  described  a  circuit, 
by  Camden  and  Columbia. 

An  account  of  an  actual  day's  journey  will  give  the  best  idea  of 
what  travelling  is  in  such  places.  We  had  travelled  from  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  the  day  before,  (March  2nd,  1835,)  and  had  not 
had  any  rest,  when,  at  midnight,  we  came  to  a  river  which  had  no 
bridge.  The  "scow"  had  gone  over  with  another  stage,  and  we 
stood  under  the  stars  for  a  long  time  ;  hardly  less  than  an  hour. 
The  scow  was  only  just  large  enough  to  hold  the  coach  and  our- 
selves ;  so  that  it  was  thought  safest  for  the  passengers  to  alight, 
and  go  on  board  on  foot.  In  this  process,  I  found  myself  over  the 
ankles  in  mud.  A  few  minutes  after  we  had  driven  on  again,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  we  had  to  get  out  to  change  coaches ; 
after  which  we  proceeded,  without  accident,  though  very  slowly, 
till  daylight.  Then  the  stage  sank  down  into  a  deep  rut,  and  the 
horses  struggled  in  vain.  We  were  informed  that  we  were  "'  mired," 
and  must  all  get  out.  I  stood  for  some  time  to  witness  what  is  very 
pretty  for  once ;  but  wearisome  when  it  occurs  ten  times  a  day. 
The  driver  carries  an  axe,  as  a  part  of  the  stage  apparatus.  He  cuts 
down  a  young  tree,  for  a  lever,  which  is  introduced  under  the  nave 
of  the  sunken  wheel ;  a  log  serving  for  a  block.  The  gentleman 
passengers  all  help  ;  shouting  to  the  horses,  which  tug  and  scram- 
ble as  vigorously  as  the  gentlemen.  We  ladies  sometimes  gave 
our  humble  assistance  by  blowing  the  driver's  horn.  Sometimes  a 
cluster  of  negroes  would  assemble  from  a  neighbouring  plantation  ; 
and  in  extreme  cases,  they  would  bring  a  horse,  to  add  to  our  team. 
The  rescue  from  the  rut  was  effected  in  any  time  from  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  to  two  hours.    This  particular  3rd  of  March,  two  hours 


METHODS  Ol-   TRAVFX  413 

were  lost  by  this  first  mishap.  It  was  very  cold,  and  I  walked  on 
alone,  sure  of  not  missing  my  road  in  a  region  where  there  was  no 
other.  When  I  had  proceeded  two  miles,  I  stopped  and  looked 
around  me.  I  was  on  a  rising  ground,  with  no  object  whatever  visi- 
ble but  the  wild,  black  forest,  extending  on  all  sides  as  far  as  I 
could  see,  and  the  red  road  cut  through  it,  as  straight  as  an  arrow, 
till  it  was  lost  behind  a  rising  ground  at  either  extremity.  1  know 
nothing  like  it,  except  a  Salvator  Rosa  I  once  saw.  The  stage  so(jn 
after  took  me  up,  and  we  proceeded  fourteen  miles  to  breakfast. 
We  were  faint  with  hunger  ;  but  there  was  no  refreshment  for  us. 
The  family  breakfast  had  been  long  over,  and  there  was  not  a  scrap 
of  food  in  the  house.  We  proceeded,  till  at  one  o'clock  we  reached 
a  private  dwelling,  where  the  good  woman  was  kind  enough  to  pro- 
vide dinner  for  us,  though  the  family  had  dined.  She  gave  us  a 
comfortable  meal,  and  charged  only  a  quarter  dollar  each.  She 
stands  in  all  the  party's  books  as  a  hospitable  dame. 

We  had  no  sooner  left  her  house  than  we  had  to  get  out  to  pass 
on  foot  a  bridge  too  crazy  for  us  to  venture  over  it  in  a  carriage. 
Half  a  mile  before  reaching  the  place  where  we  were  to  have  tea, 
the  thorough-brace  broke,  and  we  had  to  walk  through  a  snow 
showier  to  the  inn.  We  had  not  proceeded  above  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  this  place  when  the  traces  broke.  After  this  we  were 
allowed  to  sit  still  in  the  carriage  till  near  seven  in  the  morning, 
when  we  were  approaching  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  We  then 
saw  a  carriage  "  mired  "  and  deserted  by  driver  and  horses,  but 
tenanted  by  some  travellers  who  had  been  waiting  there  since  eight 
the  evening  before.  While  we  were  pitying  their  fate,  our  vehicle 
once  more  sank  into  a  rut.  It  was,  however,  extricated  in  a  short 
time,  and  we  reached  Raleigh  in  safety.   .   .   . 

The  best  testimony  that  I  can  bear  to  the  skill  with  which  trav- 
elling is  conducted  on  such  roads  as  these,  and  also  in  steam-boats, 
is  the  fact  that  I  travelled  upwards  of  ten  thousand  miles  in  the 
United  States,  by  land  and  water,  without  accident.  I  was  twice 
nearly  overturned  ;  but  never  quite.   .   .   . 

When  I  first  crossed  the  Alleghanies,  in  November,  1834, 
I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  stupendous  Portage  rail-road,  running 
between  the  two  canals  which   reach  the  opposite  bases  of  the 


414  TRANSPORTATION 

mountains.  The  stage  in  which  I  travelled  was  on  one  side  of  a 
deep  ravine,  bristling  with  pines  ;  while  on  the  other  side  was  the 
lofty  embankment,  such  a  wall  as  I  had  never  imagined  could  be 
built,  on  the  summit  of  which  ran  the  rail-road,  its  line  traceable  for 
some  miles,  with  frequent  stations  and  trains  of  baggage-cars.  One 
track  of  this  road  had  not  long  been  opened  ;  and  the  work  was  a 
splendid  novelty.  I  had  afterwards  the  pleasure  of  travelling  on  it 
from  end  to  end. 

This  road  is  upwards  of  thirty-six  miles  in  length,  and  at  one 
point  reaches  an  elevation  of  2,491  feet  above  the  sea.  It  consists 
of  eleven  levels,  and  ten  inclined  planes.  About  three  hundred  feet 
of  the  road,  at  the  head  and  foot  of  each  plane,  is  made  exactly 
level.   ... 

Our  party  (of  four,  one  a  child)  traversed  the  entire  State  from 
Pittsburg  to  Philadelphia  by  canal  and  rail-road,  in  four  days,  at  an 
expense  of  only  forty-two  dollars,  not  including  provisions.  There 
was  then  great  competition  between  the  lines  of  canal-boats.  We 
went  by  the  new  line,  whose  boats  were  extraordinarily  clean,  and 
the  table  really  luxurious.  An  omnibus,  sent  from  the  canal,  con- 
veyed us  from  our  hotel  at  Pittsburg  to  the  boat,  at  nine  in  the 
evening  ;  and  we  immediately  set  off.  Berths  were  put  up.  for  the 
ladies  of  the  party  in  the  ladies'  dressing-room,  and  removed  dur- 
ing the  day.  We  were  called  early,  and  breakfast  dispatched  before 
the  heat  grew  oppressive ;  but,  though  it  was  now  the  middle  of 
July,  I  could  not  remain  in  the  shade  of  the  cabin  :  the  scener)^, 
during  our  whole  course,  was  so  beautiful.  Umbrella  and  fan  made 
the  heat  endurable  on  deck,  except  for  the  two  hours  nearest  to 
noon.  The  only  great  inconvenience  was  the  having  to  remember 
perpetually  to  avoid  the  low  bridges,  which  we  passed,  on  an  aver- 
age, every  quarter  of  an  hour.  When  we  were  all  together,  this  was 
little  of  an  annoyance  ;  for  one  or  another  was  sure  to  remember 
to  give  warning ;  but  a  solitary  person,  reading  or  in  reverie,  is 
really  in  danger.  We  heard  of  two  cases  of  young  ladies,  reading, 
who  had  been  crushed  to  death  :  and  we  prohibited  books  upon 
deck.  .   .  . 

We  were  called  up  before  four  on  the  second  morning,  and  had 
barely  time  to  dress,  step  ashore,  and  take  our  places  in  the  car, 


METHODS  OF  TRAVKL  415 

before  the  train  set  off.  We  understood  that  the  utmost  possible 
advantage  is  taken  of  the  dayhght,  as  the  trains  do  not  travel  after 
dark  ;  it  being  made  a  point  of,  that  the  ropes  should  be  examined 
before  each  trip.  After  having  breakfasted  by  the  wa}-,  we  reached 
the  summit  of  the  Portage  rail-road  between  nine  and  ten.  There 
were  fine  views  all  the  way  ;  the  mountains  opening  and  receding, 
and  disclosing  the  distant  clearings  and  nestling  villages.  All 
around  us  were  plots  of  wild  flowers,  of  many  hues. 

We  were  carried  on  chiefly  by  steam  power,  partly  by  horse, 
partly  by  descending  weight,  and,  at  the  last,  down  a  long  reach,  of 
the  slightest  possible  inclination,  by  our  own  weight.  The  motion 
was  then  tremendously  rapid,  and  it  subsided  only  on  our  reaching 
the  canal  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains. 

There  was  again  so  much  huny  —  there  being  danger  of  either 
of  two  rival  boats  getting  first  possession  of  the  next  locks,  that  we 
of  the  last  car  had  scarcely  time  to  step  on  board  before  the  team  of 
three  horses  began  cantering  and  raising  a  dust  on  the  towing 
path,  and  tugging  us  through  the  water  at  such  a  rate  as  to  make 
the  waves  lash  the  canal  bank.  Our  boat  won  the  race,  and  we  bolted 
with  a  victorious  force  into  the  chamber  of  the  first  lock. 

We  had  occasionally  to  cross  broad  rivers.  To-day  we  crossed 
the  Juniatta  by  a  rope  feny,  moved  by  water-power  ;  and  after^vards 
we  crossed  the  Susquehanna  (at  the  junction  of  two  branches  of  the 
Juniatta,  the  Susquehanna,  and  two  canals)  by  means  of  the  tow- 
ing-path being  carried  along  the  outside  of  the  great  covered  bridge 
which  spans  the  river  at  Duncan's  Island. 

The  next  morning  we  had  to  leave  the  broad,  clear,  but  shallow 
Susquehanna,  —  the  "  river  of  rocks,"  as  its  name  imports.  I  had 
before  travelled  almost  its  whole  length  along  its  banks  ;  and,  like 
every  one  who  has  done  so,  loved  its  tranquil  beauty. 

The  last  stage  of  this  remarkable  journey  was  from  Columbia  to 
Philadelphia,  by  rail-road,  eighty-one  miles,  which  we  were  seven 
hours  in  performing,  as  the  stoppages  were  frequent  and  long. 
This  work,  which  was  opened  in  1834,  includes  thirty-one  viaducts, 
seventy-three  stone  culverts,  five  hundred  stone  drains,  and  eight- 
een bridges.  Its  cost  was  about  1,600,000  dollars.  —  The  length 
of  this  passage  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg  is  394  miles.  .  .  . 


4i6  TRANSPORTATION 

The  steam-boats  of  the  United  States  are  renowned,  as  they 
deserve  to  be.  There  is  no  occasion  to  describe  their  size  and 
beauty  here  ;  but  their  number  is  astonishing.  I  understand  that 
three  hundred  were  navigating  the  great  western  rivers  some 
time  ago :  and  the  number  is  probably  much  increased. 

Among  so  many,  and  where  the  navigation  is  so  dangerous  as 
on  the  Mississippi,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  accidents  are  numerous. 
I  was  rather  surprised  at  the  cautions  I  recei\"ed  throughout  the 
south  about  choosing  wisely  among  the  Mississippi  steam-boats  ; 
and  at  the  question  gravely  asked,  as  I  was  going  on  board,  whether 
I  had  a  life-preserver  with  me.  I  found  that  all  my  acquaintances 
on  board  had  furnished  themselves  with  life-preservers  ;  and  my 
surprise  ceased  when  we  passed  boat  after  boat  on  the  river,  delayed 
or  deserted  on  account  of  some  accident.  We  were  on  board  the 
"  Henry  Clay,"  a  noble  boat,  of  high  reputation  ;  the  present  being 
the  ninety-seventh  trip  accomplished  without  accident.  Our  yawl 
was  snagged  one  day  ;  and  we  encountered  a  squall  and  hail  storm 
one  night,  which  blew  both  the  pilots  away  from  the  helm,  and 
made  them  look  "  to  see  the  hurricane  deck  blown  clear  off  "  ;  but 
no  mischief  ensued. 

Notwithstanding  the  increase  of  steam-boats  in  the  Mississippi, 
flat  boats  are  still  much  in  use.  These  are  large  boats,  of  rude  con- 
struction, made  just  strong  enough  to  hold  together,  and  keep  their 
cargo  of  flour,  or  other  articles,  dry,  from  some  high  point  on  the 
great  rivers,  to  New  Orleans.  They  are  furnished  with  two  enor- 
mous oars,  fixed  on  what  is,  I  suppose,  called  their  deck ;  to  be 
used  where  the  current  is  sluggish,  or  w'hen  it  is  desirable  to  change 
the  direction  of  the  boat.  The  cumbrous  machine  is  propelled  by 
the  stream  ;  her  proprietors  only  occasionally  helping  her  progress, 
now  by  pulling  at  the  branches  of  overhanging  trees,  now  by  turn- 
ing her  into  the  more  rapid  of  two  currents.  She  is  seen  sometimes 
floating  down  the  very  middle  of  the  river  ;  sometimes  gliding 
under  the  banks.  At  noon,  a  bower  of  green  leaves  is  waving  on 
her  deck,  for  shade  to  her  masters  ;  at  night,  a  pine  brand  is  waved, 
flaming,  to  give  warning  to  the  steam-boats  not  to  run  her  down. 
The  voyage  from  the  upper  parts  of  the  Ohio  to  New  Orleans,  is 
thus   performed   in   from  three  to  five  weeks.    The  cargo  being 


METHODS  C)]''  ^rRAVEL  417 

disposed  of  at  New  Orleans,  the  boat  is  broken  u]5,  and  the  mate- 
rials sold  ;  and  her  masters  work  their  way  home  a<4ain,  as  deck 
passengers  on  board  a  steam-boat,  b)'  bringing  in  wood  at  all  the 
wooding  places.  The  "  Henry  Clay  "  had  a  larger  company  of  this 
kind  of  passengers  than  the  captain  liked.  He  declared  that  the 
deck  was  giving  way  under  their  number.  It  was  a  pretty  sight  to 
see  them  twice  a  day,  —  very  early  in  the  morning,  and  about  sun- 
set, —  pour  from  the  boat,  when  she  drew  under  the  shore,  form  two 
lines  between  the  boat  and  the  wood  pile,  and  bring  in  their  loads. 
Most  of  them  were  tall  Kcntuckians,  who  really  do  look  unlike  all 
other  people.  I  felt  a  strong  inclination  for  a  fiat-boat  vo)'age  down 
the  vast  and  beautiful  Mississippi ;  beautiful  with  islands  and  bluffs, 
and  the  eternal  forest ;  but  I  have  lost  the  opportunity.  If  I  should 
ever  visit  that  beloved  countiy  again,  this  picturesque  kind  of  craft 
will  have  disappeared,  as  the  yet  more  barbarous  raft  is  now  disap- 
pearing ;  and  one  more  characteristic  feature  of  western  scenery 
will  be  effaced. 

It  seems  probable  that  there  will  be  a  more  rapid  increase  of 
ships  and  schooners  than  of  steam-boats  on  the  northern  lakes. 
These  lakes  are  so  subject  to  gusts  and  storms  that  steam-boats 
cannot  be  considered  safe,  and  ought  to  make  no  promises  of  punc- 
tuality. The  captains  declare  their  office  to  be  too  anxious  a  one. 
A  squall  comes  from  any  quarter,  without  notice  ;  and  the  boat  no 
sooner  seems  to  be  proceeding  prosperously  on  her  way,  than  she 
has  to  run  in  somewhere  for  safety  from  a  sudden  stomi. 

Of  all  the  water-craft  I  ever  saw,  I  know  none  so  graceful  as 
the  sloops  on  the  Hudson  ;  unless  it  be  the  New  York  pilot-boats. 
The  North-River  sloops  are  an  altogether  peculiar  race  of  boats. 
They  are  low,  and  can  carry  a  great  press  of  sail,  from  the  smooth- 
ness of  the  water  on  which  they  perform  their  voyages.  A  sloop 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  will  carry  a  mast  of  ninety  feet  high. 
I  could  watch  these  boats  on  the  Hudson,  a  whole  summer  through  ; 
moored  beside  a  pebbly  strand,  in  a  recess  of  the  shore  ;  or  lying 
dark  in  a  trail  of  glittering  sunshine  ;  or  turning  the  whitest  of  sails 
to  the  sun,  startling  the  fish-hawk  with  the  sudden  gleam,  so  that 
he  quits  his  prey,  and  makes  for  the  hanging  woods 


4i8  TRANSPORTATION 

B.  Personal  Experiences,  17 88- 1860 

1  I  was  detained  at  Newport  by  the  south-west  winds,  till  the 
1 3th,  when  we  set  sail  at  midnight  ;  the  Captain  not  wishing  to 
sail  sooner,  for  fear  of  touching  before  day  on  Block-Island.  The 
wind  and  tide  carried  us  at  the  rate  of  nine  or  ten  miles  an  hour ; 
and  we  should  have  arrived  at  New-York  the  next  evening,  but  we 
were  detained  at  Hell-Gate,  a  kind  of  gulph,  eight  miles  from  New- 
York.  This  is  a  narrow  passage,  formed  by  the  approach  of  Long- 
Island  to  York-Island,  and  rendered  horrible  by  rocks,  concealed  at 
high  water.  The  whirlpool  of  this  gulph  is  little  perceived  at  low 
water  ;  but  it  is  not  surprising  that  vessels  which  know  it  not, 
should  be  dashed  in  pieces.  They  speak  of  an  English  frigate  lost 
there  the  last  war.  This  Hell-Gate  is  an  obstacle  to  the  navigation 
of  this  strait ;  but  it  is  not  rare  in  summer  to  run  from  Newport  to 
New- York,  two  hundred  miles,  in  twenty  hours.  As  you  approach 
this  city,  the  coasts  of  these  two  islands,  present  the  most  agreeable 
spectacle.  They  are  adorned  with  elegant  country  houses.  Long- 
Island  is  celebrated  for  its  high  state  of  cultivation.  The  price  of 
passage  and  your  table  from  Providence  to  New- York,  is  six  dollars. 

I  ought  to  say  one  word  of  the  packet-boats  of  this  part  of 
America,  and  of  the  facilities  which  they  offer.  Though,  in  my 
opinion,  it  is  more  advantageous,  and  often  less  expensive,  to  go 
by  land  ;  yet  I  owe  some  praises  to  the  cleanliness  and  good  order 
observable  in  these  boats.  The  one  which  I  was  in  contained  four- 
teen beds,  ranged  in  two  rows,  one  above  the  other ;  every  one 
had  its  little  window.  The  chamber  was  well  aired  ;  so  that  you  do 
not  breathe  the  nauseous  air  which  infects  the  packets  of  the  English 
channel.  It  was  well  varnished  ;  and  two  close  corners  were  made 
in  the  poop,  which  serve  as  private  places.  The  provisions  were 
good.  There  is  not  a  little  towti  on  all  this  coast,  but  what  has 
these  kinds  of  packets  going  to  New- York  ;  such  as  New-Haven, 
New-London,  &c.  They  have  all  the  same  neatness,  the  same 
embellishment,  the  same  convenience  for  travellers.  You  may  be 
assured,  there  is  nothing  like  it  on  the  old  continent. 

1  Brissot  de  Warville,  New  Travels  in  the  United  States  of  America  [1788], 
pp.  83-84. 


METHODS  OF  l^RAVKL  419 

1  Being  anxious  to  proceed  on  our  journey  before  the  season  was 
too  far  advanced,  and  also  particularly  desirous  of  quitting  New 
York  on  account  of  the  fevers,  which,  it  was  rumoured,  were  in- 
creasing very  fast,  we  took  our  passage  for  Albany,  in  one  of  the 
sloops  trading  constantly  on  the  North  River,  between  New  York 
and  that  place,  and  embarked  on  the  second  day  of  July,  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Scarcely  a  breath  of  air  was  stirring  at 
the  time  ;  but  the  tide  carried  us  up  at  the  rate  of  about  two  miles 
and  a  half  an  hour.  The  sky  remained  all  day  as  serene  as  possi- 
ble, and  as  the  water  was  perfectly  smooth,  it  reflected  in  a  most 
beautiful  manner  the  images  of  the  various  objects  on  the  shore, 
and  of  the  numerous  vessels  dispersed  along  the  river  at  different 
distances,  and  which  seemed  to  glide  along,  as  it  were,  by  the 
power  of  magic,  for  the  sails  all  hung  down  loose  and  motionless.  .  .  . 

After  sunset,  a  brisk  wind  sprang  up  which  carried  us  on  at  the 
rate  of  six  or  seven  miles  an  hour  for  a  considerable  part  of  the 
night ;  but  for  some  hours  we  had  to  lie  at  anchor  at  a  place  where 
the  navigation  of  the  river  was  too  difficult  to  proceed  in  the  dark. 
Our  sloop  was  no  more  than  seventy  tons  burthen  by  register  ;  but 
the  accommodations  she  afforded  were  most  excellent,  and  far  supe- 
rior to  what  might  be  expected  on  board  so  small  a  vessel ;  the 
cabin  was  equally  large  with  that  in  a  common  merchant  vessel  of 
three  hundred  tons,  built  for  crossing  the  ocean.  This  was  owing 
to  the  great  breadth  of  her  beam,  which  was  no  less  than  twenty- 
two  feet  and  a  half,  although  her  length  was  only  fifty-five  feet. 
All  the  sloops  engaged  in  this  trade  are  built  nearly  on  the  same 
construction  ;  short,  broad,  and  very  shallow,  few  of  them  draw 
more  than  five  or  six  feet  of  water,  so  that  they  are  only  calculated 
for  sailing  upon  smooth  water.   .   .   . 

The  accommodations  at  the  taverns,  by  which  name  they  call  all 
inns,  &c.  are  very  indifferent  in  Philadelphia,  as  indeed  they  are, 
with  a  very  few  exceptions,  throughout  the  country.  The  mode  of 
conducting  them  is  nearly  the  same  everywhere.  The  traveller  is 
shewn,  on  arrival,  into  a  room  which  is  common  to  every  person  in 
the  house,  and  which  is  generally  the  one  set  apart  for  breakfast, 

1  Weld,  Travels  through  the  States  of  North  America  [1795-1797].  I,  267-268, 
269,  27-29. 


420  TRANSPORTATION 

dinner,  and  supper.  All  the  strangers  that  happen  to  be  in  the 
house  sit  down  to  these  meals  promiscuously,  and,  excepting  in  the 
large  towns,  the  family  of  the  house  also  forms  a  part  of  the  com- 
pany. It  is  seldom  that  a  private  parlour  or  drawing  room  can  be 
procured  at  any  of  the  taverns,  even  in  the  towns  ;  and  it  is  always 
with  reluctance  that  breakfast  or  dinner  is  served  up  separately 
to  any  individual.  If  a  single  bed-room  can  be  procured,  more 
ought  not  to  be  looked  for  ;  but  it  is  not  always  that  even  this  is  to 
be  had,  and  those  who  travel  through  the  country  must  often  sub- 
mit to  be  crammed  into  rooms  where  there  is  scarcely  sufficient 
space  to  walk  between  the  beds.  Strangers  who  remain  for  any 
length  of  time  in  the  large  towns  most  usually  go  to  private  board- 
ing houses,  of  which  great  numbers  are  to  be  met  with.  It  is  always 
a  difficult  matter  to  procure  furnished  lodgings  without  paying  for 
board. 

At  all  the  taverns,  both  in  town  and  countiy,  but  particularly  in  the 
latter,  the  attendance  is  very  bad ;  indeed,  excepting  in  the  south- 
ern states,  where  there  are  such  great  numbers  of  negroes,  it  is  a 
matter  of  the  utmost  difficulty  to  procure  domestic  servants  of  any 
description.  The  generality  of  servants  that  are  met  with  in  Phila- 
delphia are  emigrant  Europeans  ;  they,  however,  for  the  most  part, 
only  remain  in  service  until  they  can  save  a  little  money,  when 
they  constantly  quit  their  masters,  being  led  to  do  so  by  that  desire 
for  independence  which  is  so  natural  to  the  mind  of  man,  and 
which  every  person  in  America  may  enjoy  that  will  be  industrious. 
The  few  that  remain  steady  to  those  who  have  hired  them  are  re- 
tained at  most  exorbitant  v\ages.  As  for  the  Americans,  none 
but  those  of  the  most  indifferent  characters  ever  enter  into  service, 
which  they  consider  as  suitable  only  to  negroes.   .   .   . 

1  The  Ohio  still  continuing  low,  and  there  being  no  prospect  of 
proceeding  to  New  Orleans  by  a  steam  boat,  I  resolved  to  embark 
on  board  a  keel  boat  [at  Louisville,  Kentucky],  in  company  with  sev- 
eral ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  were  returning  to  their  plantations 
and  their  homes.  The  preparations  in  such  a  case,  are  to  dispose  of 
horse  and  gig,  where  one  does  not  choose  going  by  land  through 
1  Postel,  The  Americans  as  They  Are  [1828],  pp.  53-56. 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  42  I 

Nashville,  and  Natchez.  There  is  not  mucli  pleasure  to  be  derived 
from  a  passage  on  board  a  keel  boat  —  a  machine,  fifty  feet  long 
and  ten  feet  broad,  shut  up  on  every  side  ;  with  two  doors,  two 
and  a  half  feet  high.  It  forms  a  species  of  wooden  prison,  con- 
taining commonly  four  rooms  ;  the  first  for  the  steward,  the  second 
a  dining  room,  the  third  a  cabin  for  gentlemen,  and  the  fourth  a 
ladies'  cabin.  Each  of  these  cabins  was  provided  with  an  iron 
stove,  one  of  which  some  days  afterwards  was  very  near  sending 
us  all  to  heaven,  in  the  manner  which  the  most  Catholic  king  has 
been  pleased  to  adopt  in  regard  to  us  heretics.  On  the  sides 
were  our  berths,  in  double  rows,  six  feet  in  length  and  two  broad. 
In  former  times  this  manner  of  travelling  was  generally  resorted 
to  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  ;  the  application  of  steam,  however, 
has  superseded  these  primitive  conveyances,  and  I  hope  to  the  re- 
gret of  no  one.  Our  passage  to  Trinity  [Cairo],  515  miles  by 
water,  including  provisions,  &c.,  was  twenty-five  dollars.  We  were 
sure  of  meeting  there  with  steam  boats.  The  company  consisted 
of  two  ladies  with  their  families,  returning  to  Louisiana  ;  two  others 
were  going  to  Yellow-banks,  with  several  governesses,  nieces,  &c.  ; 
in  all  ten  ladies,  with  eleven  gentlemen,  considered  a  happy  omen. 
Amongst  the  men  were  three  planters  from  Louisiana  and  Missis- 
sippi ;  three  merchants,  one  a  Yankee,  the  other  a  Kentuckian, 
the  third  a  Frenchman  ;  a  lawyer,  from  Tennessee  ;  two  physicians, 
one  from  the  same  state,  the  other  from  Kentucky,  with  a  Ken- 
tuckian six  and  a  half  feet  high.  Of  these  persons  the  Kentuck- 
ian doctor  was  the  most  to  be  pitied.  He  was  in  the  last  stage  of  a 
pulmonary  affection,  and  expected  relief  from  the  mild  climate  of 
Louisiana ;  but  much  as  we  did  to  alleviate  the  fate  of  this  man, 
whose  perpetual  cough  was  as  insufferable  to  us,  as  the  constant 
fire  he  kept  up  in  the  stove,  and  which  at  last  communicated  to 
our  boat,  the  poor  fellow  died  three  da3S  after  his  arrival  at  New 
Orleans.  Four  individuals  of  less  note  joined  the  company,  con- 
sisting of  three  slave-drivers,  and  a  Yankee  who  travelled  to  make 
his  fortune.  We  resigned  ourselves  to  our  lot,  with  as  good  a  grace 
as  we  could,  the  Frenchman  excepted,  who  found  fault  with  every 
thing  but  the  dinner,  when  he  handled  his  knife  and  fork  with 
uncommon  activity,    A  captain,  a  mate,  and  a  steward,  composed 


422 


TRANSPORTATION 


the  ofificers,  twelve  oarsmen  formed  the  crew,  and  forty  slaves,  who 
were  to  be  transported  to  the  states  of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana, 
were  a  sort  of  deck  passengers,  so  that  the  whole  cargo,  inside  and 
out,  amounted  to  ninety  persons.  As  long  as  the  weather  con- 
tinued fine,  the  poor  negroes  had  a  tolerable  lot,  but  when  after- 
wards it  began  to  rain,  and  they  continued  on  a  deck  seven  and 
a  half  feet  broad,  and  forty-two  long,  without  any  covering  over 
their  heads,  or  being  able  to  move,  our  kitchen  being  likewise  upon 
deck,  their  situation  became  truly  distressing,  and  one  of  the 
infants  died  shortly  afterwards  ;  another,  as  I  was  informed,  fell 
into  the  Mississippi  above  Palmyra  settlements,   .   ,  . 

1  On  Monday  the  4th  of  March  we  left  Augusta  for  Macon,  on 
our  way  to  Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  wishing  to  see  the  interior  of 
Georgia  and  Alabama,  and  finish  our  examination  of  the  Southern 
States  before  the  approach  of  the  hot  weather.  We  had  to  set  out 
at  six  o'clock,  and  go  by  a  railroad  from  hence  to  Warrenton,  a 
distance  of  about  fifty  miles.  The  cars  were  much  inferior  in  their 
accommodation  and  fittings  to  those  on  the  northern  railroads,  and 
our  speed  did  not  exceed  fifteen  miles  in  the  hour.  On  reaching 
the  end  of  the  railroad  at  Warrenton,  we  had  to  take  the  stage- 
coach, and  were  fortunately  able  to  engage  the  whole  of  it  for  our 
party,  or  to  "  charter  "  it,  as  the  expression  is  here,  keeping  up  the 
maritime  phraseology,  by  which  the  conductor  is  called  the  "'  pilot," 
and  the  sound  of  "  all  aboard  "  announces  that  the  engine  may 
move  on,  as  all  the  passengers  are  in  the  cars.  Our  fare  by  the 
railroad,  fifty  miles,  was  2|  dollars  each,  or  about  ten  shillings 
sterling  ;  and  for  the  whole  stage,  large  enough  for  nine  passen- 
gers, we  paid  48  dollars,  or  about  ^10  sterling,  for  75  miles  ;  45 
from  Warrenton  to  Milledgeville,  and  30  from  thence  to  Macon. 

The  weather  was  intensely  cold  ;  the  branches  of  the  trees  on 
each  side  of  our  way  being  covered  with  frost,  long  icicles  of  three 
or  four  feet  hanging  from  the  rails  and  fences,  at  least  an  inch  in 
diameter  at  the  root ;  and  before  noon,  the  snow  began  to  descend 
copiously.  We  were  not  sufficiently  prepared  for  this  extreme  cold, 
and  therefore  suffered  greatly,  the  coaches  being  open  at  the  sides 
1  liuckingham,  The  Slave  States  of  America  [1839],  I,  187-192,  260-261. 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  423 

for  summer  use,  and  merely  closed  in  with  painted  canvass,  or  oil- 
cloth, for  winter,  but  so  loosely  as  to  let  in  the  cold  air  in  every 
part.  We  rode  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way  with  the  windows 
closed  and  curtains  drawn,  and  even  then  longed  for  a  supply  of 
warmer  clothing. 

Our  road  lay  almost  wholly  through  dense  pine-forests ;  and  the 
constant  succession  of  these  trees,  with  scarcely  any  other  variety, 
made  the  way  gloomy  and  monotonous.  The  road  itself  was  the 
worst  we  had  ever  yet  travelled  over,  it  being  formed  apparently  by 
the  mere  removal  of  the  requisite  number  of  trees  to  open  a  path 
through  the  forest,  and  then  left  without  any  kind  of  labour  being 
employed,  either  to  make  the  road  solid  in  the  first  instance,  or  to 
keep  it  in  repair.  We  were,  accordingly,  sometimes  half  up  to  the 
axletree  in  loose  sand,  sometimes  still  deeper  immersed  in  a  run- 
ning brook,  or  soft  swamp,  and  occasionally  so  shaken  and  tossed 
from  seat  to  roof,  and  side  to  side,  from  the  pitching  and  rolling  of 
the  coach,  that  it  seemed  to  me  the  motion  was  more  violent  and  ex- 
cessive than  that  of  the  smallest  vessel  in  the  heaviest  sea.  We  were 
all,  in  short,  bruised  and  beaten  by  the  blows  we  received  from  these 
sudden  jolts  and  pitchings,  so  as  to  suffer  severely  ;  and  this,  added 
to  the  pinching  cold,  made  our  journey  extremely  disagreeable. 

About  two  o'clock  we  reached  the  village  of  Spaita,  there  being 
also  a  Rome  and  an  Athens  in  the  same  State ;  the  former  on  the 
Etawah  river  in  Floyd  County,  and  the  latter  on  the  Big  Sandy 
Creek,  near  Hermon,  in  Clark  County,  not  far  from  the  land  of 
Goshen,  which  is  close  to  Edinburgh,  Lincoln,  Lisbon,  Peters- 
burgh,  and  Vienna,  so  strange  are  the  juxtapositions  of  names  on 
an  American  map.  We  halted  at  Sparta  to  dine ;  but  the  sight  of 
the  public  table  prepared  for  the  passengers  was  so  revolting,  that, 
hungry  as  we  were  after  our  long  and  cold  ride,  early  rising,  and 
violent  motion,  we  turned  away  in  disgust  from  the  table,  and  made 
our  dinner  in  the  coach  on  hard  biscuits.  There  were  three  lines 
of  coaches  on  this  road,  all  leaving  at  the  same  hour,  and  arriving 
at  the  same  time  —  the  Mail  line,  the  Telegraph  line,  and  the 
People's  line.  The  passengers  from  each  of  these  took  their  seats 
at  the  table,  and  many  of  them  appeared  to  dine  as  heartily  as  if  they 
saw  nothing  unusual  in  the  fare.    But  the  dirty  state  of  the  room  in 


424  TRANSPORTATION 

which  the  table  was  laid,  the  filthy  condition  of  the  table-cloth,  the 
coarse  and  broken  plates,  rusty  knives  and  forks,  and  large  junks 
of  boiled  pork,  and  various  messes  of  corn  and  rancid  butter,  added 
to  the  coarse  and  vulgar  appearance  and  manners  of  most  of  the 
guests,  made  the  whole  scene  the  most  revolting  we  had  yet  wit- 
nessed in  the  countiy.  The  ancient  Spartans  themselves,  with 
their  black  broth  and  coarse  fare,  could  not  have  been  farther 
removed  from  luxury  than  these  Spartans  of  modern  days  ;  and 
one  might  almost  be  tempted,  from  what  we  saw,  to  suppose  that 
the  modern  Spartans  affected  the  manners  of  the  ancient  Lacede- 
monians, in  diet  at  least,  to  justify  the  appropriateness  of  the  name 
they  had  chosen  for  their  village. 

We  left  Sparta  at  three  o'clock  ;  and  after  a  cold,  dreary,  and 
tedious  drive  through  thick  woods  and  over  broken  roads,  we 
reached  Milledgeville  about  eight,  having  been  assured  before  set- 
ting out  that  we  should  reach  there  at  three.  As  this  is  the  legis- 
lative capital  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  we  had  hoped  to  find  a  good 
hotel  here  at  least,  as  the  legislatorial  body  consists  of  nearly  400 
members,  and  these  all  reside  here  during  the  few  months  that  the 
two  houses  are  assembled  in  annual  session.  But  our  hopes  were 
not  realized.  The  inn  at  which  the  coach  stopped  was  a  wretched 
one  ;  and  though  all  we  desired  to  have  was  a  cup  of  tea  and  some 
cold  meat  for  our  party,  we  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting 
either.  It  was  our  wish  to  remain  here  all  night,  and  go  on  to 
Macon  in  the  morning ;  but  on  inquiry  we  found  that  no  private 
or  extra  conveyance  could  be  had  from  hence  to  Macon  in  the 
daytime,  for  love  or  money,  though  this  is  the  seat  of  the  State 
legislature,  and  Macon  is  only  thirty  miles  off.  Three  stage- 
coaches pass  through  this  place,  between  Augusta  and  Mont- 
gomery, at  night,  and  these  are  the  only  conveyances  to  be  had ; 
so  that  if  we  did  not  go  on  to-night,  we  could  only  proceed  on 
the  following,  there  being  no  conveyance  whatever  for  day-travel- 
ling. This  was  a  great  disappointment  —  but  we  were  without  a 
remedy ;  and  so  we  prepared  to  go  forward,  cold  and  weary  as  we 
were.  The  tea  was  tardily  and  reluctantly  prepared  for  us  in  a 
bed-room  ;  and  it  may  give  some  idea  of  the  rudeness  with  which 
this  was  done,  to  sav,  that  the  dirtv  negress  who  made  the  tea, 


METHODS  OF  TRAVKL  425 

brought  the  stinted  quantity  required  in  the  hollow  of  her  hand, 
without  an\'  other  reeeptacle  for  it  —  that  the  milk  was  plaeed  on 
the  table  in  a  broken  tea-eup,  milk-eups  not  being  in  use  —  and 
that  when  a  slop-basin  was  asked  for,  the  thing  was  unknown,  and 
a  large  salad-bowl  was  brought  for  that  purpose. 

We  left  Milledgevillc  at  nine,  and,  after  a  more  comfortless 
ride  than  we  should  like  to  endure  again,  we  did  not  reach  Macon 
till  four  in  the  morning,  having  been  seven  hours  in  jjerforming 
thirty  miles,  over  roads  that  would  be  thought  impassable  in  any 
part  of  Europe,  and  which  would  break  to  pieces  any  description 
of  carriages  except  the  ponderous  stage-coaches  of  this  country, 
which  are  made  as  heavy  and  as  strong  as  the  union  of  wood  and 
iron  can  make  them.  One  reason  assigned  for  this  entire  neglect 
of  the  public  roads,  is,  that  the  scantiness  of  the  population  along 
their  borders  would  make  any  assessment  on  the  lands  or  the 
inhabitants,  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  so  burdensome,  as  to  be 
ruinous  to  those  who  had  to  pay  it,  and,  would,  consequently,  drive 
all  the  population  away  from  the  ver)'  track  to  which  it  was  the 
most  desirable  to  attract  them.  Another  reason  is,  that  railroads 
are  so  increasing  over  every  part  of  the  country,  that  stage-roads 
will  soon  be  useless,  and  therefore  it  would  be  a  waste  of  money 
to  make  or  repair  them.  The  wretched  state  of  the  ordinary  roads 
thus  operates  as  an  additional  stimulus  to  the  construction  of  rail- 
roads wherever  it  is  practicable  ;  so  that  perhaps  in  a  few  years 
from  this,  there  will  be  a  connected  series  of  railroad  and  steam-boat 
communication  from  Maine  to  Louisiana,  and  the  journey  from 
Portland  to  New  Orleans  may  then  be  performed  in  a  few 
days.  .  .   . 

About  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  Montgomeiy, 
having  been  seven  hours  performing  a  distance  of  thirty  miles, 
with  two  break-downs  on  the  way  ;  and  glad  enough  we  were  to 
terminate  this  long  and  tedious  land-journey,  in  which,  for  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  400  miles,  w^e  had  scarcely  seen  anything  but 
interminable  forests  on  either  side  of  our  path,  except  in  the  small 
spaces  occupied  by  the  few  towns  and  villages  in  the  way,  and  the 
inconsiderable  portions  in  which  a  few  patches  of  corn  or  cotton 
cultivation  bordered  the  mere  skirts  of  the  road. 


426  TRANSPORTATION 

At  Montgomery  we  found  excellent  quarters  in  the  best  hotel  we 
had  seen  since  leaving  New  York,  superior  even,  as  it  seemed  to 
us  at  least,  to  the  hotels  of  Charleston  and  Savannah  ;  and,  being 
desirous  of  proceeding  onward  without  delay,  we  embarked  in  the 
steam-boat,  '"  Commerce,"  to  go  down  the  Alabama  river  to  Mobile, 
a  distance  of  nearly  500  miles,  which  these  fine  vessels  perform  in 
about  forty-eight  hours,  their  rate  of  speed  exceeding  ten  miles  an 
hour  all  the  way. 

The  time  fixed  for  the  departure  of  the  steam-boat  was  nine  in 
the  evening,  as  by  this  hour  all  the  eastern  stages  were  usually  in ; 
but,  as  often  happens,  one  of  these  stages  was  six  hours  beyond 
its  usual  time,  while  another  had  broken  down  on  the  road,  and 
was  left  there  by  the  passengers,  who  had  to  walk  for  the  remainder 
of  the  way,  so  that  they  did  not  reach  Montgomery  till  near  day- 
light ;  and  the  boat,  thus  delayed  for  their  arrival,  did  not  start  till 
morning.  The  general  regularity  of  English  stage-coaches,  so  ac- 
customs an  Englishman  to  expect  punctuality  in  the  public  con- 
veyances of  other  countries,  that  he  feels  these  irregularities  the 
more  annoying.  But  American  travellers,  accustomed  to  them  from 
their  youth,  bear  them  with  enviable  equanimity.  .   .   . 

^  The  Messenger  was  one  among  a  crowd  of  high-pressure 
steamboats,  clustered  together  by  a  wharf-side  [at  Pittsburgh] 
which,  looked  down  upon  from  the  rising  ground  that  forms  the 
landing-place,  and  backed  by  the  lofty  bank  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river,  appeared  no  larger  than  so  many  floating  models. 
She  had  some  forty  passengers  on  board,  exclusive  of  the  poorer 
persons  on  the  lower  deck  ;  and  in  half  an  hour,  or  less,  pro- 
ceeded on  her  way.  .  .  . 

If  the  native  packets  I  have  already  described  be  unlike  anything 
we  are  in  the  habit  of  seeing  on  water,  these  western  vessels  are  still 
more  foreign  to  all  the  ideas  we  are  accustomed  to  entertain  of  boats. 
I  hardly  know  what  to  liken  them  to,  or  how  to  describe  them. 

In  the  first  place,  they  have  no  mast,  cordage,  tackle,  rigging,  or 
other  such  boat-like  gear  ;  nor  have  they  anything  in  their  shape  at 
all  calculated  to  remind  one  of  a  boat's  head,  stern,  side,  or  keel. 

1  Dickens,  American  Notes  [1842],  pp.  153,  154-156. 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  427 

Except  tliat  they  are  in  the  water,  and  display  a  couple  of  paddle- 
boxes,  they  might  be  intended,  for  anything  that  appears  to  the 
contrary,  to  perform  some  unknown  service,  high  and  dry,  upon  a 
mountain  top.  There  is  no  visible  deck,  even  :  nothing  but  a  long, 
black,  ugly  roof,  covered  with  burnt-out  feathery  sparks  ;  above  which 
tower  two  iron  chimneys,  and  a  hoarse  escape-valve,  and  a  glass 
steerage-house.  Then,  in  order  as  the  eye  descends  towards  the 
water,  are  the  sides,  and  doors,  and  windows  of  the  state-rooms, 
jumbled  as  oddly  together  as  though  they  formed  a  small  street, 
built  by  the  varying  tastes  of  a  dozen  men  :  the  whole  is  supported 
on  beams  and  pillars  resting  on  a  dirty  barge,  but  a  few  inches 
above  the  water's  edge  :  and  in  the  narrow  space  between  this  up- 
per structure  and  this  barge's  deck,  are  the  furnace  fires  and  ma- 
chinery, open  at  the  sides  to  every  wind  that  blows,  and  every 
storm  of  rain  it  drives  along  its  path. 

Passing  one  of  these  boats  at  night,  and  seeing  the  great  body 
of  fire,  exposed  as  I  have  just  described,  that  rages  and  roars  be- 
neath the  frail  pile  of  painted  wood  :  the  machinery,  not  warded 
off  or  guarded  in  any  way,  but  doing  its  work  in  the  midst  of  the 
crowd  of  idlers  and  emigrants  and  children,  who  throng  the  lower 
deck  :  under  the  management,  too,  of  reckless  men  whose  acquaint- 
ance with  its  mysteries  may  have  been  of  six  months'  standing : 
one  feels  directly  that  the  wonder  is,  not  that  there  should  be  so 
many  fatal  accidents,  but  that  any  journey  should  be  safely  made. 

Within,  there  is  one  long  narrow  cabin,  the  whole  length  of  the 
boat ;  from  which  the  state-rooms  open,  on  both  sides.  A  small  por- 
tion of  it  at  the  stern  is  partitioned  off  for  the  ladies  ;  and  the  bar 
is  at  the  opposite  extreme.  There  is  a  long  table  down  the  centre, 
and  at  either  end  a  stove.  The  washing  apparatus  is  forward  on 
the  deck.  It  is  a  little  better  than  on  board  the  canal  boat,  but  not 
much.  In  all  modes  of  travelling,  the  American  customs,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  means  of  personal  cleanliness  and  wholesome  ablu- 
tion, are  extremely  negligent  and  filthy  ;  and  I  strongly  incline 
to  the  belief  that  a  considerable  amount  of  illness  is  referable 
to  this  cause. 

We  are  to  be  on  board  the  Messenger  three  days  :  arriving  at 
Cincinnati  (barring  accidents)  on  Monday  morning.  There  are  three 


428  TRANSPORTATION 

meals  a  day.  Breakfast  at  seven,  dinner  at  half  past  twelve,  sup- 
per about  six.  At  each,  there  are  a  great  many  small  dishes  and 
plates  upon  the  table,  with  very  little  in  them  ;  so  that  although 
there  is  every  appearance  of  a  mighty  "spread,"  there  is  seldom 
really  more  than  a  joint :  except  for  those  who  fancy  slices  of  beet- 
root, shreds  of  dried  beef,  complicated  entanglements  of  yellow 
pickle  ;  maize,  Indian  corn,  apple-sauce,  and  pumpkin. 

Some  people  fancy  all  these  little  dainties  together  (and  sweet 
preserves  beside),  by  way  of  relish  to  their  roast  pig.  They  are 
generally  those  dyspeptic  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  eat  unheard-of 
quantities  of  hot  corn  bread  (almost  as  good  for  the  digestion  as  a 
kneaded  pin-cushion),  for  breakfast,  and  for  supper.  Those  who 
do  not  observe  this  custom,  and  who  help  themselves  several  times 
instead,  usually  suck  their  knives  and  forks  meditatively,  until  they 
have  decided  what  to  take  next :  then  pull  them  out  of  their  mouths : 
put  them  in  the  dish  ;  help  themselves  ;  and  fall  to  work  again.  At 
dinner,  there  is  nothing  to  drink  upon  the  table,  but  great  jugs  full 
of  cold  water.  Nobody  says  anything,  at  any  meal,  to  anybody.  All 
the  passengers  are  very  dismal,  and  seem  to  have  tremendous  se- 
crets weighing  on  their  minds.  There  is  no  conversation,  no  laugh- 
ter, no  cheerfulness,  no  sociality,  except  in  spitting ;  and  that  is 
done  in  silent  fellowship  round  the  stove  when  the  meal  is  over. 
Every  man  sits  down,  dull  and  languid  ;  swallows  his  fare  as  if 
breakfasts,  dinners,  and  suppers,  were  necessities  of  nature  never 
to  be  coupled  with  recreation  or  enjoyment ;  and  having  bolted  his 
food  in  a  gloomy  silence,  bolts  himself  in  the  same  state.  But  for 
these  animal  observances,  you  might  suppose  the  whole  male  por- 
tion of  the  company  to  be  the  melancholy  ghosts  of  departed  book- 
keepers, who  had  fallen  dead  at  the  desk  :  such  is  their  wear\'  air 
of  business  and  calculation.  Undertakers  on  duty  would  be  sprightly 
beside  them  ;  and  a  collation  of  funeral-baked  meats,  in  comparison 
with  these  meals,  would  be  a  sparkling  festivity.  .  .  . 

1  In  making  this  journey  [Buffalo  to  Detroit]  at  night  we  intro- 
duced ourselves  to  the  thoroughly  American  institution  of  sleeping- 
cars —  that  is,  of  cars  in  which  beds  are  made  up  for  travelers. 

1  Trollope,  North  America  [i86i],  I,  127-129. 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  429 

The  traveler  may  have  a  whole  hed,  or  half  a  bed,  or  no  bed  at  all, 
as  he  pleases,  i)ayini:;  a  dollar  or  half  a  dollar  extra  should  he  ehoose 
the  partial  or  full  fruition  of  a  couch.  I  confess  I  ha\'e  always  taken 
a  delight  in  seeing  these  beds  made  up,  and  consider  that  the  oper- 
ations of  the  change  arc  generally  as  well  executed  as  the  manoeu- 
vres of  any  pantomime  at  Drury  Lane.  The  work  is  usually  done 
by  negroes  or  colored  men,  and  the  domestic  negroes  of  America 
are  always  light-handed  and  adroit.  The  nature  of  an  American 
car  is  no  doubt  known  to  all  men.  It  looks  as  far  removed  from 
all  bed-room  accommodation  as  the  baker's  barrow  does  from  the 
steam  engine  into  which  it  is  to  be  converted  by  Harlequin's  wand. 
But  the  negro  goes  to  work  much  more  quietly  than  the  Harlequin  ; 
and  for  every  four  seats  in  the  railway  car  he  builds  up  four  beds 
almost  as  quickly  as  the  hero  of  the  pantomime  goes  through 
his  performance.  The  great  glory  of  the  Americans  is  in  their 
wondrous  contrivances  —  in  their  patent  remedies  for  the  usually 
troublous  operations  of  life.  In  their  huge  hotels  all  the  bell  ropes 
of  each  house  ring  on  one  bell  only  ;  but  a  patent  indicator  discloses 
a  number,  and  the  whereabouts  of  the  ringer  is  shown.  One  fire 
heats  every  room,  passage,  hall,  and  cupboard,  and  does  it  so  effec- 
tually that  the  inhabitants  are  all  but  stifled.  Soda-water  bottles 
open  themselves  without  any  trouble  of  wire  or  strings.  Men  and 
women  go  up  and  down  stairs  without  motive  power  of  their  own. 
Hot  and  cold  water  are  laid  on  to  all  the  chambers  ;  though  it  some- 
times happens  that  the  water  from  both  taps  is  boiling,  and  that, 
when  once  turned  on,  it  cannot  be  turned  off  again  by  any  human 
energy.  Everything  is  done  by  a  new  and  wonderful  patent  con- 
trivance ;  and  of  all  their  wonderful  contrivances,  that  of  their  rail- 
road beds  is  by  no  means  the  least.  For  every  four  seats  the  negro 
builds  up  four  beds — that  is,  four  half  beds,  or  accommodation  for 
four  persons.  Two  are  supposed  to  be  below,  on  the  level  of  the 
ordinary  four  seats,  and  two  up  above  on  shelves  which  are  let 
down  from  the  roof.  Mattresses  slip  out  from  one  nook  and  pil- 
lows from  another.  Blankets  are  added,  and  the  bed  is  ready.  Any 
over-particular  individual  —  an  islander,  for  instance,  who  hugs  his 
chains — will  generally  prefer  to  pay  the  dollar  for  the  double  accom- 
modation.  Looking  at  the  bed  in  the  light  of  a  bed  —  taking,  as  it 


430  TRANSPORTATION 

were,  an  abstract  view  of  it  —  or  comparing  it  with  some  other  bed 
or  beds  with  which  the  occupant  may  have  acquaintance,  I  cannot 
say  that  it  is  in  all  respects  perfect.  But  distances  are  long  in 
America ;  and  he  who  declines  to  travel  by  night  will  lose  very 
much  time.  He  who  does  so  travel  will  find  the  railway  bed  a 
great  relief.  I  must  confess  that  the  feeling  of  dirt,  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  is  rather  oppressive. 

From  Windsor,  on  the  Canada  side,  we  passed  over  to  Detroit, 
in  the  State  of  Michigan,  by  a  steam  ferry.  But  ferries  in  Eng- 
land and  ferries  in  America  are  very  different.  Here,  on  this  De- 
troit ferry,  some  hundred  of  passengers,  who  were  going  fonvard 
from  the  other  side  without  delay,  at  once  sat  down  to  breakfast. 
I  may  as  well  explain  the  way  in  which  disposition  is  made  of  one's 
luggage  as  one  takes  these  long  journeys.  The  traveler,  when  he 
starts,  has  his  baggage  checked.  He  abandons  his  trunk  —  gener- 
ally a  box,  studded  with  nails,  as  long  as  a  coffin  and  as  high  as  a 
linen  chest — and,  in  return  for  this,  he  receives  an  iron  ticket 
with  a  number  on  it.  As  he  approaches  the  end  of  his  first  in- 
stallment of  travel,  and  while  the  engine  is  still  working  its  hard- 
est, a  man  comes  up  to  him,  bearing  with  him,  suspended  on  a 
circular  bar,  an  infinite  variety  of  other  checks.  The  traveler  con- 
fides to  this  man  his  wishes,  and  if  he  be  going  farther  without 
delay,  surrenders  his  check  and  receives  a  counter-check  in  return. 
Then,  while  the  train  is  still  in  motion  the  new  destiny  of  the 
trunk  is  imparted  to  it.  But  another  man,  with  another  set  of 
checks,  also  comes  the  way,  walking  leisurely  through  the  train  as 
he  performs  his  work.  This  is  the  minister  of  the  hotel-omnibus 
institution.  His  business  is  with  those  who  do  not  travel  beyond  the 
next  terminus.  To  him,  if  such  be  your  intention,  you  make  your 
confidence,  giving  up  your  tallies,  and  taking  other  tallies  by  way 
of  receipt ;  and  your  luggage  is  afterward  found  by  you  in  the  hall 
of  your  hotel.  There  is  undoubtedly  very  much  of  comfort  in  this ; 
and  the  mind  of  the  traveler  is  lost  in  amazement  as  he  thinks  of 
the  futile  efforts  with  which  he  would  struggle  to  regain  his  luggage 
were  there  no  such  arrangement.  Enormous  piles  of  boxes  are 
disclosed  on  the  platform  at  all  the  larger  stations,  the  numbers 
of  which  are  roared  forth  with  quick  voice  by  some  two  or  three 


mf;  11  ions  ok  travel  431 

railwav  denizens  at  once.  A  modest  English  voyager,  with  six  or 
seven  small  packages,  would  stand  no  chance  of  getting  anything 
if  he  were  left  to  his  own  devices.  As  it  is,  I  am  hound  to  say  that 
the  thing  is  well  done.  I  have  had  my  desk  with  all  my  money  in 
it  lost  for  a  day,  and  my  black  leather  bag  was  on  one  occasion  sent 
back  over  the  line.  They,  however,  were  recovered  ;  and,  on  the 
whole,  I  feel  grateful  to  the  check  system  of  the  American  rail- 
ways. And  then,  too,  one  never  hears  of  extra  luggage.  Of  weight 
they  are  quite  regardless.  On  two  or  three  occasions  an  over- 
wrought official  has  muttered  between  his  teeth  that  ten  packages 
were  a  great  many,  and  that  some  of  these  "  light  fixings  "  might 
have  been  made  up  into  one.  And  when  I  came  to  understand 
that  the  number  of  every  check  was  entered  in  a  book,  and  re- 
entered at  every  change,  I  did  whisper  to  my  wife  that  she  ought 
to  do  without  a  bonnet  box.  The  ten,  however,  went  on,  and  were 
always  duly  protected.  I  must  add,  however,  that  articles  requiring 
tender  treatment  will  sometimes  reappear  a  little  the  worse  from 
the  hardships  of  their  journey.  .   .  . 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   RISE   OF  MANUFACTURES 
INTRODUCTION 

In  tracing  the  rise  of  manufactures  in  a  new  country  attention  must  be  con- 
stantly directed  to  its  commercial  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is 
always  possible  for  a  country  to  secure  its  supply  of  manufactures  in  either  of 
two  ways  :  first,  it  may  export  the  products  of  other  industries  to  be  exchanged 
for  manufactures ;  or  second,  it  may  devote  a  portion  of  its  labor  and  capital  to 
their  production  at  home.  The  method  that  will  be  adopted  by  any  country 
will  depend  upon  which  appears  to  yield  the  largest  return  of  the  commodities 
desired  for  the  labor  and  capital  expended  in  production.  It  is  clear,  then,  that 
anything  which  affects  favorably  or  unfavorably  a  country's  foreign  trade 
will  influence  its  choice  of  the  method  of  securing  its  supply  of  manufactures. 
Whatever  increases  the  demand  of  other  countries  for  its  extractive  products 
will  increase  its  ability  to  secure  its  manufactures  cheaply  by  trade.  Whatever 
diminishes  this  demand  will  decrease  that  ability  and  may  render  it  more  eco- 
nomical to  produce  them  at  home.  Likewise  a  great  increase  of  population, 
and  consequent  increase  in  the  amount  of  manufactures  required,  if  unaccom- 
panied by  a  corresponding  expansion  of  foreign  trade,  may  compel  the  country 
to  produce  some  of  its  manufactures  at  home,  if  it  is  to  secure  them  at  all. 

A  second  influence  affecting  this  choice  of  method  of  securing  manufactures 
arises  from  inventions  and  changes  in  the  arts,  which  affect  the  productiveness 
of  a  country's  labor  in  particular  industries.  The  introduction  of  machinery 
may  revolutionize  the  labor  cost  of  producing  some  manufactures,  or  a  new 
source  of  raw  material  may  be  discovered  and  made  accessible  by  the  opening 
of  a  canal  or  railway.  Such  events  may  at  any  time  render  it  more  economical 
for  a  country  to  produce  a  given  commodity  at  home  than  to  secure  it  by  trade. 
On  the  other  hand  the  rise  of  a  foreign  demand  for  some  agricultural  staple 
easily  produced  in  the  new  country  or  the  introduction  of  some  new  branch  of 
agriculture  which  proves  exceptionally  profitable  may  check  the  growth  of 
manufactures  and  cause  them  to  decline. 

Both  these  influences  may  be  clearly  traced  in  the  history  of  American 
manufactures,  though  the  first  appears  more  prominent,  especially  in  early 
times.  The  difference  between  the  northern  and  southern  colonies  in  their 
disposition  to  engage  in  manufactures,  the  development  of  numerous  small  in- 
dustries in  the  country  during  and  after  the  Revolution,  the  check  in  that  devel- 
opment during  the  years  of  the  neutral  trade,  as  well  as  its  resumption  on  a 

432 


INTRODUCTION  433 

larger  scale  than  ever  during  the  commercial  restrictions  of  the  embargo  and 
war,  are  all  examples  of  its  working.  The  inability  of  the  northern  states  after 
181  5  to  supply  their  rapidly  increasing  population  with  manufactures,  either 
by  direct  trade  with  a  manufacturing  country,  or  indirectly,  as  in  colonial  times, 
by  trade  with  other  agricultural  communities,  was  the  fundamental  cause  of 
that  rapid  growth  of  manufactures  in  them,  which  went  on  steadily  from  181  5 
until  the  Civil  War  with  little  apparent  influence  from  the  tariff  policy  of  the 
federal  government. 

Influences  of  the  second  kind  began  to  play  an  important  part  during  the 
later  years.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  use  of  anthracite  coal  in 
smelting  iron,  the  introduction  of  interchangeable  parts  in  the  manufacture  of 
firearms,  clocks,  watches,  and  many  other  commodities,  the  invention  of  ma- 
chines for  cutting  nails  and  making  wood  screws  and  pins,  the  invention  of 
power  looms  for  the  weaving  of  carpets,  and  the  introduction  of  the  sewing 
machine  into  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  clothes.  Great  numbers  of  small 
industries  were  entirely  revolutionized  by  labor-saving  inventions  developed 
during  these  years.  The  number  and  importance  of  these  inventions  in  this 
country  after  1850  became  so  great  that  they  began  to  attract  attention  in 
Europe.  They  were  undoubtedly  a  large  factor  in  the  growth  of  manufac- 
tures at  this  time. 

Two  other  events  exerted  a  far-reaching  influence  upon  the  productiveness 
of  American  labor  in  manufacturing  during  this  period.  One  was  the  growth  of 
an  enormous  home  market  among  the  prosperous  agriculturalists  of  the  south 
and  west,  and  the  connection  of  these  markets  with  the  manufacturing  states 
by  improvements  in  transportation.  Production  on  a  large  scale  with  all  the 
economies  of  division  of  labor,  the  use  of  machinery,  and  the  utilization  of 
bi-products,  is  dependent,  as  Adam  Smith  pointed  out  long  ago,  upon  the  size 
of  the  market.  With  the  settlement  of  the  west  and  the  development  of  our 
internal  trade  American  manufactures  were  greatly  favored  in  this  respect. 
Here  was  a  great  number  of  people  with  the  same  wants,  representing  an 
enormous  demand  for  the  same  kind  of  commodities.  Moreover,  this  market 
was  a  continually  growing  one.  Each  decade  saw  half  a  dozen  new  states  set- 
tled by  farmers  able  and  eager  to  purchase  manufactures.  No  more  favorable 
conditions  for  the  introduction  of  the  factory  system  ever  existed  than  these. 
Newly  invented  machinery  rarely  threw  laborers  out  of  employment  here.  It 
only  enabled  the  employers  to  get  on  with  such  labor  as  they  could  secure  and 
to  partially  satisfy  the  growing  demand.  The  reward  of  a  successful  introduc- 
tion of  machinery  into  an  industry  was  very  large  profits. 

The  other  event  which  favored  the  growth  of  manufactures  was  the  coming 
of  the  immigrants.  A  serious  obstacle  to  this  growth  had  long  been  the  scarcity  of 
labor  for  hire,  which  made  the  organization  of  industry  on  anything  but  a  small 
scale  difficult  or  impossible.  Where  the  labor  of  women  could  be  utilized,  or 
the  work  of  men  in  dull  seasons  when  they  were  not  fully  employed  in  other 
industries,  manufactures  flourished.    Such  was  the  case  in  the  textile  industries, 


434 


THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 


in  the  boot  and  shoe  industry,  and  many  others.  The  former  was  our  first 
manufacturing  industry  of  the  modern  type,  and  it  was  built  up  principally  by 
the  labor  of  women.  The  influx  of  the  immigrants  made  possible  for  the  first 
time  the  organization  of  labor  in  any  considerable  number  of  industries  in  this 
country  and  favored  the  growth  of  the  factory  system  in  many  other  indus- 
tries besides  the  textiles. 


1.    RELATION  OF    MANUFACTURES  TO  COMMERCE  IN 
THE  COLONIES! 

'^Absence  of  J\Ianitfactnirs  in  tJic  SontJicrii  Colonies 

All  attempts  to  make  the  Virginians  abandon  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco  for  manufacturing  proved  futile.  The  raising  of  tobacco 
always  remained  their  principal  occupation.  It  was  for  the  economic 
advantage  of  Virginia  to  produce  tobacco,  to  sell  it  in  England, 
and  out  of  its  proceeds  to  buy  English  manufactures.  Thus  it  is 
by  no  means  strange  that  the  Virginians  imported  all  their  manufac- 
tures from  England.  Beverley  in  a  celebrated  passage  writes,  "  they 
have  their  clothing  of  all  sorts  from  England,  as  linen,  woolen  and 
silk,  hats  and  leather.  The  very  furs  that  their  hats  are  made  of 
perhaps  go  first  from  thence.  Nay  they  are  such  abominable  ill 
husbands,  that  tho'  their  country  be  over-run  with  wood,  yet  they 
have  all  their  wooden  ware  from  England  ;  their  cabinets,  chairs, 
tables,  stools,  chests,  boxes,  cart-wheels  and  all  other  things,  even 
so  much  as  their  bowls  and  birchen  brooms,  to  the  eternal  reproach 
of  their  laziness."  Virginia  seems  not  to  have  had  an  artisan  class. 
There  were  few  or  none  who  could  make  such  common  articles  as 
shoes  or  chairs.  All  was  imported  from  England.  Even  the  wood 
used  for  building  houses,  was  s^t  to  England,  and  when  dressed 
fend  cut  there,  was  sent  back  to  Virginia  for  use.  During  the  entire 
colonial  period  Virginia  retained  this  characteristic.  Shortly  before 
the  Revolution  Jefferson  wrote  as  follows  about  Virginia  :  '"  And 
such  is  our  attachment  to  agriculture,  and  such  our  preference  for 
foreign  manufactures,  that  be  it  wise  or  unwise,  our  people  will 

1  Consult  extract  from  Taussig  on  p.  446. 

2  Beer,  The  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American  Colonies, 
pp.  70-77,  80-81.  Printed  by  permission  of  the  author.  For  colonial  manufac- 
tures, see  also  extracts  on  pp.  29-44,  76,  107. 


RELATION  OF  MANUFACTLIRKS  TO  COMMERCP:  435 

certainly  return,  as  soon  as  they  can,  to  the  raising  raw  materials, 
and  exchanging  them  for  finer  manufactures  than  they  are  able  to 
execute  themselves."  "  Carpenters,  masons,  smiths,  are  wanting 
in  husbandly  ;  but  for  the  general  oj^erations  of  manufactures,  let 
our  workshop  remain  in  Europe." 

Like  Virginia,  Maryland  paid  for  the  manufactures  she  con- 
sumed by  exporting  tobacco  to  England.  In  regard  to  manufac- 
tures her  situation  was  identical  with  that  of  Virginia.  In  1721  it 
was  said  of  Maryland,  "the  Inhabitimts  wear  the  like  Cloathing, 
&  have  the  same  furniture  within  their  houses  with  those  in  this 
Kingdom  (England).  The  Slaves  are  cloathcd  with  Cottons,  Ker- 
seys, flannel,  &  coarse  linens,  all  imported." 

What  tobacco  was  to  Maryland  and  Virginia,  rice  was  to  South 
Carolina.  With  this  commodity  all  the  manufactured  goods  used 
in  the  colony  were  bought  in  England.  Since  artisans  were  so 
scarce,  most  of  the  shoes  came  from  England.  There  was  no  pot- 
ter, it  was  said  at  one  time,  in  the  whole  colony,  and  all  the  glass 
and  earthenware  which  was  used  had  to  be  imported.  As  in  the 
case  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  all  manufactured  articles  were 
imported.  North  Carolina  was  likewise  characterized  by  this  total 
absence  of  manufactures. 

In  the  Southern  colonies  thus  there  was  a  marked  absence  of 
manufacturing  even  in  its  most  rudimentary  forms.  The  reason 
was  that  a  unit  of  labor  spent  in  agi'iculture  proved  far  more  remu- 
nerative than  the  same  unit  devoted  to  manufactures.  Many  cir- 
cumstances conduced  to  bring  about  this  result.  Their  staple 
products,  rice  and  tobacco,  not  being  extensively  produced  in 
Europe,  found  a  ready  market  there  ;  while  in  the  colonies  them- 
selves the  network  of  rivers  made  the  transportation  of  these 
products  most  easy.  Thus  economically  the  most  profitable  em- 
ployment of  the  Southern  colonies  was  agriculture. 

TJie  Early  Rise  of  Manufactures  in  the  Northern  Colonies 

Another  problem  now  confronts  us,  namely,  to  account  for  the 
early  rise  of  manufactures  in  the  Northern  colonies.  The  chief 
pursuit  of  a  young  settlement  is  agriculture.    There  land  is  cheap. 


436  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

while  labor  is  dear.  Nor  is  it  in  accord  with  psychological  princi- 
ples that  a  man  should  be  willing  to  work  for  wages  when  for  the 
asking  he  can  have  land  and  become  his  own  master.  Thus  a 
contemporary,  Johnson,  writes,  "  and  for  cloth,  here  is  and  would 
be  materials  enough  to  make  it ;  but  the  Farmers  deem  it  better 
for  their  profit  to  put  away  their  cattel  and  corn  for  cloathing,  than 
to  set  upon  making  of  cloth."  We  should  expect  to  find  wheat 
and  grain  produced  in  the  Northern  colonies,  and  that  these  colo- 
nies would  become  the  granary  of  old  England.  About  1640,  in 
Massachusetts,  signs  of  such  a  course  of  development  appear.  At 
that  time  the  staple  commodities  of  the  colony  were  wheat,  oats, 
peas,  barley,  beef,  pork,  fish,  butter,  cheese,  timber,  tar,  and 
boards.  With  these  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  says  Johnson, 
"  not  only  fed  their  Elder  Sisters,  Virginia,  Barbados,  and  many 
of  the  Summer  Islands  that  were  prefer'd  before  her  fruitfulness, 
/;///  also  the  Grmidinothcr  of  us  all,  even  tJie  firtil  Isle  of  Great 
Britain^  Before,  however,  the  exports  to  England  became  large, 
the  trade  was  checked  by  the  policy  of  the  mother  country.  The 
change  came  in  1660. 

With  the  Restoration  begins  the  supremacy  of  the  landed  classes 
in  England.  In  that  year  the  remnants  of  the  feudal  dues  were 
commuted  into  an  excise  falling  chiefly  on  the  landless  and  the 
urban  population.  By  a  statute  of  this  year,  and  by  others  enacted 
later  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  prohibitory  customs  duties  were 
levied  on  agricultural  products,  such  as  rye,  barley,  peas,  beans, 
oats,  and  wheat.  These  were  the  earliest  Corn  Laws.  Likewise 
during  this  reign  the  importation  of  salt  provisions,  including  beef, 
pork,  bacon,  and  butter  from  the  colonies  was  absolutely  prohibited. 
In  addition,  the  whale-fisheries  of  New  England  were  discouraged 
by  the  levy  of  discriminating  duties  on  oil  and  blubber  caught,  and 
imported  into  England  in  colonial  shipping.  Ikit  it  was  with  the 
commodities  affected  by  these  acts,  that  New  England  would  most 
naturally  buy  her  manufactured  goods  from  England. 

This  feature  of  England's  policy  during  the  Restoration  had 
thus  two  effects.  On  the  one  hand,  it  rendered  a  middle  market 
necessary  for  the  Northern  colonies  ;  on  the  other,  it  made  these 
colonies  much  more  independent  of  the  mother  countr}''  as  regards 


RELATION  OF  MANUFACTURES  TO  COMMERCE   437 

manufactures.  Both  of  these  results  were  not  in  accord  with  the 
normal  economic  development  of  the  colonies,  as  re^^ulated  by  the 
laws  of  trade.  For  if  the  colonists  c\])ortcd  these  staple  commod- 
ities to  other  countries,  they  found  their  profits  diminished  from 
the  fact  that  no  manufactures  could  be  taken  directly  back  on  the 
return  voyage.  The  vessel  had  either  to  return  empty,  or  to  make 
a  roundabout  trip  and  load  in  England.  The  effect  of  lingland's 
policy  was,  through  a  restriction  of  the  market,  to  render  the  pro- 
duction of  these  staple  commodities  less  profitable.  Thus  New 
England,  and  later  the  Middle  colonies,  not  being  allowed  to  ex- 
change their  normal  products  for  England's  manufactures,  were 
forced  to  begin  manufacturing  for  themselves.  And  that  this  was 
the  ultimate  cause  for  the  early  rise  of  manufactures  can  be  shown 
by  a  few  extracts  from  letters  and  reports  of  those  days. 

In  1705,  Lord  Cornbury  ascribed  the  rise  of  manufactures  in 
New  York  to  "  the  want  wherewithall  to  make  returns  for  Eng- 
land." A  little  later,  in  1721,  clearer  expression  was  given  to  the 
problem  in  Massachusetts.  "  It  is,  therefore,  to  be  presumed,"  the 
report  says,  "  that  necessity,  and  not  choice,  has  put  them  upon 
erecting  manufactures  ;  not  having  sufficient  commodities  of  their 
own  to  gi\'e  in  exchange  for  those  they  do  receive  already  from 
Great  Britain."  Paul  Dockminicjue's  report  of  1732  says,  "they 
have  no  staple  commodities  of  their  own  growth  to  exchange  for  our 
manufactures  ;  which  puts  them  under  greater  necessity,  as  well  as 
under  greater  temptation  of  providing  for  themselves  at  home." 
In  1764  Golden  spoke  of  New  York  as  a  colony  consuming  a  vast 
quantity  of  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  though  it  produced  no 
staple  that  could  be  exported  directly  thither. 

That  this  is  the  true  explanation  can  be  seen  from  what  took 
place  in  Virginia  during  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession, 
During  this  war  the  price  of  tobacco  fell,  and  tobacco  was  at  the 
same  time  over-produced.  The  Virginians,  having  nothing  with 
which  to  make  returns  to  England,  were  forced  to  manufacture 
coarse  cloth  for  themselves. 

Thus  this  interference  with  the  normal  market  for  the  staple 
products  of  the  colonies  was  the  cause  of  the  early  development  of 
manufacturing  in  New  England  and  New  York.    But  if  this  was 


438  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

the  fundamental  cause,  it  was  by  no  means  the  sole  one.  Other 
elements  conduced,  though  in  a  less  degree,  to  the  same  result. 
Even  without  the  Corn  Laws,  it  is  probable  that  there  would  have 
been  more  artisans  and  much  more  rudimentary  manufacturing  in 
New  England  than  in  Virginia.  For  the  New  Englander  was  by 
nature  drawn  to  such  pursuits,  both  from  his  origin  and  his  inti- 
mate contact  with  Dutch  civilization.  Many  of  the  later  immigrants 
also  were  artisans.  The  Scotch-Irish,  fugitives  from  the  harsh  laws 
of  England,  were  skilled  in  the  textile  industries,  and  we  hear  of 
them  setting  up  linen  manufactures  in  New  England.  We  like- 
wise find  Huguenots  engaged  in  manufacturing.  When  the  fugi- 
tives from  the  Palatinate  came  to  America,  fears  were  expressed 
that  they  would  enter  upon  these  pursuits.  In  New  York  it  was 
ordered  that  a  clause  be  introduced  into  every  grant  of  land  to 
them,  declaring  it  void  if  the  grantee  entered  upon  the  manufac- 
ture of  woolens  or  other  goods. 

There  were  other  and  more  special  causes  which  contributed  to 
the  rise  of  certain  industries  in  the  North,  The  cheapness  of 
beaver  and  its  plentiful  supply  led  to  the  rapid  development  of 
the  hat  industry.  The  vast  stores  of  lumber  made  ship-building 
in  New  England  profitable.  Manufactures  were  also  encouraged 
by  law ;  but  it  is  significant  that  the  legal  encouragements  offered 
by  Virginia  were  not  strong  enough  to  overcome  the  natural 
obstacles. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  early  rise  of 
manufacturing  in  the  Northern  colonies  was  that  the  importation  of 
their  staple  products  into  England  was  prohibited  either  absolutely 
or  by  heavy  duties.  They  were  consequently  left  without  adequate 
means  of  payment ;  a  balance  of  trade  naturally  unfavorable  to  them 
was  made  increasingly  so  by  the  policy  of  England.   .   .   . 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Northern  col- 
onies, as  a  result  of  England's  policy,  were  forced  to  begin  the 
manufacture  of  woolens.  So  serious  did  these  attempts  seem,  that 
England  restricted  the  growth  of  this  industry.  As  a  result  of  re- 
striction, and  of  the  increase  in  demand  for  their  staple  commod- 
ities by  the  West  Indies,  the  woolen  industry  in  the  colonies  never 
passed  out  of  the  embryonic  stage.    The  Northern  colonies  were 


INTKRRian'ION  OF  COMMERCP;   1765-1793         439 

essentially  agrieultural  and  fishing  communities.  On  each  farm 
there  was  a  certain  number  of  sheep,  from  which  the  farmer  ob- 
tained his  wool.  During  the  severe  winter  months,  when  out-of- 
door  labor  was  at  a  stand-still,  the  servants  were  employed  in 
weaving  this  wool  into  home-spun,  for  the  use  of  the  household. 
Itinerant  weavers  traveled  about  the  country  putting  the  finishing 
touches  on  these  fabrics.  The  woolens,  which  were  made,  were 
used  chiefly  by  the  great  body  of  people,  while  the  merchants,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  cities,  all  whose  occupations  were  not  agricul- 
tural, used  woolens  imported  from  England.  In  general  the  act  of 
parliament  was  well  obeyed,  since  it  carried  no  hardship  with  it  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  amount  of  woolens  exported  from 
England  to  the  colonies  was  very  great.  On  an  average,  about 
1717,  England  exported  to  the  colonies  woolens  to  the  value  of 
;^ 1 47,438,  while  at  the  same  time  the  exports  of  iron  manufac- 
tures amounted  to  only  .^^3 5 ,6^  i .  The  amount  of  woolens  exported 
was  equal  in  value  to  one  half  of  the  total  exports  of  British  manu- 
factures from  England  to  the  colonies. 


II.  INTERRUPTION  OF  COMMERCE  AND  GROWTH  OF 

MANUFACTURES,  1765-1793 

^  Providence  has  bestowed  upon  the  United  States  of  America 
means  of  happiness,  as  great  and  numerous,  as  are  enjoyed  by  any 
country  in  the  world.  A  soil  fruitful  and  diversified  —  a  healthful 
climate  —  mighty  rivers  and  adjacent  seas  abounding  with  fish  are 
the  great  advantages  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  a  beneficent  cre- 
ator. Agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce,  naturally  arising 
from  these  sources,  afford  to  our  industrious  citizens  certain  sub- 
sistence and  innumerable  opportunities  of  acquiring  wealth.  V'o 
an-aiige  om'  ajfairs  in  sahitary  and  zvell  digested  systems  by  which 
the  fruits  of  industry,  in  every  line,  may  be  most  easily  attained, 
and  the  possession  of  property  and  the  blessings  of  liberty  may  be 
completely  secured  —  these  are  the  important  objects,  that  should 
engross  our  present  attention.    The  interests  of  commerce  and  the 

1  Coxe,  A  View  of  the  United  States  of  America  [Papers  written  in  years  1787 
-1792],  pp.  36-37,  45-46,  49-50,  63-64,  334-335- 


440  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

establishment  of  a  just  and  effective  government  are  already  com- 
mitted to  the  care  of  THE  AUGUST  BODY  now  sitting  in  our 
capital  [The  Constitutional  Convention].  —  The  importance  of  agri- 
culture has  long  since  recommended  it  to  the  patronage  of  numer- 
ous associations,  and  the  attention  of  all  the  legislatures  —  but 
manufactures,  at  least  in  Pennsylvania,  have  had  but  few  uncon- 
nected friends,  till  sound  policy  and  public  spirit  gave  a  late,  but 
auspicious  birth,  to  this  Society. 

The  situation  of  America  before  the  revolution  was  veiy  unfav- 
ourable to  the  objects  of  this  institution.  The  prohibition  of  most 
foreign  raw  material  —  considerable  bounties  in  England  for  carry- 
ing away  the  unwrought  productions  of  this  country  to  that,  as  well 
as  on  exporting  British  goods  from  their  markets  —  the  preference 
for  those  goods,  which  habit  carried  much  beyond  what  their  ex- 
cellence would  justify,  and  many  other  circumstances,  created  arti- 
ficial impediments  which  appeared  almost  insuperable.  Several 
branches  however  were  carried  on  with  great  advantage.  But  as 
long  as  we  remained  in  our  colonial  situation,  our  progress  was 
veiy  slow ;  and  indeed  the  necessity  of  attention  to  manufactures 
was  not  so  urgent,  as  it  has  become  since  our  assuming  an  inde- 
pendent station.  The  employment  of  those,  whom  the  decline  of 
navigation  has  deprived  of  their  usual  occupations  —  tJie  consump- 
tion of  the  cncrcasiiig  produce  of  our  lands  and  fisheries,  and  the 
certainty  of  supplies  in  the  time  of  war  are  very  weighty  reasons 
for  establishing  new  manufactories  now,  which  existed  but  in  a 
small  degree,  or  not  at  all,  before  the  revolution.  .  .  . 

Under  all  the  disadvantages  which  have  attended  manufactures 
and  the  useful  arts,  it  must  afford  the  most  comfortable  reflection 
to  every  patriotic  mind,  to  observe  their  progress  in  the  United 
States  and  particularly  in  Pennsylvania.  For  a  long  time  after  our 
forefathers  sought  an  establishment  in  this  place,  then  a  dreary 
wilderness,  every  thing  necessary  for  their  simple  wants  was  the 
work  of  European  hands.  How  great  —  how  happy  is  the  change. 
The  list  of  articles  we  now  make  ourselves,  if  particularly  enumer- 
ated would  fatigiie  the  ear,  and  waste  your  valuable  time.  Permit 
me  however  to  mention  them  under  their  general  heads  :  meal  of 
all  kinds,   ships  and  boats,  malt  liquors,  distilled  spirits,  pot-ash, 


INTERRUPTION  OF  COMMERCE,   1765-1793         441 

gun-powder,  cordage,  loaf-sugar,  pasteboard,  cards  and  paper  of 
every  kind,  books  in  various  kinguages,  snuff,  tobacco,  starch,  can- 
non, muskets,  anchors,  nails  and  very  many  other  articles  of  iron, 
bricks,  tiles,  potters  ware,  millstones  and  other  stone  work,  cabinet 
work,  trunks  and  Windsor  chairs,  carriages  and  harness  of  all 
kinds,  corn-fans,  ploughs  and  many  other  implements  of  husbandry, 
Sadler}'  and  whips,  shoes  and  boots,  leather  of  various  kinds,  hosiery, 
hats  and  gloves,  wearing  apparel,  coarse  linens  and  woolens,  and 
some  cotton  goods,  linseed  and  fish-oil,  wares  of  gold,  silver,  tin, 
pewter,  lead,  brass  and  copper,  clocks  and  watches,  wool  and  cotton 
cards,  printing  types,  glass  and  stone  ware,  candles,  soap,  and  several 
other  valuable  articles  with  which  the  memory  cannot  furnish  us  at 
once.  .  .  , 

An  extravagant  and  wasteful  use  of  foreign  manufactures,  has 
been  too  just  a  charge  against  the  people  of  America,  since  the 
close  of  the  war.  They  have  been  so  cheap,  so  plenty  and  so  easily 
obtained  on  credit,  that  the  consumption  of  them  has  been  abso- 
lutely wanton.  To  such  an  excess  has  it  been  carried,  that  the  im- 
portation of  the  finer  kinds  of  coat,  vest  and  sleeve  buttons,  buckles, 
broaches,  breast-pins,  and  other  trinkets  into  this  port  only,  is  sup- 
posed to  have  amounted' in  a  single  year  to  ten  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  which  cost  wearers  above  60,000  dollars.  This  lamentable 
evil  has  suggested  to  many  enlightened  minds  a  wish  for  sumptuary 
regulations,  and  even  for  an  unchanging  national  dress  suitable  to 
the  climate,  and  the  other  circumstances  of  the  country.  A  more 
general  use  of  such  manufactures  as  we  can  make  ourselves,  would 
wean  us  from  the  folly  we  have  just  now  spoken  of,  and  would 
produce,  in  a  less  exceptionable  way,  some  of  the  best  effects  of 
sumptuary  laws.  Our  dresses,  furniture  and  carriages  would  be  fash- 
ionable, because  they  were  American  and  proper  in  our  situation, 
not  because  they  were  foreign,  shewy  or  expensive.  Our  farmers, 
to  their  great  honour  and  advantage,  have  been  long  in  the  excel- 
lent economical  practice  of  domestic  manufactures  for  their  own 
use,  at  least  in  many  parts  of  the  union.  It  is  chiefly  in  the  towns 
that  this  madness  for  foreign  finery  rages  and  destroys.  —  There 
unfortunately  the  disorder  is  epidemical.  It  behoves  us  consider 
our  untimely  passion  for  European  luxuries  as  a  malignant  and 


442  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

alarming  symptom,  threatening  convulsions  and  dissolution  to  the 
political  body.  Let  us  hasten  then  to  apply  the  most  effectual  rem- 
edies, ere  the  disease  becomes  inveterate,  lest  unhappily  we  should 
find  it  incurable.  .  .    .^ 

The  manufactures  of  Pennsylvania  have  increased  exceedingly 
within  a  few  years,  as  well  by  master- workmen  and  journeymen 
from  abroad,  as  by  the  increased  skill  and  industry  of  our  own 
citizens.  Household  or  family  manufactures  have  greatly  advanced  ; 
and  valuable  acquisitions  have  been  made  of  implements  and  ma- 
chinery to  save  labour,  either  imported  or  invented  in  the  United 
States.  The  hand-machines,  for  carding  and  spinning  cotton,  have 
been  introduced  by  foreigners,  and  improved,  but  we  have  obtained 
the  water  mill  for  spinning  cotton,  and  a  water  mill  for  flax,  which 
is  applicable  also  to  spinning  hemp  and  wool.  These  machines 
promise  us  an  early  increase  of  the  cotton,  linen,  and  hempen 
branches,  and  must  be  of  very  great  service  in  the  woolen  branch. 
Additional  employment  for  weavers,  dyers,  bleachers,  and  other 
manufacturers  must  be  the  consequence.  Paper-mills,  gun-powder- 
mills,  steel  works,  rolling  and  slitting  mills,  printing  figuered  goods 
of  paper,  linen,  and  even  of  cotton,  coach  making,  book  printing, 
and  several  other  branches,  are  wonderfully  advanced  :  and  every 
month  seems  to  extend  our  old  manufactures,  or  to  introduce 
new  ones.   .   .   .^ 

That  the  exports  and  other  means  of  paying  for  our  imports  are 
much  more  adequate  to  the  occasion,  than  they  were  during  sev- 
eral years  subsequent  to  the  peace,  is  manifest  from  the  state  of 
our  private  credit  in  Europe. 

A  distinction,  and  it  is  conceived,  a  very  important  one,  has  been 
already  intimated  in  favour  of  such  of  our  imports  as  are  of  a  nature 
adapted  to  enhance  the  value  of  our  lands,  or  to  employ  or  assist 
our  citizens  :  and  in  regard  to  those  which  are  for  immediate  con- 
sumption, the  quantity  cannot  be  in  proportion  to  our  former  imports, 
considering  the  increase  of  population.     We  have  actually  almost 

1  This  part  of  the  extract  was  written  in  17S7. 

2  Written  in  1790. 


INTERRUPTION  OF  COMMERCE,  1765-1793        443 

ceased  to  import  shoes,  boots,  sadlery,  coarse  hats,  plate,  snuff, 
manufactured  tobacco,  cabinet  wares,  carriages,  wool  and  cotton 
cards,  hanging  paper,  gunpowder,  and  other  articles  ;  and  we  have 
exceedingly  diminished  our  importation  of  coarse  linen  and  woolen 
goods,  cordage,  copper  utensils,  tin  utensils,  malt  liquors,  loaf  sugar, 
steel,  paper,  playing  cards,  glue,  wafers,  fine  hats,  braziery,  watches 
and  clocks,  cheese,  &c  :  and  we  either  make  these  articles  from  na- 
tive productions,  by  which  the  whole  value  is  struck  off  from  our 
imports,  or  we  manufacture  them  of  foreign  raw  materials,  which  cost 
less  than  the  goods  used  to  do,  especially  as  they  often  yield  a 
great  freight  to  our  own  vessels.  Thus  the  freight  of  the  molasses  to 
make  rum,  imported  in  one  year,  at  two  dollars  per  hhd.  was  not 
less  than  140,000  dollars.  The  same  observation  occurs  as  to 
hemp,  cotton,  iron,  copper,  brass,  tin,  saltpetre,  sulphur,  mahogany, 
hides,  dye  woods,  and  other  raw  materials.^ 

'^  Hamilton' s  Report  on  JMannfactnrcs,  l'/<pi 

To  all  the  arguments  which  are  brought  to  evince  the  imprac- 
ticability of  success  in  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  United 
States,  it  might  have  been  a  sufficient  answer  to  have  referred  to 

1  Written  in  1792.  For  reliable  information  concerning  the  conditions  of  manu- 
factures during  the  ten  years  after  the  close  of  the  revolution,  the  following 
sources  may  be  consulted  :  Coxe,  A  View  of  the  United  States  of  America,  pp.  259- 
279  ;  Hamilton,  Report  on  Manufactures  of  December,  1791  ;  The  Debate  on  the 
Tariff  Act  of  1789,  in  Debates  and  Proceedings  of  Congress,  I ;  and  The  Report  of 
the  British  Consul  in  Philadelphia,  Phineas  Bond,  to  his  government,  November 
10,  1789,  printed  in  the  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association  for  1896, 
I,  630-637,  651-654.  This  last  was  based  upon  a  thorough  investigation  during 
the  preceding  year  undertaken  at  the  request  of  officials  of  the  British  govern- 
ment. These  references  establish  the  fact  that  considerable  progress  was  made  in 
numerous  small  manufactures,  especially  of  a  domestic  nature,  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  during  and  after  the  war.  The  progress  after  the  war  appears  to  have  been 
especially  great  and  was  due  without  doubt  primarily  to  the  inability  of  the  Ameri- 
cans to  establish  such  trade  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world  as  would  permit 
them  to  pay  for  imports  of  manufactures  with  exports  of  their  own  products.  This 
forced  turning  of  the  people  to  all  sorts  of  small  manufactures  was  one  of  the  chief 
influences  which  relieved  the  economic  depression  of  the  years  1 784-1 787  and 
brought  that  return  of  prosperity  which  Washington  noted  before  the  end  of 
1788. 

2  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  I,  123. 


444  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

the  experience  of  what  has  been  already  done  ;  it  is  certain  that 
several  important  branches  have  grown  up  and  flourished  with  a 
rapidity  which  surprises,  affording  an  encouraging  assurance  of 
success  in  future  attempts.  Of  these  it  may  not  be  improper  to 
enumerate  the  most  considerable  :  — 

1 .  Of  Skins.  —  Tanned  and  tawed  leather,  dressed  skins,  shoes, 
boots,  and  slippers,  harness  and  sadlery  of  all  kinds,  portmanteaus 
and  trunks,  leather  breeches,  gloves,  muffs  and  tippets,  parchment 
and  glue. 

2.  Of  Iron.  —  Bar  and  sheet  iron,  steel,  nail  rods  and  nails, 
implements  of  husbandly,  stoves,  pots,  and  other  household  uten- 
sils, the  steel  and  iron  work  of  carriages,  and  for  shipbuilding, 
anchors,  scale-beams,  and  weights,  and  various  tools  of  artificers, 
arms  of  different  kinds,  though  the  manufacture  of  these  last  has 
of  late  diminished  for  want  of  demand. 

3.  Of  Wood.  —  Ships,  cabinet  wares  and  turnery,  wool  and  cot- 
ton cards,  and  other  machinery  for  manufactures  and  husbandry, 
mathematical  instruments,  coopers'  wares  of  every  kind. 

4.  Of  Flax  and  Hemp. —  Cables,  sail-cloth,  cordage,  twine  and 
packthread. 

5.  Bricks,  and  coarse  tiles  and  potters'  wares. 

6.  Ardent  spirits  and  malt  liquors. 

7.  Writing  and  printing  paper,  sheathing  and  wrapping  paper, 
pasteboards,  fullers'  or  press  papers,  paper  hangings. 

8.  Hats  of  fur  and  wool,  and  of  mixtures  of  both,  women's  stuff 
and  silk  shoes. 

9.  Refined  sugars. 

10.  Oils  of  animals  and  seeds,  soap,  spermaceti  and  tallow  candles. 

1 1 .  Copper  and  brass  wares  (particularly  utensils  for  distillers, 
sugar  refiners  and  brewers),  andirons  and  other  articles  for  house- 
hold use,  philosophical  apparatus. 

12.  Tin  wares  for  most  purposes  of  ordinary  use. 

13.  Carriages  of  all  kinds. 

14.  Snuff,  chewing  and  smoking  tobacco. 

1 5 .  Starch  and  hair  powder. 

16.  Lampblack  and  other  painters'  colors. 

17.  Gunpowder. 


INTERRUPTION  OF  COMMERCE,  1765-1793         445 

Besides  manufactories  of  llicsc  articles,  which  are  carried  on  as 
regular  trades,  and  have  attained  to  a  considerable  degree  of  ma- 
turity, there  is  a  vast  scene  of  household  manufacturing  which  con- 
tributes more  largely  to  the  supply  of  the  commimity  than  could  be 
imagined  without  having  made  it  an  object  of  particular  inquir)-. 
This  observation  is  the  pleasing  result  of  the  investigation  to 
which  the  subject  of  this  report  has  led,  and  is  applicable  as  well 
to  the  southern  as  to  the  middle  and  northern  States.  Great  quan- 
tities of  coarse  cloths,  coatings,  serges,  and  flannels,  linsey-w(K)l- 
seys,  hosiery  of  wool,  cotton  and  thread,  coarse  fustians,  jeans  and 
muslins,  checked  and  striped  cotton  and  linen  goods,  bedticks,  cov- 
erlets and  counterpanes,  tow  linens,  coarse  shirtings,  sheetings,  tow- 
eling and  table  linen,  and  various  mixtures  of  wool  and  cotton,  and 
of  cotton  and  flax,  are  made  in  the  household  way,  and  in  many 
instances  to  an  extent  not  only  sufficient  for  the  supply  of  the  fam- 
ilies in  which  they  are  made,  but  for  sale,  and  even  in  some  cases 
for  exportation.  It  is  computed  in  a  number  of  districts  that  two- 
thirds,  three-fourths,  and  even  four-fifths  of  all  the  clothing  of  the 
inhabitants  are  made  by  themselves.  The  importance  of  so  great 
a  progress  as  appears  to  have  been  made  in  family  manufactures 
within  a  few  years,  both  in  a  moral  and  political  view,  renders  the 
fact  highly  interesting. 

Neither  does  the  above  enumeration  comprehend  all  the  articles 
that  are  manufactures  as  regular  trades.  Many  others  occur  which 
are  equally  well  established,  but  which  not  being  of  equal  impor- 
tance have  been  omitted.  And  there  are  many  attempts  still  in 
their  infancy,  which,  though  attended  with  very  favorable  appear- 
ances, could  not  have  been  properly  comprised  in  an  enumeration 
of  manufactories  already  established.  There  are  other  articles  also 
of  great  importance  which,  though  strictly  speaking  manufactures, 
are  omitted  as  being  immediately  connected  with  husbandry  ;  such 
are  floiir,  pot  and  pearl  ash,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine,  and  the  like. 


446  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

III.    INFLUENCE   OF  THE    NEUTRAL  TRADE,   AND    ITS 
INTERRUPTION,   1793-1815 

^  The  early  economic  histor)^  of  the  United  States  may  be  divided 
into  two  periods.  The  first,  which  is  in  the  main  a  continuation  of 
the  colonial  period,  lasted  till  about  the  year  1808  ;  the  embargo 
marks  the  beginning  of  the  series  of  events  which  closed  it.  The 
second  began  in  1808,  and  lasted  through  the  generation  following. 
It  was  during  the  second  period  that  the  most  decided  attempt 
was  made  to  apply  protection  to  young  industries  in  the  United 
States,  and  with  this  period  we  are  chiefly  concerned. 

During  the  first  period  the  country  was,  on  the  whole,  in  the 
same  industrial  condition  in  which  the  colonies  had  been.  The 
colonies  had  been  necessarily  engaged  almost  exclusively  in  agri- 
culture, and  in  the  occupations  closely  connected  with  it.  The 
agricultural  community  could  not  get  on  without  blacksmiths,  car- 
penters, masons,  shoemakers,  and  other  artisans,  and  these  existed 
side  by  side  with  the  farmers.  In  those  days,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, handicraft  workmen  of  this  kind  occupied  a  more  important 
place  in  industrial  organizations  than  they  do  at  the  present  time. 
They  made  many  articles  and  performed  many  services  which  are 
now  the  objects  of  manufacturing  production  and  of  extensive  trade, 
and  come  within  the  range  of  international  dealings.  Many  tools 
were  then  made  by  individual  blacksmiths,  many  wares  by  the  car- 
penter, many  homespun  clothes  fulled  and  finished  at  the  small 
fulling-mill.  Production  of  this  kind  necessarily  takes  place  at  the 
locality  where  consumption  goes  on.  In  those  days  the  division  of 
labor  between  distant  bodies  of  men  had  been  carried  out  to  a  com- 
paratively slight  extent,  and  the  scope  of  international  trade  was 
therefore  much  more  limited.  The  existence  of  these  handicraft 
workmen  accounts  for  the  numerous  notices  of  "  manufactures  " 
which  Mr,  Bishop  industriously  collected  in  his  "  Histoiy  of  Manu- 
factures," and  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  mainly  extractive  char- 
acter of  the  industry  of  the  colonies.  What  could  be  imported  at 
that  time  was  imported,  and  was  paid  for  by  the  exportation  of 

1  Taussig,  The  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  8-12,  16-17.  Printed 
by  permission  of  the  author  and  pubhshers,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


INFLUENCE  OF  TME  NEirrKAL  TRAD!':  447 

agricultural  produce.  Tiic  exportation  took  place,  so  far  as  the  north- 
ern colonies  were  concerned,  largely  to  the  West  Indies.  From  the 
West  India  trade  the  means  for  paying  indirectly  for  the  imported 
goods  were  mainly  obtained.  There  were  some  important  excep- 
tions to  this  general  state  of  things.  Ship-building  was  carried  on 
to  a  considerable  extent  in  New  England,  where  abundance  of  ma- 
terial and  the  necessity  of  transportation  by  water  made  such  an  in- 
dustry natural.  The  production  of  unmanufactured  iron  was  carried 
on  to  a  considerable  extent ;  for  at  that  time  the  production  of  pig 
and  bar  iron  tended  to  fix  itself  in  those  countries  where  wood,  the 
fuel  then  used,  was  abundant,  and  was  therefore  an  industry  much 
more  analogous  to  agriculture  than  it  has  been  since  the  employ- 
ment of  coal  as  fuel.  In  the  main,  however,  the  colonies  made 
only  such  manufactures  as  could  not  be  imported.  All  manufac- 
tured goods  that  could  be  imported  were  not  made  at  home,  but 
obtained  in  exchange  for  agricultural  exports. 

This  state  of  things  was  little  changed  after  the  end  of  the  Rev- 
olutionary war  and  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  The  year 
1789  marks  no  such  epoch  in  economic  as  it  does  in  political  his- 
tory. Agriculture,  commerce,  and  the  necessary  mechanic  arts, 
continued  to  form  the  main  occupations  of  the  people.  Such  goods 
as  could  be  imported  continued  to  be  obtained  from  abroad  in  ex- 
change for  exports,  mainly  of  agricultural  produce.  The  range  of 
importable  articles  was,  it  is  true,  gradually  extending.  Cloths,  lin- 
ens, and  textile  fabrics  were  still  chiefly  homespun,  and  fine  goods 
of  this  kind  were  still  in  the  main  the  only  textile  fabrics  imported. 
But  with  the  great  growth  of  manufacturing  industry  in  England 
during  this  time,  the  range  of  articles  that  could  be  imported  was 
growing  wider  and  wider.  During  the  Napoleonic  wars  the  Ameri- 
can market  was  much  the  most  important  for  the  newly  established 
English  manufactures.  Large  quantities  of  cotton  and  woollen  goods 
were  imported,  and  the  importations  of  manufactures  of  iron,  in  re- 
gard to  which  a  similar  change  in  production  was  then  taking  place, 
also  increased  steadily.  Sooner  or  later  the  change  in  the  course 
of  production  which  was  going  on  in  England  must  have  had,  and 
did  have,  a  strong  influence  on  the  economic  condition  of  the 
United   States  ;  but  for  the  time  being  this   influence  was  little 


448  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

felt,  and  the  countiy  continued  in  tlie  main  to  run  in  the  grooves 
of  the  colonial  period. 

This  absence  of  development  was  strongly  promoted  by  the  pe- 
culiar condition  of  the  foreign  trade  of  the  countiy  up  to  1808. 
The  wars  of  the  French  Revolution  opened  to  this  country  profit- 
able markets  for  its  agricultural  products  in  the  West  Indies  and 
in  Europe,  and  profitable  employment  for  its  shipping,  both  in  car- 
rying the  increased  exports  and  in  a  more  or  less  authorized  trad(* 
between  the  belligerent  countries  and  their  colonies.  For  many 
years  the  gains  arising  from  these  sources,  though  not  regular  or 
undisturbed,  were  great,  and  afforded  every  inducement  to  remain 
in  the  occupations  that  yielded  them.  The  demand  for  agricultural 
products  for  exportation  to  the  belligerent  countries  and  their  col- 
onies was  large,  and  the  prices  of  wheat,  corn,  and  meat  were  cor- 
respondingly high.  The  heavy  exports  and  the  profits  on  freights 
furnished  abundant  means  for  paying  for  imported  goods.  Impor- 
tations were  therefore  large,  and  imported  goods  were  so  cheap  as 
to  afford  little  inducement  for  engaging  in  the  production  of  simi- 
lar goods  at  home.  ... 

The  industrial  situation  changed  abruptly  in  1808.  The  compli- 
cations with  England  and  France  led  to  a  series  of  measures  which 
mark  a  turning-point  in  the  industrial  history  of  the  country.  The 
Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  of  Napoleon,  and  the  English  orders  in 
Council,  led,  in  December,  1807,  to  the  Embargo.  The  Non-Inter- 
course Act  followed  in  1809.  War  with  England  was  declared  in 
18 1 2.  During  the  war,  intercourse  with  England  was  prohibited, 
and  all  import  duties  were  doubled.  The  last-mentioned  measure 
was  adopted  in  the  hope  of  increasing  the  revenue,  but  had  little, 
effect,  for  foreign  trade  practically  ceased  to  exist.  This  series  of 
restrictive  measures  blocked  the  accustomed  channels  of  exchange 
and  production,  and  gave  an  enormous  stimulus  to  those  branches 
of  industry  whose  products  had  before  been  imported.  Establish- 
ments for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  woollen  cloths,  iron, 
glass,  pottery,  and  other  articles,  sprang  up  with  a  mushroom 
growth.  ... 


INTERRUP'I'ION  OI'  Till-:  NEUTRAL  'I'RADE       449 

^  GalhUi/i's  Riport  on  A  fan //fact /ires,  jSlO 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  obedience  to  the  resolution 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  respectfully  submits  tlie  follow- 
ing report,  in  part,  on  the  subject  of  domestic  manufactures  : 

The  following  manufactures  are  carried  on  to  an  extent  which 
may  be  considered  adequate  to  the  consumption  of  the  United 
States,  the  foreign  articles  annually  imj^orted  being  less  in  value 
than  those  of  American  manufacture  belonging  to  the  same  gen- 
eral class,  which  are  annually  exported,  viz  : 

Manufactures  of  wood,  or  of  which  wood  is  the  principal  material. 
Leather,  and  manufactures  of     Refined  sugar. 

leather. 
Soap,  and  tallow  candles.  Coarse  earthen  ware. 

Spermaceti  oil  and  candles.  Snuff,  chocolate,  hair  powder. 

Flaxseed  oil.  and  mustard. 

The  following  branches  are  firmly  established,  supplying,  in 
several  instances,  the  greater,  and,  in  all,  a  considerable,  jxut  of 
the  consumption  of  the  United  States,  viz  : 

Iron,  and  manufactures  of  iron.  Gunpowder. 

Manufactures  of  cotton,  wool.  Window  glass. 

and  flax. 

Hats.  Jewelry  and  clocks. 

Paper,  printing  types,  printed  Several  manufactures  of  lead. 

books,  playing  cards. 

Spirituous  and  malt  liquors.  Straw  bonnets  and  hats. 

Several  manufactures  of  hemp.  Wax  candles. 

Progress  has  also  been  made  in  the  following  branches,  viz  : 
Paints  and  colors,  several  chemical  preparations  and  medicinal 
drugs,  salt,  manufactures  of  copper  and  brass,  japanned  and  plated 
ware,  calico  printing,  queens  and  other  earthen  and  glass  wares,  &c. 
Many  articles,  respecting  which  no  information  has  been  re- 
ceived, are  undoubtedly  omitted  ;  and  the  substance  of  the  infor- 
mation obtained,  on  the  most  important  branches,  is  comprehended 
under  the  following  heads  : 

1  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  II,  425-426. 


450  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

Wood,  and  Manufactures  of  Wood 

All  the  branches  of  this  manufacture  are  carried  to  a  high  degree 
of  perfection,  supply  the  whole  demand  of  the  United  States,  and 
consist  principally  of  cabinet  ware,  and  other  household  furniture, 
coaches  and  carriages,  either  for  pleasure  or  transportation,  and 
ship  building. 

The  ships  and  vessels,  above  twenty  tons  burthen,  built  in  the 
United  States  during  the  years  1801  to  1807,  measured  774,922 
tons,  making,  on  an  average,  about  110,000  tons  a  year,  and 
worth  more  than  six  millions  of  dollars.  About  two  thirds  were 
registered  for  the  foreign  trade,  and  the  remainder  licensed  for 
the  coasting  trade  and  fisheries. 

Of  the  other  branches,  no  particular  account  can  be  given. 
But  the  annual  exportations  of  furniture  and  carriages  amount  to 
1 70,000  dollars.  The  value  of  the  whole,  including  ship  building, 
cannot  be  less  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars  a  year. 

Under  this  head  may  also  be  mentioned  pot  and  pearl  ash,  of 
which,  besides  supplying  the  internal  demand,  7,400  tons  are 
annually  exported. 

Leather,  and  Manufactures  of  Leather 

Tanneries  are  established  in  every  part  of  the  United  States, 
some  of  them  on  a  very  large  scale  —  the  capital  employed  in  a 
single  establishment  amounting  to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
A  few  hides  are  exported,  and  it  is  stated  that  one-third  of  those 
used  in  the  great  tanneries  of  the  Atlantic  States  are  imported 
from  Spanish  America.  Some  superior  or  particular  kinds  of  Eng- 
lish leather  and  morocco  are  still  imported  ;  but  about  350,000 
pounds  of  American  leather  are  annually  exported.  The  bark  is 
abundant  and  cheap  ;  and  it  seems,  that  hides  cost,  in  America, 
five  cents,  and  in  England,  seven  cents  a  pound  ;  that  the  bark 
used  for  tanning,  costs,  in  England,  nearly  as  much  as  the  hides, 
and  in  America  not  one-tenth  part  of  that  sum.  It  is,  at  the 
same  time,  acknowledged,  that  much  American  leather  is  brought 
to  market,  of  an  inferior  quality,  and  that  better  is  generally 
made  in  the  middle  than  in  the  Northern  or  Southern  States. 
The  tanneries  of  the    State  of  Delaware  employ,  collectively,  a 


IN'J'KRRUP'l'ION  OF  THE  NEUTRAL  'J'RADE        451 

capital  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  ninety 
workmen,  and  make,  annually,  one  hundred  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  leather.  Those  of  Baltimore  amount  to  twenty-two,  seven- 
teen of  which  ha\'e,  together,  a  capital  of  187,000  dollars,  and  tim, 
annually,  19,000  hides  and  25,000  calf  skins. 

Morocco  is  also  made  in  several  places,  partly  from  imported 
goat  skins,  and  principally  from  sheep  skins.  And  it  may  be  proper 
here  to  add,  that  deer  skins,  which  form  an  article  of  exportation, 
are  dressed  and  manufactured  in  the  United  States,  to  the  amount 
required  for  the  consumption  of  the  country. 

The  principal  manufactures  of  leather  are  those  of  shoes  and 
boots,  harness  and  saddles.  Some  inconsiderable  quantities  of  the 
two  last  articles  are  both  imported  and  exported.  The  annual  im- 
portiition  of  foreign  boots  and  shoes,  amounts  to  3,250  pair  of  boots 
and  59,000  pair  of  shoes,  principally  kid  and  morocco.  The  annual 
exportation  of  the  same  articles,  of  American  manufacture,  to 
8,500  pair  of  boots  and  127,000  pair  of  shoes.  The  shoe  manu- 
factures of  New  Jersey  are  extensive.  That  of  Lynn,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, makes  100,000  pair  of  women's  shoes  annually. 

The  value  of  all  the  articles  annually  manufactured  in  the  United 
States,  which  are  embraced  under  this  head  (leather),  may  be 
estimated  at  twenty  millions  of  dollars. 

Cotton,  Wool,  and  Flax 

The  first  cotton  mill  was  erected  in  the  State  of  Rhode  Island, 
in  the  year  1791  ;  another,  in  the  same  State,  in  the  year  1795  ; 
and  two  more,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  years  1803 
and  1804.  During  the  three  succeeding  years,  ten  more  were 
erected  or  commenced,  in  Rhode  Island,  and  one  in  Connecticut ; 
making,  altogether,  fifteen  mills  erected  before  the  year  1808, 
working,  at  that  time,  about  eight  thousand  spindles,  and  produc- 
ing about  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  yarn  a  }'ear. 

Returns  have  been  received  of  eighty-seven  mills,  which  were 
erected  at  the  end  of  the  year  1 809,  sixty-two  of  which  (forty-eight, 
water,  and  fourteen,  horse,  mills)  were  in  operation,  and  worked, 
at  that  time,,  thirty-one  thousand  spindles.  The  other  twenty-five 
will  all  be  in  operation  in  the  course  of  this  year,  and,  together 


452  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

with  the  former  ones,  (ahnost  all  of  which  are  increasing  their 
machinery)  will,  by  the  estimate  received,  work  more  than  eighty 
thousand  spindles  at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1 8 1 1 . 

The  increase  of  carding  and  spinning  of  cotton  by  machineiy, 
in  establishments  for  that  purpose,  and  exclusively  of  that  done  in 
private  families,  has,  therefore,  been  fourfold,  during  the  two  last 
}'ears,  and  will  have  been  tenfold  in  three  years.  Although  the 
greater  is  in  the  vicinity  of  Providence,  in  Rhode  Island,  they  are 
scattered  and  extending  throughout  all  the  States.  .  .  . 

Some  of  the  mills,  are  also  employed  in  carding  and  spinning 
wool,  though  not  to  a  considerable  amount.  But  almost  the  whole 
of  that  material  is  spun  and  wove  in  private  families  ;  and  there  are 
yet  but  few  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloths. 
Some  information  has,  however,  been  received,  respecting  fourteen 
of  these,  manufacturing,  each,  on  an  average,  ten  thousand  yards 
of  cloth  a  year,  worth  from  one  to  ten  dollars  a  yard.  It  is  believed 
that  there  are  others,  from  which  no  information  has  been  obtained  ; 
and  it  is  known  that,  several  establi*shments,  on  a  smaller  scale, 
exist  in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  some  other  places.  All  those 
cloths,  as  well  as  those  manufactured  in  private  families,  are  gen- 
erally superior  in  quality,  though  somewhat  inferior  in  appearance, 
to  imported  cloths  on  the  same  price.  The  principal  obstacle  to 
the  extension  of  the  manufacture  is  the  want  of  wool,  which  is 
still  deficient,  both  in  quality  and  quantity.  But  those  defects  are 
daily  and  rapidly  lessened,  by  the  introduction  of  sheep  of  the 
merino  and  other  superior  breeds ;  by  the  great  demand  for  the 
article  ;  and  by  the  attention  now  every  where  paid  by  farmers  to 
the  increase  and  improvement  of  their  flocks. 

Manufacturing  establishments,  for  spinning  and  weaving  flax 
are  yet  but  few.  In  the  State  of  New  York,  there  is  one,  which 
employs  a  capital  of  18,000  dollars,  and  twenty-six  persons,  and  in 
which  about  ninety  thousand  pounds  of  flax  are  annually  spun  and 
wove,  into  canvas  and  other  coarse  linen.  Information  has  been 
received  respecting  two,  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  one  of 
which  produces,  annually,  72,000  yards  of  canvas,  made  of  flax 
and  cotton  ;  in  the  other,  the  flax  is  both  hackled  and  spun  by 
machinery  ;  thirty  looms  are  employed  ;  and  it  is  said  that  500,000 


INTERRUPTION  OF  THE  NEUTRAL  'IRADI',        453 

yards  of  cotton  bagging,  sail  cloth,  and  coarse  linen,  may  be  made 
annuall)'. 

Mosicry  may  also  be  considered  as  almost  exclusively  a  house- 
hold manufacture.  That  of  Germantovvn  has  declined,  and  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  attempted  on  a  large  scale  in  other  places. 
There  are,  however,  some  exceptions  ;  and  it  is  stated  that  the 
island  of  Martha's  Vineyard  exports,  annually,  nine  thousand  pairs 
of  stockings.   .   .  . 

But  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  goods  made  of  those  materials 
[cotton,  flax,  and  wool]  are  manufactured  in  private  families,  mostly 
for  their  own  use,  and  partly  for  sale.  They  consist  principally  of 
coarse  cloth,  flannel,  cotton  stuffs,  and  stripes  of  every  description, 
linen  and  mixtures  of  wool  with  flax  or  cotton.  The  information 
received  from  every  State,  and  from  more  than  sixty  different 
places,  concurs  in  establishing  the  fact  of  an  extraordinary  increase, 
during  the  last  two  years,  and  in  rendering  it  probable  that  about 
two-thirds  of  the  clothing,  including  hosieiy,  and  of  the  house  and 
table  linen,  worn  and  used  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States, 
who  do  not  reside  in  cities,  is  the  product  of  family  manufactures. 

In  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  carding  machines,  worked 
by  water,  are  every  where  established,  and  they  are  rapidly  extend- 
ing southwardly  and  westwardly.  Jennies,  other  family  spinning 
machines,  and  flying  shuttles,  are  also  introduced  in  many  places ; 
and  as  many  fulling  mills  are  erected  as  are  required  for  finishing 
all  the  cloth  which  is  woven  in  private  families. 

Iron,  and  Manup^actures  of  Iron 

The  information  received  respecting  that  important  branch  is 
veiy  imperfect.  It  is  however,  well  known,  that  iron  ore  abounds, 
and  that  numerous  furnaces  and  forges  are  erected,  throughout  the 
United  States.  They  supply  a  sufficient  quantity  of  hollow  ware, 
and  of  castings,  of  every  description  ;  but  about  4,500  tons  of  bar 
iron  are  annually  imported  from  Russia,  and  probably,  an  equal 
quantity  from  Sweden  and  England  together.  A  vague  estimate 
states  the  amount  of  bar  iron  annually  used  in  the  United  States, 
at  fifty  thousand  tons,  which  would  leave  about  forty  thousand  for 
that  of  American  manufacture.    Although  a  great  proportion  of 


454  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

the  ore  found  in  Vermont,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia, 
be  of  a  superior  quality,  and  some  of  the  iron  manufactured  there, 
equal  to  any  imported,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  that,  from  the  demand, 
and  from  want  of  proper  attention  in  the  manufacture,  much  in- 
ferior American  iron  is  brought  to  market.  On  that  account,  the 
want  of  the  ordinary  supply  of  Russian  iron  has  been  felt  in  some 
of  the  slitting  and  rolling  mills.  But,  whilst  a  reduction  of  the 
duty  on  Russian  iron  is  asked  from  several  cjuarters,  it  is  generally 
stated  that  a  high  or  prohibitory  duty  on  English  bar,  slit,  rolled, 
and  sheet  iron,  would  be  beneficial  ;  that  which  is  usually  imported 
on  account  of  its  cheapness,  being  made  with  pit  coal,  and  of  a 
very  inferior  quality. 

The  annual  importations  of  sheet,  slit,  and  hoop  iron,  amount 
to  five  hundred  and  sixty-five  tons  ;  and  the  quantity  rolled  and 
slit  in  the  United  .States,  is  estimated  at  seven  thousand  tons.  In 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone,  are  found  thirteen  rolling  and 
slitting  mills,  in  which  about  3,500  tons  of  bar  iron,  principally 
from  Russia,  are  annually  rolled  or  slit.  A  portion  is  used  for 
sheet  iron  and  nail  rods  for  wrought  nails  ;  but  two-thirds  of  the 
whole  quantity  of  bar  iron  flattened  by  machinery  in  the  United 
States,  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  citt  nails,  which  has  now 
extended  throughout  the  whole  country,  and,  being  altogether  an 
American  invention,  substituting  machinery  to  manual  labor,  de- 
serves particular  notice.  The  annual  product  of  that  branch  alone, 
may  be  estimated  at  twelve  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  that, 
exclusively  of  the  saving  of  fuel,  the  expense  of  manufacturing  cut 
nails,  is  not  one-third  part  of  that  of  forging  wrought  nails.  About 
two  hundred  and  eighty  tons  are  already  annually  exported,  but 
the  United  .States  continue  to  import,  annually,  more  than  fifteen 
hundred  tons  of  wrought  nails  and  spikes.  An  increase  of  duty 
on  these,  and  a  drawback  on  the  exportation  of  the  cut  nails  is 
generally  asked  for. 

A  considerable  quantity  of  blistered,  and  some  refined  steel,  are 
made  in  America  ;  but  the  foreign  importations  exceed  1 1,000  cwt. 
a  year. 

The  manufactures  of  iron  consist  principally  of  agricultural 
implements,   and  of  all  the  usual  work  performed  by  common 


INTERRUPTION  OF  THE  NEUTRAL  TRADE   455 

blacksmiths.  To  these  may  be  added  anchors,  shovels,  and  spades, 
axes,  scythes,  and  other  edge  tools,  saws,  bits,  and  stirrups,  and  a 
great  variety  of  the  coarser  articles  of  ironmongery ;  but  cutler)^ 
and  all  the  finer  species  of  hardware,  and  of  steel  work,  are  almost 
altogether  imported  from  Great  Britain.  Balls,  shells,  and  cannon, 
of  small  caliber,  are  cast  in  several  places  ;  and  three  foundries  for 
casting  solid,  those  of  the  largest  caliber,  together  with  the  proper 
machinery  for  boring  and  finishing  them,  are  established  at  Cecil 
county,  Mar\4and,  near  the  city  of  Washington,  and  at  Richmond, 
in  Virginia  ;  each  of  the  two  last  may  cast  300  pieces  of  artiller)'  a 
year,  and  a  great  number  of  iron  and  brass  cannon  are  made  at 
that,  near  the  seat  of  Government.  Those  of  Philadelphia  and  near 
the  Hudson  river,  are  not  now  employed.  It  may  be  here  added 
that  there  are  several  iron  foundries  for  casting  ever)^  species 
of  work  wanted  for  machinery,  and  that  steam  engines  are  made 
at  that  of  Philadelphia.   .   .   . 

PVom  that  imperfect  sketch  of  American  manufactures,  it  may, 
with  certainty,  be  inferred  that  their  annual  product  exceeds  one 
hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  And  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  raw  materials  used,  and  the  provisions  and  other  articles 
consumed,  by  the  manufacturers,  create  a  home  market  for  agricul- 
tural products  not  very  inferior  to  that  which  arises  from  foreign 
demand.  A  result  more  favorable  than  might  have  been  expected 
from  a  view  of  the  natural  causes  which  impede  the  introduction, 
and  retard  the  progress  of  manufacture  in  the  United  States. 

The  most  prominent  of  those  causes  are  the  abundance  of  land 
compared  with  the  population,  the  high  price  of  labor,  and  the 
want  of  a  sufficient  capital.  The  superior  attractions  of  agricultural 
pursuits,  the  great  extension  of  American  commerce  during  the  late 
European  wars,  and  the  continuance  of  habits  after  the  causes 
which  produced  them  have  ceased  to  exist,  may  also  be  enumerated. 
Several  of  those  obstacles  have,  however,  been  removed  or  lessened. 
The  cheapness  of  provisions  had  always,  to  a  certain  extent,  coun- 
terbalanced'the  high  price  of  manual  labor  ;  and  this  is  now,  in  many 
important  branches,  nearly  superseded  by  the  introduction  of 
machinery  ;  a  great  American  capital  has  been  acquired  during 
the  last  twenty  years  ;  and  the  injurious  violations  of  the  neutral 


456  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

commerce  of  the  United  States,  by  forcing  industry  and  capital  into 
other  channels,  have  broken  inveterate  habits,  and  given  a  general 
impulse,  to  which  must  be  ascribed  the  great  increase  of  manufac- 
tures during  the  two  last  years. 

The  revenue  of  the  United  States,  being  principally  derived  from 
duties  on  the  importation  of  foreign  merchandise,  these  have  also 
operated  as  a  premium  in  favor  of  American  manufactures,  whilst, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  continuance  of  peace,  and  the  frugality  of 
Government,  have  rendered  unnecessary  any  oppressive  taxes, 
tending  materially  to  enhance  the  price  of  labor,  or  impeding  any 
species  of  industry. 

No  cause,  indeed,  has,  perhaps,  more  promoted,  in  every  respect, 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  United  States,  than  the  absence  of 
those  systems  of  internal  restrictions  and  monopoly  which  continue 
to  disfigure  the  state  of  society  in  other  countries.  No  law  exists 
here,  directly  or  indirectly,  confining  man  to  a  particular  occupa- 
tion or  place,  or  excluding  any  citizen  from  any  branch,  he  may, 
at  any  time,  think  proper  to  pursue.  Industry  is,  in  every  respect, 
perfectly  free  and  unfettered  ;  every  species  of  trade,  commerce, 
art,  profession  and  manufacture,  being  equally  opened  to  all,  without 
requiring  any  previous  regular  apprenticeship,  admission,  or  licence. 
Hence  the  progress  of  America  has  not  been  confined  to  the  im- 
provement of  her  agriculture,  and  to  the  rapid  formation  of  new 
settlements  and  States  in  the  wilderness  ;  but  her  citizens  have  ex- 
tended their  commerce  through  eveiy  part  of  the  globe,  and  carry 
on  with  complete  success,  even  those  branches  for  which  a  mo- 
nopoly had  heretofore  been  considered  essentially  necessary. 

The  same  principle  has  also  accelerated  the  introduction  and 
progress  of  manufactures,  and  must  ultimately  give  in  that  branch, 
as  in  all  others,  a  decided  superiority  to  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  over  the  inhabitants  of  countries  oppressed  by  taxes,  restric- 
tions and  monopolies.  It  is  believed  that,  even  at  this  time,  the 
only  powerful  obstacle  against  which  American  manufactures  have 
to  struggle,  arises  from  the  vastly  superior  capital  of  the  first  manu- 
facturing nation  of  Europe,  which  enables  her  merchants  to  give 
very  long  credits,  to  sell  on  small  profits,  and  to  make  occasional 
sacrifices. 


INTERRUPTION  OF  THE  NEUTRAL  TRADE   457 

The  information  which  has  been  obtained  is  not  sufficient  to 
submit,  in  conformity  with  the  resolution  of  the  House,  the  plan 
best  calculated  to  protect  and  promote  American  manufactures.  The 
most  obvious  means  are  bounties,  increased  duties  on  importation, 
and  loans  by  Government. 

Occasional  premiums  might  be  beneficial ;  but  a  general  system 
of  bounties  is  more  applicable  to  articles  exported  than  to  those 
manufactured  for  home  consumption. 

The  present  system  of  duties  may,  in  some  respects,  be  equal- 
ized and  improved,  so  as  to  protect  some  species  of  manufactures 
without  affecting  the  revenue.  But  prohibitory  duties  are  liable  to  the 
treble  objection  of  destroying  competition,  of  taxing  the  consumer, 
and  of  diverting  capital  and  industry  into  channels  generally  less 
profitable  to  the  nation  than  those  which  would  have  naturally  been 
pursued  by  individual  interest  left  to  itself.  A  moderate  increase 
will  be  less  dangerous,  and,  if  adopted,  should  be  continued  dur- 
ing a  certain  period  ;  for  the  repeal  of  a  duty  once  laid,  materially 
injures  those  who  have  relied  on  its  permanency,  as  has  been  exem- 
plified in  the  salt  manufacture. 

Since,  however,  the  comparative  want  of  capital,  is  the  principal 
obstacle  to  the  introduction  and  advancement  of  manufactures  in 
America,^  it  seems  that  the  most  efficient,  and  most  obvious  remedy 
would  consist  in  supplying  that  capital.  For,  although  the  exten- 
sion of  banks  may  give  some  assistance  in  that  respect,  their  oper- 
ation is  limited  to  a  few  places,  nor  does  it  comport  wdth  the  nature 
of  those  institutions  to  lend  for  periods  as  long  as  are  requisite  for 
the  establishment  of  manufactures.  The  United  States  might  create 
a  circulating  stock,  bearing  a  low  rate  of  interest,  and  lend  it  at  par 
to  manufacturers,  on  principles  somewhat  similar  to  that  formerly 
adopted  by  the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  in  their 
loan  offices.  It  is  believed  that  a  plan  might  be  devised  by  which 
five  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  but  not  exceeding,  in  the  whole, 
twenty  millions,  might  be  thus  lent,  witliout  any  material  risk  of 
ultimate  loss,  and  without  taxing  or  injuring  any  other  part  of  the 
community. 

1  Compare  Tudor's  statement,  pp.  463-464. 


458  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

^  In  this  Manufactory  [Eli  Whitney's  at  New  Haven]  muskets 
are  made  in  a  manner,  which  I  beheve  to  be  singular.  In  forming 
the  various  parts  of  this  instrument,  machinery,  moved  by  water, 
and  remarkably  adapted  in  every  instance  to  the  purpose  in  view, 
is  employed  for  hammering,  cutting,  turning,  perforating,  grinding, 
polishing,  &c.  &c. 

The  proportion,  and  relative  position,  of  the  several  parts  of  the 
locks  are  so  exactly  alike  ;  and  the  screws,  springs,  and  other  limbs, 
are  made  so  similar ;  that  they  may  be  transferred  from  one  lock 
and  adjusted  to  another  without  any  material  alteration.  This  de- 
sirable object,  Mr.Whitney  has  accomplished  by  an  apparatus,  which 
is  simple,  peculiar,  and  eminently  ingenious.  By  an  application  of 
the  same  principles  a  much  greater  .uniformity  has  also  been  given 
to  every  part  of  the  muskets,  made  in  this  manufactory,  than  can 
be  found  in  those,  which  are  fabricated  at  any  other.  The  advan- 
tages, which  in  actual  service  result  from  this  uniformity,  are  too 
obvious  to  need  an  explanation. 

This  establishment  was  undertaken  by  Mr.  Whitney  without  the 
least  experience  in  manufacturing  fire-arms.  All  his  workmen, 
also,  who  were  employed  in  carrying  it  into  operation,  were  abso- 
lutely unskilled  in  the  business  :  not  one  of  them  having  ever 
wrought  in  any  branch  of  it,  antecedently  to  their  having  been 
instructed  by  him. 

In  these  circumstances  Mr.  Whitney  was  constrained  to  adopt 
methods  of  his  own,  and,  as  skilful  artists  could  not  be  obtained, 
to  devise  a  system  in  which  the  more  exact  operations  of  his  ma- 
chinery might  supply  the  want  of  experience  in  the  workmen. 
Hence  modes  of  working  iron,  and  other  metals,  and  materials, 
have  been  invented  by  him,  which  are  new  and  peculiar ;  and 
which  experience  has  shewn  to  be  exceedingly  useful. 

1  Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1S03],  II,  289-290.  This 
is  probably  the  origin  of  the  device  of  interchangeable  parts  which  later  became 
such  an  important  feature  of  many  branches  of  American  manufactures. 


CONDITIONS  AFTER  THE  EUROPEAN  WARS      459 

IV.    CONDITIONS   AFTER   'IHF   CLOSE    OF  THE   EUROPEAN 
WARS,   1815-1840 

1  But  no  special  protection  beyond  the  ordinary  revenue  duties 
lias  been,  or  is,  necessary  for  the  introduction  of  the  manufactures 
required  by  the  wants  of  the  country.  The  annual  average  value 
of  the  imported  merchandise  paying  duties  ad  valorem  in  the  years 
1798-icSoi  amounted,  after  deducting  those  exported  with  the  ben- 
efit of  drawback,  to  $33,747,000.  Deducting  about  $950,000  on 
account  of  articles  exported  that  were  not  entitled  to  drawback,  and 
of  the  fruits,  spices,  and  some  other  minor  items  not  then  charged 
with  specific  duties,  the  residue,  amounting  to  $32,000,000,  is  the 
value  of  the  foreign  manufactured  commodities  annually  consumed 
at  that  time.  The  annual  average  value  of  the  imported  goods 
paying  duties  ad  valorem  during  the  years  1 821-1824,  taken  from 
the  annual  statements  of  commerce,  amounted,  after  deducting 
the  reexportations,  to  $32,910,000.  To  this  must  be  added,  first, 
$2,700,000,  being  the  value  of  the  iron  and  manufactured  articles 
which  now  pay  specific  duties.  Secondly,  $7,000,000,  being  the 
difference  between  the  present  value  of  the  cotton  goods  now  im- 
ported and  that  of  the  same  quantity  in  the  years  1 799-1 801  ;  the 
increase,  therefore,  during  that  period  of  twenty-three  years,  amounts 
to  about  $10,600,000,  or  to  about  33%  ;  and  that  of  the  domestic 
exports  will  be  found  to  have  been  35^%.  During  the  same  period 
the  population  of  the  United  States  has  more  than  doubled. 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  were 
at  least  as  well  supplied  in  the  year  1824  as  in  the  year  1801  with 
clothing,  furniture,  and  every  species  of  manufactured  commodities. 
A  population  twice  as  great,  in  order  to  be  equally  well  supplied, 
required  twice  the  amount  of  such  articles.  And  since  the  value  of 
foreign  goods  of  that  description  consumed  in  the  United  States 
in  1824  amounted  only  to  $42,600,000,  instead  of  $64,000,000, 
the  difference  must  necessarily  have  been  supplied  by  domestic 
manufactures.  Not  only  those  which  were  established  in  1801 
must  have  increased  in  a  ratio  equal  to  the  increase  of  population, 

1  Gallatin,  Memorial  of  the  Free  Trade  Convention  [1831]  printed  in  Taussig's 
State  Papers  and  Speeches  on  the  Tariff,  pp.  208-210. 


460  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

but  by  a  further  quantity,  amounting  to  $21,400,000.  The  annual 
amount  of  foreign  manufactures  had,  during  that  period,  and  prior 
to  the  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828,  been  lessened  more  than  one  third 
in  proportion  to  the  population. 

The  actual  increase  of  domestic  manufactures  cannot  be  pre- 
cisely ascertained,  since  the  actual  amount  in  1801  is  not  known; 
but  the  limits  of  that  increase  may  be  correctly  estimated.  From 
the  imperfect  data  obtained  in  the  year  18 10,  it  appears  certain 
that  the  amount  in  the  year  1801  did  not  exceed  $100,000,000, 
or  fall  short  of  $60,000,000.  The  domestic  manufactures  formed, 
therefore,  from  two  thirds  to  three  fourths  of  the  total  amount  of 
the  manufactured  commodities  consumed.  The  total  amount  con- 
sumed in  the  years  1 821-1824  amounted  to  $264,000,000,  accord- 
ing to  the  first  supposition,  and  to  $184,000,000,  according  to  the 
second.  Deducting,  in  both  cases,  the  amount  of  foreign  goods 
annually  consumed  in  those  years,  and  amounting  to  $42,600,000, 
the  increase  of  domestic  manufactures  would  have  been,  in  twenty- 
three  years,  121^  %  in  the  first  case,  and  136%  in  the  second.  We 
have  a  moral  certainty  that  it  was  within  those  limits  ;  and  that  the 
amount  of  foreign  manufactures  was  in  1824  from  one  fifth  to  one 
sixth,  while  it  was  in  1801  from  one  third  to  one  fourth,  of  the 
whole  amount  of  manufactured  commodities  consumed. 

Proceeding  in  the  same  manner,  it  will  appear  that,  without  any 
such  special  protection  as  that  of  the  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828,  the 
total  value  of  the  manufactures  consumed  in  the  United  States  in 
the  year  1847  will  probably  be  $450,000,000,  of  which  the  domes- 
tic manufactures  will  form  seven  eighths,  and  foreign  merchandise 
no  more  than  one  eighth  part.  In  all  probability  the  increase  of 
domestic  manufactures  will  be  greater,  in  proportion,  during  that 
period  of  twenty-three  years,  than  during  the  next  preceding ; 
since  there  will  be  more  skill  and  experience,  a  more  dense  popu- 
lation, and  a  greater  proportionate  capital. 

The  principle  is  indisputable  ;  and  if  there  is  some  error  in  the 
numbers,  it  will  no  otherwise  affect  the  result,  than  that  it  may 
take  place  a  few  years  sooner  or  later.  But  that  result  with  a  popu- 
lation so  active  and  intelligent  is  certain.  The  question  is  only 
one  of  time ;  and  admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  the 


CONDITIONS  AFTER  THE  EUROPEAN  WARS      46 1 

protecting  system  has  a  tendency  to  accelerate  the  estabhshnient  of 
manufactures  in  general,  all  that  can  be  gained  by  it  is,  that  the 
same  necessary  result  may  be  obtained  a  few  years  earlier. 

^  There  are  several  parts  of  the  United  States  where  certain 
branches  of  manufactures  are  permanently  fixed,  without  includ- 
ing those  household  productions,  which  are  made  to  a  great  extent 
in  every  state  in  the  Union.  It  is  my  purpose  only,  in  answer  to 
your  inquiries,  to  tell  you  what  has  been  done  in  the  eastern 
division  ;  to  say  something  of  the  advantages  it  possesses  for  the 
prosecution  of  manufactures,  and  to  remark  upon  some  of  the 
objections,  that  have  been  urged  against  them.   .  .  . 

The  cotton  manufactories  are  numerous  ;  they  are  scattered  over 
every  part  of  these  states  —  many  of  them  small,  with  only  four  or 
five  hundred  spindles,  and  from  that  number  up  to  ten  or  fifteen 
thousand ;  these  are,  in  almost  every  instance,  the  property  of  in- 
corporated companies  ;  most  of  them  were  hastily  erected,  and  their 
machineiy  is  not  very  good.  The  aggregate  of  their  produce  is 
very  considerable,  though  very  few  of  them  continue  in  full  steady 
operation.  Their  capital  is  commonly  too  limited,  to  enable  them 
to  transact  their  business  advantageously.  They  are  often  obliged 
to  make  forced  sales  of  their  goods,  and  a  rise  in  the  price  of  the 
raw  material  consumes  all  their  profits,  and  forces  them  to  suspend 
their  work ;  of  course,  they  cannot  be  expected  to  make  any  great 
improvement  while  liable  to  such  interruptions.  Still,  this  branch 
of  manufactures  for  the  production  of  coarse  kinds  of  goods,  may 
be  considered  as  permanently  established  here. 

The  manufactures  of  iron,  both  wrought  and  cast,  arc  largely 
extended  in  this  quarter.  Some  iron  is  made  from  the  ore,  but  by 
far  the  largest  quantity  consumed,  is  imported  from  Russia,  Sweden, 
and  England.  The  chief  articles  of  cast  iron,  are  made  here  to  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  ones.  Many  of  the  coarser  articles  of  wrought 
iron  are  also  made  in  large  quantities,  such  as  nails,  shovels,  edge 
tools,  &c.  We  have,  by  necessity,  been  obliged  to  manufacture  ma- 
chinery, since  it  was  not  allowed  to  be  exported  from  England.  We 
have  many  excellent  workmen  in  this  line,  and  the  most  delicate 
1  Tudor,  LeUers  on  the  Eastern  States  [1819],  pp.  253,  25S-263,  265-266. 


.462  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

and  difficult  machinery  is  made  in  perfection,  from  a  stocking 
loom,  or  a  card  machine,  up  to  a  steam  engine  ;  of  these  last  we 
have  two  or  three  manufactories  ;  and  these  invaluable  machines 
are  now  getting  more  and  more  into  use. 

The  manufactures  of  leather  are  all  extensively  established,  and 
many  of  them  brought  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  In  the  prep- 
aration of  skins,  we  have  not  yet  produced  the  finest  kinds  of  Mo- 
rocco or  Russia  leather,  but  we  are  daily  making  a  progress  towards 
doing  so.  In  some  of  the  manufactures  of  which  leather  is  the 
principal  material,  our  produce  for  a  long  period  has  been  very  con- 
siderable ;  others  have  been  more  recently  introduced,  but  all  of 
them  may  vie  with  any  foreign  production.  Boots,  shoes,  trunks, 
saddleiy,  and  bookbinding,  furnish  a  large  amount  in  our  exports 
to  the  rest  of  the  Union.  Every  article  of  any  importance  made 
from  skins,  except  gloves,  may  be  considered  as  one  of  our  per- 
manent manufactures.  To  these  may  be  added  hats,  both  from 
wool  and  fur,  of  which  large  quantities  are  made,  though  we  still 
import  many  of  the  finer  descriptions  from  Europe. 

Our  woollen  manufactures  may  yet  be  considered  in  their  in- 
fancy, though  their  produce  is  very  considerable.  Of  the  coarser 
kind  of  woollens  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  what  is  worn  in 
the  country,  is  home  made.  The  quantity  has  been  increased  by 
the  saving  of  labour,  from  the  establishment  of  carding  machines, 
which  are  every  where  to  be  found.  Several  respectable  manufac- 
tories, for  the  production  of  the  finer  kinds  of  cloth  and  cassimeres, 
have  been  got  up  within  a  few  years ;  and  some  of  the  specimens 
they  have  shown  will  bear  a  comparison  with  almost  any  produc- 
tions of  the  European  looms.  These  manufactories  are  gradually 
increasing,  and  we  may  look  forward  to  no  very  distant  period, 
when  they  will  more  than  supply  our  own  wants.  Their  success  is 
connected  with  the  improvement  of  our  breeds  of  sheep  ;  this  has 
commenced  with  the  introduction  of  the  Spanish  breeds  :  but  there 
are  some  other  races  that  are  greatly  wanted,  and  which  will  no 
doubt  be  had,  ere  long,  in  spite  of  foreign  prohibition. 

Besides  these  principal  branches  of  manufactures,  there  are 
many  others  in  extensive  operation.  Among  these,  glass  may  be 
cited,  as  having  been  so  early  brought  to  rival  the  most  beautiful 


CONDITIONS  AFTER  THE  EL^ROPEAN  WARS      463 

articles  of  English  ware.  There  are  glass  manufactories  in  differ- 
ent places  ;  those  in  Boston  are  the  principal  ones  ;  the  finest  and 
most  difficult  kinds  of  cut  glass  can  now  be  procured  at  them. 
Manufactures  of  all  kinds  of  cabinetwork,  of  musical  instruments, 
of  tin- ware,  &c.  &c.  are  to  be  found  in  different  places,  some  of 
these  in  every  village.  There  is  no  considerable  branch  of  manu- 
factures which  has  not  some  establishment  here,  excepting  silk. 
The  climate  is  favourable  to  the  mulberry  tree,  and  no  doubt  silk 
will  be  produced  hereafter.  Samples  indeed  have  been  shown  in 
different  places  ;  but  they  are  as  yet  too  inconsiderable  to  be  num- 
bered among  our  fabrics. 

It  seems,  then,  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  practicability 
of  our  becoming  manufacturers,  and  the  expediency  is  I  presume 
growing  daily  more  evident.  With  the  fullest  belief,  however,  of 
the  utility  and  necessity  of  manufactures,  I  am  not  anxious  for  the 
growth  of  large  manufacturing  towns,  and  the  kind  of  population 
that  exists  in  them  in  Europe  ;  though  it  will  naturally  come  in 
the  course  of  things,  no  wise  or  benevolent  man  would  wish  to 
advance  it.  Our  manufacturing  population  is  now  blended  with 
that  of  agriculture  ;  the  labourers  in  the  former  are  drawn  from 
the  latter,  and  frequently  return  to  it  for  a  time.  This  preserves 
their  health  and  energy ;  in  this  way  we  may  go  on  to  a  great 
increase  of  manufactures,  till  we  are  able  to  supply  as  much  as  we 
consume,  though  we  may  always  find  it  convenient  to  import  some 
articles.  But  to  have  large  manufacturing  cities,  swarming  with 
labourers,  who  are  mere  spinning  mules  and  Jennies,  —  who  are 
reduced  by  competition  to  the  minimum  of  subsistence,  and  even 
this  rendered  precarious  by  the  change  of  fashion  or  foreign  pro- 
hibition ;  —  such  a  state  of  things  I  do  not  wish  to  see  existing, 
while  there  is  any  land  left  to  give  our  population  the  means  of 
subsistence.  Indeed,  there  is  no  fear  that  it  will  happen  for  many 
generations  to  come. 

Let  me  point  out  to  your  notice,  one  or  two  of  the  advantages 
we  possess,  for  the  establishment  of  manufactures.  Those  abroad 
who  fear  our  competition,  have  commonly  solaced  themselves  with 
the  belief,  that  we  never  could  carry  on  manufactures  extensively, 
because  labour  was  too  high  ;  the  same  idea  has  been  held  up  here, 


464  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

by  those  who  have  considered  the  question  superficially,  or  with 
adverse  prejudices.  Now,  it  is  remarkable,  that  in  all  those  numer- 
ous branches  of  manufactures,  in  which  foreign  productions  have 
been  altogether  superseded,  except  in  a  few  cases  of  luxury  or 
fashionable  caprice  —  it  is  labour,  and  labour  of  the  dearest  kind, 
that  is  almost  exclusively  employed.  For  instance,  boots,  shoes, 
hats,  saddlery,  &c.  &c. ;  —  in  these  and  many  other  articles, 
machinery  cannot  be  used,  and  the  work  is  almost  wholly  per- 
formed by  men.  —  It  is  not  the  price  of  labour,  but  the  want  of 
capital,  that  prevents  our  success.  We  manufacture  for  ourselves 
much  the  greater  part  of  what  we  consume,  excepting  those  fab- 
rics which  are  principally  made  by  machinery.  The  labour  of  men 
is  dearer  than  it  is  in  England,  but  the  labour  of  women  and 
children  bears  nearly  the  same  price  in  both  countries ;  and  in  the 
great  manufactories  of  cotton,  and  many  others,  the  number  of 
men  who  are  employed  is  comparatively  small.  Whenever  persons 
of  capital  shall  choose  to  employ  it  in  manufactures,  and  give  their 
personal  attention  to  their  concerns,  it  will  be  found  that  the  price 
of  labour  will  be  no  impediment. 

There  is  also  a  preference  given  by  our  people  to  employment 
in  a  manufactory,  over  domestic  service,  which  grows  out  of 
their  character  and  habits.  This  is  not  the  case  in  Europe ;  — 
it  gives  a  considerable  facility  to  the  establishments  of  manufac- 
tures, and  will  continue  so  long  as  they  are  well  managed.  The 
labour  is  not  so  perpetual,  as  to  prevent  children  from  receiving 
instruction ;  and  being  conducted  with  order  and  decency,  the 
daughters  of  respectable  farmers  often  pass  three  or  four  years 
in  them,  where  they  accumulate  a  little  sum  from  their  wages, 
and  avoid,  what  they  consider  a  degradation,  becoming  household 
servants. 

A  well  regulated  manufactory,  situated  in  the  countiy,  may  be 
made  subservient  to  the  promotion  of  good  principles  and  good 
habits  in  those  employed  in  it ;  while  in  large  towns,  and  with  a 
straining  competition  incessantly  exerted,  the  labour  is  too  con- 
tinuous to  admit  of  any  instruction  or  any  relaxation.  Health 
and  morals  are  both  disregarded,  and  too  frequently  destroyed 
altogether.  .  .  . 


CONDITIONS  AFTER  THE  EUROPEAN  WARS      465 

There  are  no  people  more  ingenious  in  the  use  and  invention 
of  machineiy,  no  eountry  more  prohfic  in  patents,  than  the  one 
under  consideration.  Good  mechanics  are  to  be  found  in  every 
one  of  the  mechanic  arts,  and  the  improvements  they  have  made 
in  some  old,  and  the  invention  of  many  new  instruments,  are 
strong  proofs  of  their  skill  and  enterprise.  These  are  not  shown 
merely  in  the  common  tools  in  use  in  various  trades,  but  in  the 
most  complicated  and  useful  machines.  Such,  for  instance,  are 
the  card  and  nail  machines,  which  are  so  extensively  used  in  the 
United  States.  These  are  entirely  of  their  own  invention.  They 
have  also  improved  the  machines  used  in  Europe,  in  the  process 
of  spinning  and  weaving  ;  —  though  the  machinery  was  considered 
almost  perfect  there,  they  have  made  many  ameliorations.  In  this 
department,  also,  we  have  an  advantage  over  the  European  man- 
ufacturer ;  —  no  resistance  is  made  here  to  the  introduction  of  any 
machinery ;  eveiy  kind  of  labour-saving  machine  is  eagerly  sought 
after,  and  new  ones  are  constantly  coming  into  use.  In  Europe, 
the  manufacturer  is  often  limited  in  this  respect ;  he  is  often  afraid 
to  make  use  of  machinery  that  would  be  of  essential  service  to  him. 
Machinery  that  is  used  in  one  county,  sometimes  cannot  be  brought 
into  another,  without  producing  a  riot  among  the  workmen.  Within 
a  few  years  the  most  serious  mischief,  alarming  and  long  continued 
disturbances,  have  arisen  from  this  source.  Our  manufacturers  have 
no  fears  of  this  kind  to  encounter. 


^  Manufacturing  establishments  may  be  considered  as  being  now 
permanently  fixed  in  all  the  Eastern  States,  in  Maryland,  and  at 
Pittsburg,  Lexington,  and  several  other  towns  in  the  Western 
States.  A  situation,  or  site,  for  erecting  a  facto ly  with  seventy  to 
eighty  horse  water  power,  within  a  convenient  distance  of  a  mar- 
ket, can  be  purchased  for  three  or  four  thousand  dollars. 

Besides  cotton  and  woollen  factories,  there  are  a  few  for  manu- 
facturing duck  for  sail-cloth.  A  great  part  of  the  flax,  or  raw 
article,  for  these  establishments,  is  imported  from  Russia  or 
Ireland.  .  .  . 

1  Holmes,  An  Account  of  the  United  States  of  America  [1S23],  pp.  201-208. 


466  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

It  must  not  be  dissembled,  that  there  are  circumstances  which 
render  it  disagreeable  to  carry  on  manufactures  in  America.  The 
workmen  are  under  very  little  subjection :  sometimes  they  are 
absent  from  their  work  for  several  days,  to  the  great  detriment  of 
the  employer ;  but  should  they  be  reprimanded,  it  might  cause  the 
proprietor  to  be  insulted  ;  and  the  indignation  of  the  working 
people,  in  this  land  of  equality,  is  really  to  be  dreaded.  Those 
workmen  who  are  attentive,  and  of  economical  habits,  soon  acquire 
a  little  property  ;  and  with  this  they  will  buy  land,  and  quit  their 
former  employers,  for  all  species  of  servitude  is  disliked  in  the 
United  States.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  these  manufactories 
from  increasing,  even  with  the  present  duties;  .   .   . 

There  are  considerable  establishments  of  hatters,  brewers,  shoe- 
makers, distillers,  iron  founders,  paper  makers,  glass  makers, — 
with  iron-forges,  cut  nails,  slitting  mills,  rolling  mills,  gunpowder 
works,  coarse  pottery  ware,  &c. 

Many  of  the  manufactories  in  the  Eastern  States  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  are  very  large  establishments.  They  not  only 
supply  those  states  with  hats,  but  they  send  large  quantities  to  the 
Middle  and  Southern  ones,  especially  to  Savannah,  Charleston,  and 
New  Orleans.  The  l^ritish  hat-manufacturer  is  nearly  excluded 
from  the  market.  It  is  not  more  than  four  years  since,  that  all 
who  had  any  pretensions  to  gentility,  purchased  hats  at  eight  or 
ten  dollars  each  ;  these  certainly  were  handsome,  well-made  beaver 
hats.  Lately,  however,  other  hats  have  been  introduced,  which  at 
first  look  equally  well  with  those  expensive  ones.  These  are  sold 
at  four  dollars,  and  at  present  very  few  purchase  the  high-priced 
hats. 

There  are  several  breweries  in  the  United  States,  especially  in 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  where  they  brew  both  ale  and  porter. 
At  some  of  these  they  brew  from  six  to  ten  thousand  barrels  per 
annum.  A  considerable  quantity  is  sent  to  the  Southern  market ; 
but  the  British  porter  is  so  much  superior,  that  it  obtains  a  decided 
preference,  so  that  a  vast  quantity  is  still  imported  from  Great 
Britain.  The  price  of  ale  and  porter,  of  American  brewing,  is  from 
five  to  seven  dollars  per  barrel  ;  but  all  the  malt  liquor  brewed 
there  is  vastly  inferior  in  quality  to  the  British. 


CONDITIONS  AFTER  THE  EUROPEAN  WARS       467 

Shoes  and  boots  are  made  in  great  quantities  ;  and  they  ma)'  be 
purehased  at  very  low  prices  in  the  TLastern  States,  particularly  in 
Massachusetts,  and  New  Jersey.  Boots  are  sold  wholesale  at  from 
two  to  three  dollars  per  pair ;  shoes  from  three-quarters  to  one  dol- 
lar per  pair.  They  make  many  boots  and  shoes  with  wooden  or 
copper  pegs,  with  which,  instead  of  stitching  the  soles,  they  fasten 
them  together ;  the  price  of  these  is  rather  less.  The  l^astern 
States  send  many  shoes  to  the  Middle  ones  ;  and  the  Southern 
States  are  almost  entirely  supplied  from  thence.  There  are  few 
shoes  now  imported  from  (ireat  Ikitain  :  thus,  in  two  articles,  hats 
and  shoes,  requiring  manual  labour,  the  Americans,  in  consequence 
of  making  them  so  cheap,  have  succeeded  so  as  to  prevent  any 
foreign  competition. 

Distilling,  in  the  United  States,  is  carried  on  to  a  great  extent ; 
there  are  a  few  establishments  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  also  in  some  of  the  Western  towns.  Some  of 
the  distilleries  work  entirely  from  molasses,  others  from  grain  ;  the 
former  is  distilled  into  rum,  and  the  latter  generally  into  gin  and 
whiskey.  These  articles,  whiskey,  gin,  and  rum,  are  sold  wholesale 
by  the  distillers  at  from  thirty-seven  and  a  half  to  fifty  cents  per 
gallon,  or  about  is.  gd.  to  2  s.  3d.  per  gallon,  sterling.  When 
cider  is  made,  a  considerable  quantity  is  fermented,  and  distilled 
into  what  is  called  apple-brandy ;  this  is  sold  at  the  same  price  as 
American  gin.  Peaches  are  also  fermented,  and  distilled  into  what 
is  termed  peach-brandy ;  the  wholesale  price  is  from  a  half  to 
three-quarters  of  a  dollar  per  gallon.  In  New  Orleans,  in  1821, 
thousands  of  barrels  of  whiskey  were  brought  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  sold  at  the  very  low  price  of  sixteen  to  twenty  cents  a 
gallon  ;  which  is  equal  to  only  gd.  or  1 1  d.  per  gallon,  of  English 
money.  More  than  thirty  millions  of  gallons  of  ardent  spirits  are 
annually  distilled  and  consumed  in  the  United  States. 

In  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  iron-ore  abounds ;  and 
there  are,  both  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  States,  forges  estab- 
lished ;  together  with  rolling  and  slitting  mills.  The  quality  of  the 
iron  is  said  to  be  good  :  it  is  sold  in  bars,  at  about  four  and  a  half 
dollars  per  hundred  pounds.  There  are  several  manufactures  of 
cut  nails  :  these  are  made  chiefly  by  machinery,  in  which  the  nail 


468  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

is  cut  from  the  bar,  and  headed.  The  working  of  these  forges, 
&c.  and  the  making  of  cut  nails,  have  caused  the  exportation  of 
these  articles  from  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States  to  be  much 
diminished. 

There  are  several  paper  makers,  particularly  in  the  Eastern 
States,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania.  A  French .  gentleman  is 
now  establishing  a  manufactory  near  the  city  of  New  York,  to 
make  paper  upon  some  new  mode.  The  American  writing  paper 
is  not  so  good  as  the  British  ;  but,  in  this  manufactory,  they  are 
succeeding,  and  in  a  very  short  time  there  will  be  but  little  paper 
imported.  There  are  several  gunpowder  makers,  and  the  quality 
of  this  article  is  tolerably  good.  There  are  also  glass  works ;  one 
of  which,  at  Boston  in  Massachusetts,  certainly  exhibits  some 
beautiful  specimens  of  work,  both  in  the  clearness  and  cutting  of 
the  glass. 

There  are  several  extensive  establishments  in  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  &c.  of  iron  foundries.  Their 
castings  are  good  ;  and  I  have  seen  several  steam-engines  both  on 
the  high-pressure  and  also  on  Bolton  and  Watt's  principle,  of  ex- 
cellent American  workmanship.  The  cost  is  about  twenty-five  per 
cent,  more  than  in  England.  In  New  Orleans,  for  some  of  the  sugar 
plantations,  they  still  import  steam-engines  from  Great  Britain. 

Cabinet  making,  coach  and  waggon  building,  wood  and  rush 
bottomed  chairs,  are  all  great  branches  of  business  in  the  Eastern 
States,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  not  only  supplied  with  these 
articles,  but  large  quantities  are  sent  to  the  Southern  States.  The 
prices  of  these  latter  articles  at  present,  in  New  York,  are  similar 
to  the  prices  in  England. 

There  are  extensive  works  for  soap-boiling,  &c.  in  the  Eastern 
States,  and  from  these  the  Southern  ones  are  supplied.  There  are 
not  many  sugar  refiners  ;  the  Havannah  clayed  sugar  is  used  instead 
of  lump  or  refined  sugar.  Dyers,  in  the  United  States,  charge 
much  higher  than  in  England  ;  but  there  are  few  or  no  extensive 
establishments.  Bleachers  charge  about  twenty  per  cent,  more 
than  in  England  :  one  cent  per  yard  for  bleaching  cotton  shirting, 
and  nine  cents  per  pound  for  bleaching  cotton  twist.  Manufac- 
turing establishments  are  nearly  confined  to  the  Eastern  States ; 


CONDITIONS  AFTKK    I  III':  EUROPEAN  WARS       469 

but  the  following  arc  carried  on  at  Pittsburg,  Lexington,  Louisville, 
and  Cincinnati  —  brewers,  hatters,  cotton  and  woollen  factories,  cab- 
inet makers,  button  makers,  iron  founders,  ship-building,  (though 
nearly  two  thousand  miles  from  llie  sea)  glass  workers,  cut  nails, 
and  some  other  branches. 

Before  I  quit  the  subject  of  manufactures,  it  is  proj^er  to  state, 
that  household,  or  domestic  manufactures  of  woollen,  linen,  &c.  are 
carried  on  to  a  great  extent :  many  thousands  of  families  spin  and 
make  up  their  own  clothing,  sheets,  table  linen,  &c.  They  pur- 
chase cotton  yarn,  and  have  it  frequently  mixed  with  their  linen 
and  woollen.  Blankets,  quilts,  or  coverlets,  in  short,  nearly  every 
article  of  domestic  use,  is  made,  or  a  great  part  made,  in  the  fam- 
ily. It  is  supposed  that  nearly  two-thirds  of  all  the  clothing,  linen, 
blankets,  &c.  of  those  inhabitants  who  reside  in  the  interior  of  the 
country,  are  of  home  or  household  manufacture.  It  is  the  same 
in  the  interior  with  both  soap  and  candles,  for  they  ha\'e  no  excise- 
men to  prevent  their  making  those  articles  in  the  family.   .   .   . 

^  Statement  of  the  Cotton  Manufactures  in  Twelve  of 
THE   States  in   18^1 


Number  of 
Spindles 

Yards  of  Cloth 

Pounds  of 

Pounds  of 

states 

Capital 

produced 

Cloth  pro- 

Cotton con- 

yearly 

duced  yearly 

sumed  yearly 

Maine      .... 

$765,000 

6,500 

1,750,000 

525,000 

588,500 

New  Hampshire 

5,300,000 

ii3'776 

29,060,500 

7,255,060 

7,845,000 

Vermont      .     . 

295,500 

12,392 

2,238,400 

574,500 

760,000 

Massachusetts 

12,891,000 

339-777 

79,231,000 

21,301,062 

24,871,981 

Rhode  Island 

6,262,340 

235'753 

37,121,681 

9,271,481 

10,414,578 

Connecticut 

2,825,000 

115.52S 

20,055,500 

5,612,000 

6,777,209 

New  York   . 

3,669.500 

i57-3'6 

21,010,920 

5-297.713 

7,661,670 

New  Jersey . 

2,027,644 

62,979 

5'i33'776 

1,877,418 

5,832,204 

Pennsylvania^ 

3'75S.5oo 

120,810 

21,332,467 

4,207,192 

7,111,174 

Delaware 

384,500 

24,806 

5,203,746 

1,201,500 

1,435,000 

Maryland      . 

2,144,000 

47,222 

7,649,000 

2,224,000 

3.008,000 

Virginia  .     . 

290,000 

9,844 

675,000 

168,000 

1,152.000 

Total 

$40,612,984 

1,246,703 

230,461,990 

59,514,926 

77,457,316 

1  Montgomery,  A  Practical  Detail  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture  of  the  United 
States  of  America  [1840],  pp.  160,  161-162,  185,  18S. 


470 


THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 


The  following  table  contains  the  number  of  Mills,  rate  of 
weekly  wages,  and  the  number  of  hands  employed  in  the  Factories 
in  1831. 


States 

Mills 

Looms 

Males 
employed 

Average 

Wages  of 

Males 

weekly 

Females 

employed 

Average 
Wages  of 
Females 
weekly 

Children 
under  12 
employed 

Average 
Wages  of 
Children 

Maine      .     .     . 

8 

91 

84 

^550 

205 

$233 

New  Hampshire 

40 

3.530 

875 

625 

.  4,090 

2  60 

60 

$200 

Vermont      .     . 

17 

352 

102 

5  00 

363 

184 

19 

I  40 

Massachusetts  . 

256 

8,981 

2,665 

7  00 

10,678 

225 

Rhode  Island  . 

116 

5.773 

1.73' 

4-5 

3.-97 

2  20 

3,472 

I  50 

Connecticut 

94 

2,609 

1.399 

4.50 

2.477 

2  20 

439 

I  50 

New  York    .     . 

112 

3.653 

1.374 

6  00 

3.652 

I  90 

484 

I  40 

New  Jersey .     . 

51 

815 

2,151 

600 

3,070 

I  90 

217 

I  40 

Pennsylvania     . 

67 

6,301 

6,545 

6  00 

8.351 

2  GO 

Delaware     .     . 

10 

235 

697 

5  00 

676 

2  00 

Maryland      .     . 

-3 

1,002 

824 

387 

1.793 

191 

Virginia  .     .     . 

7 

91 

143 

^73 

275 

158 

Total 

801 

33A33 

18,590 

38,927 

4,691 

The  preceding  tables  show  the  particular  distribution  of  the  cot- 
ton manufacture  in  the  United  States,  from  which  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  greatest  number  of  Factories  and  spindles  employed  are  in 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  next  to  it  are  Rhode  Island  and  New 
York  ;  but  Rhode  Island  is  a  very  small  State  compared  with  either 
of  the  other  two,  and  in  proportion  to  its  extent  may  be  said  to 
contain  more  than  three  times  the  number  of  Cotton  Factories  in 
New  York  State.  The  cotton  manufacture  commenced  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island,  and  ever  since  these  two  have  con- 
tinued the  principal  manufacturing  States  in  the  Union. 


The  principal  manufacturing  town  in  the  United  States  is  that 
of  Lowell,  which  may  justly  be  denominated  the  Manchester  of 
America,  as  regards  the  amount  of  capital  invested  for  manufac- 
turing purposes,  the  extent  of  the  business,  and  the  spirited  man- 
ner in  which  it  is  conducted.  And  here,  too,  the  Factory  system 
is  perhaps  in  more  perfect  operation  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  United  States.    Here  are  the  largest  establishments,  the  most 


THE  DECADE  1850-1860  47  I 

perfect  arrangement,  and  the  ricliest  corporations.  And  it  may, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  be  asserted,  that  the  Factories  at 
Lowell  produce  a  greater  quantity  of  yarn  and  cloth  from  each 
spin  (tie  and  loom  (in  a  givoi  time,)  than  is  produced  in  any  other 
Factories  loithout  exception  in  the  zuorld.   .   .   . 

This  town  [Paterson,  New  Jersey]  next  to  Lowell,  is  one  of  the 
greatest  manufacturing  towns  in  America.  The  Mills  here  are  not 
so  large  and  splendid,  nor  is  the  business  conducted  with  the  same 
life  and  spirit  as  at  Lowell ;  yet  there  are  some  very  superior  goods 
manufactured,  and  machinery  made,  at  this  place,  in  every  respect 
equal,  and  some  of  it  superior  to  any  thing  of  the  kind  made  at 
the  other. 

The  cotton  manufacture  commenced  at  Paterson  at  a  \'ery  early 
period.  A  society  was  formed  in  the  early  part  of  1791,  denom- 
inated "  The  Society  for  the  Establishment  of  Useful  Manufac- 
tures ; "  the  immediate  object  of  which  was  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  cloths.  .   .  . 

When  the  Company  first  commenced  operations,  there  were  not 
more  than  ten  houses  at  Paterson.  Li  1827  there  were  6,236  in- 
habitants ;  1 ,046  heads  of  families  ;  7  houses  for  public  worship  ; 
1 7  Schools  ;  a  Philosophical  Society ;  1 5  Cotton  Factories,  in 
which  24,000  spindles  operate ;  2  Factories  of  canvas ;  i  ,644 
spindles,  employing  1,453  persons,  whose  wages  are  224,123  dol- 
lars a  year  ;  extensive  Machine  Shops  and  Iron  Works  ;  there  were 
620,000  lbs.  of  flax  ;  6,000  bales  of  cotton  consumed  annually, 
and  1,630,000  lbs.  of  cotton  yarn;  430,000  lbs.  of  linen  yarn 
spun  in  the  same  time  ;  besides  630,000  yards  of  linen  and  duck  ; 
3o54.500  yards  of  cotton  cloth;  and  at  that  time,  new  Factories 
were  still  being  built.   .  .  . 

V.    THE  DECADE  1850-1860 

1  The  returns  of  Manufactures  exhibit  a  most  gratifying  increase, 
and  present  at  the  same  time  an  imposing  view  of  the  magnitude 
to  which  this  branch  of  the  national  industry  has  attained  within 
the  last  decennium. 

1  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [iS6o].  pp.  59-69,  75.  191. 


472  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

The  total  value  of  domestic  manufactures,  (including  fisheries 
and  the  products  of  the  mines,)  according  to  the  census  of  1850, 
was  $1,019,106,616.  The  product  of  the  same  branches  for  the 
year  ending  June  i,  i860,  as  already  ascertained  in  part  and  care- 
fully estimated  for  the  remainder,  will  reach  an  aggregate  value  of 
nineteeji  Jinndred  millions  of  dollars  {$  i  ,900,000,000.)  This  result 
exhibits  cm  increase  of  more  than  eighty-six  (86)  per  centum  in  ten 
years!  The  growth  of  this  branch  of  American  labor  appears, 
therefore,  to  have  been  in  much  greater  ratio  than  that  of  the  popu- 
lation. Its  increase  has  been  123  per  cent,  greater  than  that  even 
of  the  white  population  by  which  it  was  principally  produced.  As- 
suming the  total  value  of  manufactures  in  i860  to  have  been  as 
already  stated,  the  product  per  capita  was  in  the  proportion  of  sixty 
dollars  and  sixty-one  hundredths  ($60.61)  for  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  Union,  If  to  this  amount  were  added  the  very 
large  aggregate  of  mechanical  productions  below  the  annual  value 
of  five  hundred  dollars  —  of  which  no  official  cognizance  is  taken 
—  the  result  would  be  one  of  startling  magnitude. 

The  production  of  the  immense  aggregate  above  stated  gave 
employment  to  about  1,100,000  men  and  285,000  women,  or  one 
million  and  three  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  persons.  Each 
of  these,  on  an  average,  maintained  two  and  a  half  other  individ- 
uals, making  the  whole  number  of  persons  supported  by  manufac- 
tures four  millions  eight  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  and 
five  hundred,  (4,847,500)  or  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion. This  was  exclusive  of  the  number  engaged  in  the  production 
of  many  of  the  raw  materials,  and  of  food  for  the  manufacturers  ; 
in  the  distribution  of  their  products,  such  as  merchants,  clerks,  dray- 
men, mariners,  the  employes  of  railroads,  expresses,  and  steam- 
boats ;  of  capitalists,  various  artistic  and  professional  classes,  as  well 
as  carpenters,  bricklayers,  painters,  and  the  members  of  other  me- 
chanical trades  not  classed  as  manufacturers.  It  is  safe  to  assume, 
then,  that  one-third  of  the  whole  population  is  supported,  directly 
or  indirectly,  by  manufacturing  industry.   .   .   . 

It  is  a  gratifying  fact,  shown  by  the  official  statistics,  that  while 
our  older  communities  have  greatly  extended  their  manufactures, 
the  younger  and  more  purely  agricultural  States,  and  even  the 


TIIK  DKCADK   1850-1860  473 

newest  Territories,  have  also  made  rapid  progress.  Nor  has  this 
department  of  Ameriean  industry  been  eultivated  at  the  expense  of 
any  other.  There  is  mueh  reason  to  beliex'e  that  it  affords  the  safest 
guarantee  of  the  permaneney  and  suecess  of  eveiy  other  branch. 
Evidence  bearing  upon  this  point  is  found  in  the  manufacture  oi 
agricultural  machines  and  imj^lements,  which  is  one  of  the  branches 
that  shows  the  largest  increase  in  the  period  under  review,   .   .   . 

The  total  value  of  Agricultural  hnplcmcnts  made  in  i860  was 
$17,802,514,  being  an  increase  of  160. i  per  cent,  upon  the  total 
value  of  the  same  branch  in  1850,  when  it  amounted  to  the  sum 
of  $6,842,611.  .  .  . 

The  quantity  of  Pig  Irou  returned  by  the  census  of  i860  was 
884,474  tons,  valued  at  $19,487,790,  an  increase  of  44.4  per 
cent,  upon  the  value  returned  in  1850.  Bar  and  other  Rolled 
Iron  amounted  to  406,298  tons,  of  the  value  of  $22,248,796, 
an  increase  of  39.5  per  cent,  over  the  united  products  of  the 
rolling  mills  and  forges,  which  in  1850  were  of  the  value  of 
$15,938,786.   .   .  . 

Probably  no  class  of  statistics  possesses  more  general  interest, 
as  illustrating  the  recent  progress  of  the  country  in  all  the  opera- 
tive branches,  and  in  mechanical  engineering,  than  those  relating 
to  Machinery.  Nearly  every  section  of  the  country,  particularly  the 
Atlantic  slope,  possesses  a  great  affluence  of  water  power,  which 
has  been  extensively  appropriated  for  various  manufacturing  pur- 
poses. The  construction  of  hydraulic  machineiy,  of  stationary  and 
locomotive  steam-engines,  and  all  the  machinery  used  in  mines, 
mills,  furnaces,  forges,  and  factories  ;  in  the  building  of  roads, 
bridges,  canals,  railways,  &c. ;  and  for  all  other  purposes  of  the 
engineer  and  manufacturer,  has  become  a  pursuit  of  great  magni- 
tude. The  annual  product  of  the  general  machinists'  and  mill- 
wrights' establishments,  as  returned  in  the  census  of  1850,  was 
valued  at  $27,998,344.  The  value  of  the  same  branch,  exclusive 
of  sewing-machines,  amounted  in  i860  to  $47,1 18,550,  an  increase 
of  over  eighteen  millions  in  ten  years.  The  middle  States  were  the 
largest  producers,  having  made  over  48  per  cent,  of  the  whole, 
but  the  southern  and  western  States  exhibit  the  largest  relative 
increase.  .  .  . 


474 


THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 


Besides  a  large  amount  of  machinery  and  other  castings  included 
in  the  returns  of  machine  shops,  the  value  of  the  production  of  Iron 
Foundries,  returned  by  the  census  of  i860,  reached  the  sum  of 
$27,970,193,  an  increase  of  42  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  that 
branch  in  1850,  which  was  $20,1 1 1,5  17.   ,   .   . 

With  the  subject  of  iron  and  its  various  manufactures  that  of 
Fossil  Fuel  naturally  associates  itself.  The  unecjualled  wealth  and 
rapid  development  of  the  coal  fields  of  the  United  States  as  a  dy- 
namic element  in  our  industrial  progress  affords  one  of  the  most 
striking  evidences  of  our  recent  advance.  The  product  of  all  the 
coal  mines  of  the  United  States,  in  1850,  was  valued  at  $7,173,750. 
The  annual  value  of  the  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal,  according 
to  the  Eighth  Census,  was  over  nineteen  millions  of  dollars.  The 
increase  was  over  twelve  millions  of  dollars,  and  was  at  the  rate  of 
169.9  P^r  cent,  on  the  product  of  1850.  It  was  chiefly  produced 
in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Virginia.  .  .  . 

The  Sewing  Machine  has  also  been  improved  and  introduced,  in 
the  last  ten  years,  to  an  extent  which  has  made  it  altogether  a  revo- 
lutionary instrument.  .  .  .  The  manufacture  of  the  machines  has 
itself  become  one  of  considerable  magnitude,  and  has  received  a 
remarkable  impulse  since  1850.  The  returns  show  an  aggregate 
of  116,330  machines  made  in  nine  States  in  i860,  the  value  of 
which  was  $5,605,345.   .   ,   . 

Among  the  branches  of  industry  which  have  been  signally  pro- 
moted by  the  introduction  of  the  sewing-machine  is  the  manufacture 
of  men's  and  women's  Clothing  for  sale,  which  has  heretofore 
ranked  with  the  cotton  manufactures  in  the  number  of  hands  — 
two-thirds  of  them  females  —  and  the  cost  of  labor  employed.  The 
increase  of  this  manufacture  has  been  general  throughout  the  Union, 
and  in  the  four  cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  and 
Boston,  amounted  in  value  to  nearly  forty  and  one-quarter  millions 
of  dollars,  or  over  83  per  cent,  of  the  product  of  the  whole  Union, 
in  1850.   .   .   . 

The  influence  of  improved  machinery  is  also  conspicuously  ex- 
hibited in  the  manufacture  of  Sawed  and  Planed  Lumber,  in  which 
the  United  States  stands  altogether  unrivalled,  as  well  for  the  ex- 
tent and  perfection  of  the  mechanism  employed  as  the  amount  of 


THE  DECADE  1850-1860  475 

the  product.  This  reached,  in  1850,  the  value  of  $58,521,976, 
and,  in  i860,  $95,912,286,  an  increase  of  64  per  cent,  in  the 
last  decade.  .  .  . 

Several  branches  of  manufacture  have  an  intimate  relation  to 
agriculture  and  the  landed  interests,  and  by  their  extension  power- 
fully ]:)roniote  those  interests  as  well  as  that  of  commerce.  Surpass- 
ing all  others  of  this  or  any  other  class  in  the  value  of  products  and. 
of  the  raw  material  consumed,  is  the  manufacture  of  flour  and  meal. 
The  product  of  Flour  and  Grist  Mills  in  1850  reached  a  value  of 
nearly  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  millions  of  dollars,  while  in 
i860  the  returns  exhibit  a  value  of  $223,144,369  —  an  increase 
of  $87,246,563,  or  64.2  per  cent,  in  the  last  ten  years.   .  .  . 

Among  the  great  branches  of  pure  manufacture  in  the  United 
States,  that  of  Cotton  Goods  holds  the  first  rank  in  respect  to  the 
value  of  the  product  and  the  amount  of  capital  employed.  Aided 
by  the  possession  of  the  raw  material  as  a  product  of  our  own  soil, 
and  by  the  enterprise  and  ingenuity  of  our  people,  this  valuable  in- 
dustry has  grown  with  a  rapidity  almost  unrivalled. 

The  total  value  of  Cotton  Goods  manufactured  in  New  England 
was  $80,301,535  and  in  the  middle  States  $26,272,111 — an 
increase  of  83.4  per  cent,  in  the  former,  and  'j'j.'j  in  the  latter. 
The  remaining  States  produced  to  the  value  of  $8,564,280,  mak- 
ing the  whole  production  during  that  year  $115,137,926,  against 
$65,501,687,  the  value  of  this  branch  in  1850,  or  an  increase  in 
the  general  business  of  nearly  ^6  per  centum  in  ten  years.  .  .  . 
The  number  of  spindles  was  returned  at  5,035,798,  being  an 
increase  of  1,402,105,  or  38.5  per  cent,  over  the  aggregate  in 
1850,  which  was  estimated  at  3,633,693.  The  New  England 
States  possess  3,959,297,  or  78.6  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  while 
Massachusetts  alone  employs  1,739,700,  or  29.3  per  cent,  of  the 
number  returned  in  the  Union.   .   ,   . 

The  returns  of  Woollen  Manufactures  show  an  increase  of  over 
fifty-one  per  cent,  in  ten  years=  The  value  of  woollen  and  mixed 
goods  made  in  1850  was  $45,281,764.  In  i860  it  amounted  to 
$68,865,963.  The  establishments  numbered  1,909,  of  which  453 
were  in  New  England,  748  in  the  middle,  479  in  the  western,  2  in 
the  Pacific,  and  227  in  the  southern  States.   The  aggregate  capital 


476  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

invested  in  the  business  was  $35,520,527,  and  it  employed  28,780 
male  and  20, 120  female  hands,  639,700  spindles,  and  16,075  looms, 
which  worked  up  more  than  eight}"  million  pounds  of  wool,  the 
value  of  which,  with  other  raw  materials,  was  $40,360,300.  .  ,  , 

The  production  of  Leather  is  also  a  leading  industn*  of  much 
importance  to  the  agriculturist  and  stock  raiser,  as  well  as  to  the 
commercial  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  consumes  all  the  material  sup- 
plied by  the  former,  and  feeds  an  active  branch  of  our  foreign  im- 
port trade.  The  tanning  and  cunying  establishments  of  the  United 
States  produced  in  1850  leather,  exclusive  of  ^Morocco  and  patent 
leather,  to  the  value  of  $37,702,333.  The  product  of  the  same 
branch  in  i860  reached  $63,090,75 1,  an  increase  of  nearly  6'j  per 
centum.  .  ,  . 

If  we  add  to  the  sum  total  of  this  manufacture  the  aggregate 
value  of  all  the  allied  branches  into  which  it  enters  as  a  raw  ma- 
terial, or  take  an  account  of  the  capital,  the  number  of  hands,  and 
the  cost  of  labor  and  material  employed  in  the  creation  and  distri- 
bution of  its  ultimate  products,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  other  depart- 
ment of  industr}"  is  entitled  to  precedence  over  that  of  leather. 

The  manufacture  of  Boots  and  Shoes  employs  a  larger  number 
of  operatives  than  any  other  single  branch  of  American  industr}-. 
The  census  of  1850  showed  that  there  were  1 1,305  establishments, 
with  a  capital  of  nearly  thirteen  milhons  of  dollars,  engaged  in 
making  boots  and  shoes  to  the  value  of  $53,967,408,  and  employ- 
ing 72,305  male  and  32,948  female  hands.  .  .  . 

The  manufacture  of  American  Watches,  commenced  within  the 
last  ten  years  in  Boston  as  an  experiment,  has  proved  eminently 
successful.  Unable,  heretofore  to  compete  with  the  low-priced 
labor  of  European  workmen,  our  ingenious  countr}Tnen  have  per- 
fected machiner}',  by  the  aid  of  which  watch  movements  are  fabri- 
cated equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  hand-made.  The  continued 
growth  of  this  branch  will  diminish  the  importation  of  foreign 
watches,  and  may,  at  no  distant  period,  earn  for  our  countr}'  a 
reputation  in  this  manufacture  equal  to  that  she  enjoys  in  the  kin- 
dred branch  of  clock-making.  Gold  and  silver  watch  cases  are 
now  produced  to  a  ver}-  large  extent,  chiefly  in  the  cities  of  Phila- 
delphia, New  York,  and  Newark.  .  .  . 


THE  DECADE  1850-1860 


4 


/  / 


Statement  of  the  Leading  Manufactures,  and  the  Value  of 
Produ(  r  cr  Each  for  the  Year  ending  June  i.   \'<i'' 


No. 


Leading  Manufactures 


Flour  and  Meal 

Cotton  goods 

Lumber 

Hoots  and  Shoes 

Leather,  including  morocco  and  patent  leather 

Clothing 

Woollen  goods 

Machinery,  Steam  engines,  &c 

Printing  :  Book,  job,  and  newspaper     .... 

Sugar  Refining 

Iron  founding 

Spirituous  liquors 

Cabinet  furniture 

Bar  and  other  rolled  iron 

Pig  iron 

Malt  liquors 

Agricultural  implements 

Paper    

Soap  and  candles 


Value  of  Product 
in  Round  Numbers 


5224 

"5 
96 
90 
72 
70 
69 

47 
42 

38 
28, 

25 
24 

22 

19 
18 

17 

17 
17 


.0    . 

000.000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,000,000 

,500,000 

,500,000 

,000,000 

000,000 

000,000 

500,000 

000,000 

800,000 

500,000 

000,000 


Without  any  special  stimulus  to  gro\^th  —  depressed,  indeed, 
during  the  years  1857  and  1858,  in  common  with  other  public  in- 
terests, by  the  general  financial  embarrassments  of  those  years  — 
and  with  a  powerful  competition  in  the  amazing  growth  of  manu- 
factures in  Great  Britain  and  nearly  ever)^  other  nation  of  Europe, 
the  manufactories  of  the  United  States  had  nevertheless  been 
augmented,  di\-ersified,  and  perfected  in  nearly  ever)'  branch,  and 
almost  uniformly  throughout  the  Union.  Domestic  materials, 
whether  animal,  vegetable  or  mineral,  found  ready  sales  at  remu- 
nerative prices,  and  were  increased  in  amount  with  the  demand, 
while  commerce  and  internal  trade  were  invigorated  by  the  distri- 
bution of  both  raw  and  manufactured  products.  Invention  was 
stimulated  and  rewarded.  Labor  and  capital  found  ample  and  profit- 
able emplo)-ment,  and  new  and  unexpected  fields  were  opened  for 
each.  Agriculture  furnished  food  and  materials  at  moderate  cost, 
and  the  skill  of  our  artizans  cheapened  and  multiplied  all  artificial 


478  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

instruments  of  comfort  and  happiness  for  the  people.  Even  the 
more  purely  agricultural  States  of  the  south  were  rapidly  creating 
manufactories  for  the  improvement  of  their  great  staples  and  their 
abundant  natural  resources.  The  nation  seemed  speedily  approach- 
ing a  period  of  complete  independence  in  respect  to  the  products 
of  skilled  labor,  and  national  security  and  happiness  seemed  about 
to  be  insured  by  the  harmonious  development  of  all  the  great 
interests  of  the  people.   .   .   . 

1  Peculiar  facilities  for  obtaining  an  adequate  acquaintance  with 
the  industry  of  the  United  States  were  afforded  to  the  deputation 
sent  out  from  this  countiy  [Great  Britain]  on  occasion  of  the 
Industrial  Exhibition  at  New  York.  That  deputation  consisted  of 
gentlemen  eminently  qualified  in  their  various  departments  to  ap- 
preciate the  subject  brought  under  examination,  and  to  report 
thereon.  The  delay  in  completing  the  arrangements  for  the  Ex- 
hibition led  to  the  determination  to  "  visit  the  various  localities  in 
.which  raw  materials  were  most  abundant,  mechanical  skill  most 
largely  applied,  manufacturing  industry  fairly  established,  and  art 
and  science  most  perfectly  developed."  Mr.  Whitworth  undertook 
to  examine  a  report  on  machinery,  and  Mr.  George  Wallis  on 
manufactures,  decorative  art,  and  kindred  subjects ;  and  it  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  pages  with  what  great  ability  these  gentlemen 
have  discharged  the  duties  with  which  they  were  intrusted. 

The  present  volume  contains  the  essential  parts  of  the  report 
presented  to  our  government,  somewhat  reduced  in  bulk,  but  re- 
taining everything  supposed  to  be  important.  .  .  . 

The  manufacture  of  carpets  appears  to  have  been  of  steady 
growth.  Commencing  with  the  cheaper  and  more  useful  kinds, 
or,  at  least,  those  most  in  demand,  it  has  progressed  until  it  now 
forms  a  very  important  item  in  the  industry  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  New  England  States,  where  it  is  carried  on  to  the  great- 
est extent,  the  weaving  may  be  said  to  be  altogether  by  power, 

1  The  Industry  of  the  United  States  in  Machinery,  Manufactures,  and  Useful 
and  Ornamental  Arts  ;  compiled  from  the  Official  Reports  of  Messrs.  Whitworth 
and  Wallis  to  the  British  Government  [1854],  pp.  v,  94-96,  98-100,  104-105, 
iv-ix,  160-162. 


THE  DECADE  1850-1860  479 

Hand-loom  weaving,  however,  is  still  the  chief  means  of  production 
in  the  States  of  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  and  the 
manufacture  consists  of  two  or  three  ply  Kidderminster,  Venetian, 
and  a  little  Brussels.  The  out-door  or  domestic  system,  as  it  may 
be  called,  prevails  to  a  considerable  extent,  although  there  are  fac- 
tories in  which  looms  are  set  up.  One  of  these  at  Philadelphia  has 
generally  from  200  to  300  at  work,  and  the  proprietors  employ 
out-door  wea\-ers  in  addition.  The  weaver  takes  out  work  from 
the  manufacturer,  and  the  master  weaver,  or  "  boss,"  as  he  is 
called,  employs  other  weavers  to  work,  probably  three  or  four  looms, 
in  a  shed  attached  to  his  own  house.  He  is  responsible  to  the 
manufacturer  from  whom  he  receives  the  materials,  and  to  whom 
he  delivers  the  work  when  completed,  and  receives  pa)ment,  giv- 
ing such  wages  to  his  workmen  as  leaves  him  a  small  jDrofit  for 
superintendence,  and  the  use  of  looms,  supposing  the  latter  are 
his  own  property,  which  is  frequently  the  case.  In  fact,  the  system 
pursued  in  the  States  above  named  is  similar  to  that  which  still 
exists  in  some  of  the  manufacturing  districts  of  England,  except 
that  the  American  "  boss  "  is  a  nearer  approach  to  a  small  manu- 
facturer making  up  the  materials  of  another.   .   .   . 

The  American  manufacturer  is  peculiarly  situated,  and  he  must 
often  carry  on  his  business  at  little  or  no  profit,  perhaps  at  a  con- 
siderable loss,  in  order  to  keep  together  the  agents  by  which,  when 
the  demand  comes,  he  can  alone  supply  it.  Hence  the  anxiety  to 
settle  down  the  operatives  around  the  mills  ;  to  render  their  con- 
dition and  social  position  such  as  shall  absolutely  attach  them  to 
their  employers  and  the  locality.  The  latter,  perhaps,  being  the 
most  difficult,  from  the  migrator)^  tendencies  of  a  people  so  rest- 
less, and  always  so  alive  to  any  new  contingency  which  promises 
to  better  their  condition,  however  distant  the  field  of  operation 
may  be. 

The  most  interesting  carpet  manufactory  in  the  United  States 
is,  without  doubt,  that  of  the  Bigelow  Carpet  Company,  Clinton, 
Massachusetts.  In  this  establishment  the  manufacture  of  Brussels 
carpets  by  power  is  fully  and  completely  carried  out,  and  a  fabric 
manufactured,  which,  for  evenness  of  surface,  fineness  and  strength 
of  make,  is  of  a  most  unexceptionable  character.  .  .  . 


480  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

As  might  be  expected,  the  manufacture  of  ready-made  clothing 
forms  an  important  item  in  the  industry  of  the  people  of  the  large 
cities  of  the  States,  such  as  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia, 
and  that  in  a  country  where  male  labor  is  in  such  demand,  females 
are  more  largely  engaged,  and,  on  the  whole,  better  paid  for  their 
work  than  they  are  in  Europe.  Still,  during  the  last  summer,  at- 
tention was  called  to  the  condition  of  the  needlewomen,  —  espe- 
cially the  shirt-makers  of  New  York,  and  facts  brought  to  light 
of  a  parallel  character  to  those  which  a  few  years  ago  formed 
such  prominent  points  in  an  inquiry  into  the  industrial  and  social 
position  of  the  same  class  of  females  in  London. 

The  general  statistics  of  the  clothing  trades,  spread,  as  the 
various  occupations  connected  therewith  are,  over  the  whole  coun- 
try, presented  so  many  difficulties  that,  after  several  attempts  to 
obtain  accurate  information  on  this  point,  Mr.  Wallis  was  compelled 
to  abandon  it.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  could  accurate 
data  be  obtained,  the  result  would  be  of  a  very  extraordinary  char- 
acter ;  as  in  a  country  where  all  classes  of  the  people  may  be  said 
to  be  well  dressed,  and  where  the  cast  off  clothes  of  one  class  are 
never  worn  by  another,  the  manufacture  of  the  cheaper  kinds  of 
clothing  must  be  carried  on  to  an  enormous  extent. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  appears  to  be  a  great  central  depot  of  ready- 
made  clothing,  and  its  manufacture  for  the  western  markets  may 
be  said  to  be  one  of  the  great  trades  of  that  city.  The  system  pur- 
sued is  that  chiefly  of  out-workers.  The  articles  of  dress  being  cut 
out  in  large  quantities  in  the  warehouses  of  the  dealers  or  manu- 
facturers, and  distributed  to  those  who  undertake  to  make  them 
up  at  their  own  houses,  or  to  master  tailors  or  "bosses,"  who, 
paying  the  hands  they  engage  either  by  the  piece  or  by  the  day, 
undertake  the  making  up  of  large  quantities  of  clothing.  The 
various  sewing  operations  are  carried  on  by  the  latter  in  workshops, 
in  most  instances  well  adapted  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  trade, 
and  latterly  sewing  machines,  of  varied  construction,  have  been 
largely  employed.  A  person  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  machines  in 
operation  there,  can  do  as  much  work  as  ten  ordinaiy  needlewomen, 
and  by  those  in  which  the  needles  act  vertically,  any  character  of 
seam  required  for  ordinary  clothing,  either  in  right  lines  or  curves, 


Till':  DECADE  1850-1860  ^9,1 

can  be  sewn.  The  successful  action  of  this  machine  is  further 
exempHfied  in  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  siioes,  so  far  as  the 
stitchin<;  of  the  upper  leathers  is  concerned. 

At  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  the  manufac- 
ture of  clothing  is  also  extensively  carried  on  ;  but  Cincinnati  may 
be  considered  as  the  great  mart  of  ready-made  clothing  for  the 
Western  States,  and,  in  a  measure,  for  those  of  the  South  also. 
In  185 1  there  were  in  the  latter  city  108  establishments,  employ- 
ing 950  hands  in  their  own  workshojjs,  and  upwards  of  9,000 
females,  either  at  their  own  homes  or  under  "  bosses,"  The  jsro- 
prietors  are  chiefly  German  Jews,  and  most  of  the  operatives  are 
Germans.   ,  ,  , 

The  boot  and  shoe  trade,  as  carried  on  in  the  United  States,  is 
altogether  of  a  domestic  character ;  although,  from  the  methcjds 
adopted,  it  paitiikes  of  the  essential  features  of  a  well-regulated 
factory  s)-stem.  The  character  of  the  operatives  stands  very  high 
for  intelligence  and  probity,  and  such  is  the  confidence  of  the 
manufacturers,  that  they  never  ask  for  a  reference,  still  less  for  a 
security,  when  a  new  hand  applies  for  work  ;  and  instances  of  the 
loss  of  materials  by  the  dishonesty  of  the  workmen  are  very  rare 
indeed.  Sets  of  shoes  have  been  lost  occasionally  through  intrust- 
ing them  to  travelling  shoemakers,  who  afterwards  proved  to  be 
professed  vagabonds,  but  this  has  never  \'et  affected  the  integrity 
of  the  workers  generally. 

For  the  convenience  of  the  operatives  residing  in  distant  local- 
ities, the  materials,  in  their  prepared  state,  are  collected  from  the 
manufacturers  by  express-men  or  carriers.  These  deliver  them  to 
the  workmen  for  whom  they  are  intended,  and  on  receiving  the 
work  made  up,  deliver  that  to  the  manufacturer  and  then  receive  the 
payment  due  to  the  former  for  their  labour.  The  remuneration 
of  these  carriers  is  generally  a  small  per-centage  on  the  amount. 

The  "brogans,"  or  "negro  shoes,"  are  often  made  by  small 
farmers,  who  fill  up  their  leisure  time  with  shoe-making,  especially 
in  the  winter,  when  outdoor  labour  cannot  be  attended  to.  The 
ready  money  thus  obtained  contributes  very  materially  to  the 
comfort  of  this  class  of  persons,  and  they  pride  themselves  upon 
paying  the  State  taxes  when   they  are  proprietors,   and  a  great 


482  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

portion,  if  not  the  whole,  of  their  rent  when  tenants,  with  the 
proceeds  of  their  handicraft. 

The  industry  of  the  United  States  has  to  be  estimated  by  the 
pecuhar  circumstances  of  the  country  to  which  it  has  been  devoted. 
In  the  States  the  labour-market  is  higher  than  with  ourselves,  espe- 
cially as  respects  skilled  labour.  It  has,  therefore,  been  a  principal 
aim  as  much  as  possible  to  apply  machinery  for  the  purpose  of 
supplying  this  want,  and,  as  the  consequence,  it  will  be  seen  that 
some  of  the  principal  achievements  of  American  inventors  have  been 
acquired  in  this  department.  To  this  very  want  of  human  skill,  and 
the  absolute  necessity  for  supplying  it,  may  be  attributed  the 
extraordinary  ingenuity  displayed  in  many  of  their  labour-saving 
machines,  where  automatic  action  so  completely  supplies  the  place 
of  the  more  abundant  hand-labour  of  older  manufacturing  countries. 

Of  this  we  have  an  illustration  in  the  machine  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  seamless  grain-bags,  the  loom  for  which  is  described  as 
a  perfect  self-actor,  or  automaton,  commencing  the  bag,  and  con- 
tinuing the  process  until  the  work  is  turned  out  complete. 

For  another  curious  illustration  of  this  automatic  action  we  have 
the  manufacture  of  ladies'  hair-pins  at  Waterbury.  A  quantity  of 
wire  is  coiled  upon  a  drum  or  cylinder,  and  turns  round  upon  its 
axis,  as  suspended  from  the  ceiling  of  the  workshop.  The  point 
of  the  wire  being  inserted  into  the  machine,  and  the  power  applied, 
the  wire  is  cut  off  to  the  requisite  length,  carried  forward  and  bent 
to  the  proper  angle,  and  then  pointed  with  the  necessary  blunt 
points,  and  finally  dropped  into  a  receiver,  quite  finished,  all  but 
the  lacquering  or  japanning.  These  pins  are  made  at  the  rate  of 
180  per  minute. 

The  reader  is  referred  also  to  the  automaton  machine  for  shank- 
ing buttons.  The  blanks  being  cut  in  thin  brass,  are  put  into 
a  curved  feeding-pipe,  in  which  they  descend  to  the  level  of 
the  machine,  by  which  a  hole  is  stamped  in  the  centre  of  each. 
Then  the  shank  is  formed  by  another  portion  of  the  machine, 
from  a  continuous  wire  carried  along  horizontally,  the  wire  being 
shaped  into  the  shank,  and  pushed  up  into  its  proper  place.  These 
operations  are  completed  at  the  rate  of  200  a  minute,  the  only 


THE  DECADK  1850-1860  483 

attendance  required  being  that  of  one  person  to  feed  this  automaton 
with  the  blanks  and  the  wires,  which  he  is  so  well  able  to  work  up 
to  the  satisfaction  of  his  masters. 

There  is,  of  course,  nothing  to  boast  of  on  the  ground  of  supe- 
riority on  account  of  these  inventions  ;  but  it  is  much  to  the  credit 
of  the  American  inventor,  that  he  is  able  so  to  meet  the  necessities 
of  his  case,  and  supply  the  want  of  fingers,  which  are  at  present  so 
scarce. 

Another  peculiarity  observable  in  American  industry,  is  the 
w^t  of  that  division  of  labour  which  is  one  of  the  great  causes  of 
excelTehce  in  the  productions  of  our  own  and  other  of  the  older 
countries  in  which  art  is  carried  to  a  high  point  of  perfection. 
With  us,  trades  and  manufactures  branch  out  into  a  variety  of  sub- 
divisions, from  which,  besides  the  perfection  noticed,  we  ha\'e  a 
great  economy  of  time,  and,  consequently,  of  expense.  The  citizen 
of  the  United  States  knows  that  matters  are  different  with  him, 
and  seems  really  to  pride  himself  in  not  remaining  over  long  at 
any  particular  occupation,  and  being  able  to  turn  his  hand  to  some 
dozen  different  pursuits  in  the  course  of  his  life. 

This  knowledge  of  two  or  three  departments  of  one  trade,  or 
even  the  pursuit  of  several  trades,  by  one  individual,  does  not 
interfere  so  much  with  the  systematic  division  of  labour  as  may  be 
supposed.  In  most  instances  the  change  of  employment  is  made 
at  convenient  periods,  or  as  a  relief  to  the  workman  from  the 
monotony  of  always  doing  the  same  thing.  This  change  and  vari- 
ety of  occupation  is,  in  many  respects,  favourable  to  the  man,  as 
distinguished  from  the  operative  or  the  artist.  In  many  cases  our 
economic  laws  enhance  the  work  or  the  value  of  time,  when  they 
degrade  the  workmen,  between  whom  and  the  perfection  of  their 
works  a  singular  contrast  exists.  While  our  American  operative  is 
a  man  and  a  citizen,  he  is  often  found  wanting  in  that  j^erfect  skill 
of  hand  and  marvellous  accuracy  which  distinguish  the  workmen  of 
this  country.  So  much  is  there  to  cherk  the  national  tendencies 
of  self-gratulation  and  boasting  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
to  promote  respect  and  good  feeling  among  us  all. 

The  machiner}'  of  a  country  will  naturally  corresjiond  with  its 
wants,  and  with  the  histon-  and  state  of  its  people.    Testing  the 


484  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

machinery  of  the  United  States  by  this  rule  of  adaptation,  the 
mechanical  appliances  in  use  must  call  forth  much  admiration.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  mechanical  power  of  the  States  has,  from 
its  earliest  application,  been,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  coun- 
try, directed  to  wood,  this  being  the  material  on  which  it  has  been 
requisite  to  operate  for  so  many  purposes,  and  which  is  presented 
in  the  greatest  alxmdance.  Stone,  for  a  similar  reason,  has  been 
subdued  to  man's  use  by  the  application  of  machineiy,  of  which 
we  have  an  instance  in  the  fact  that  one  man  is  able  to  perform  as 
much  work  by  machinery  in  stone-dressing,  as  twenty  persons  by 
hand.  In  common  with  our  own  and  other  great  manufacturing 
countries,  the  Union  presents  remarkable  illustrations  of  the  amaz- 
ingly productive  power  of  machinery,  as  compared  with  mere 
manual  operations.  Into  the  detidls  of  these  triumphs  of  machin- 
ery it  is  unnecessary  here  to  enter.  It  may  suffice  to  refer  to  the 
improvements  effected  in  spinning-machinery,  by  which  one  man 
can  attend  to  a  mule  containing  1,088  spindles,  each  spinning 
three  hanks,  or  3,264  hanks  a  day  ;  so  that,  as  compared  with  the 
operations  of  the  most  expert  spinner  in  Hindoostan,  the  Ameri- 
can operative  can  perform  the  work  of  3,000  men. 

The  Law  of  Limited  Liability,  which  is  now  engaging  public 
attention,  is  an  important  source  of  the  prosperity  which  attends 
the  industr)^  of  the  United  States.  This  law  affords  the  most 
ample  facilities  for  the  investment  of  capital,  and  has  led  to  a 
much  greater  development  of  the  industrial  resources  and  skill  of 
that  country  than  could  have  resulted  under  other  circumstances 
for  many  years  to  come.  In  the  United  States,  the  agent  or  sec- 
retary, manager,  treasurer,  and  directors  being  also  shareholders, 
are  held  by  the  law  responsible  to  the  extent  of  their  means  for  the 
results  of  the  management  intrusted  to  them.  The  limited  responsi- 
bility is  confined  to  the  non-managing  shareholders  only.  It  will 
be  seen  from  the  several  illustrations  given  in  the  following  pages, 
that  this  law  works  well  in  America ;  and  these  facts  will  strengthen 
the  case  of  those  who  advocate  its  application  to  our  country. 

The  comparative  density  of  the  old  and  the  new  countries, 
differing  as  they  do,  will  account  for  the  very  different  feelings 
with  which  the  increase  of  machinery  has  been  regarded  in  many 


THE  DICCADK  1850-1860  4.S5 

parts  of  this  country  and  the  United  States,  where  the  workmen 
hail  with  satisfaction  all  mechanical  improvements,  the  importance 
and  value  of  which,  as  releasing  them  from  the  dmdgery  of 
unskilled  la])()ur,  they  are  enabled  by  education  to  understand  and 
appreciate.  This  statement  is  not  intended  to  disparage  the  ojDcra- 
tives  of  our  own  countiy,  who  in  many  respects  are  placed  in  a 
position  different  from  that  of  their  class  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  principles  that  ought  to  regulate  the  relations  between  the 
em]:)loycr  and  the  employed  are  thoroughly  understood,  and  where 
the  law  of  limited  liability,  to  which  we  have  just  referred,  affords 
the  most  ample  facilities  for  the  investment  of  capital  in  business, 
and  where  the  skilled  labourer  is  in  many  respects  furnished  with 
many  opportunities  of  advancement  \\hich  he  has  not  among  us. 
Particularly  it  should  be  noticed  that  no  taxation  of  any  kind  is 
suffered  to  interfere  with  the  free  development  of  the  press,  and 
that  the  humblest  labourer  can  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  his  daily 
paper,  so  that  everybody  reads,  and  intelligence  penetrates  through 
the  lowest  grades  of  society.   .  .   . 

The  compulsoryeducational  clauses  adopted  in  the  laws  of  most  of 
the  States,  and  especially  those  of  New  England,  by  which  some  three 
months  of  every  year  must  be  spent  at  school  by  the  young  factory 
operative  under  14  or  15  years  of  age,  secure  every  child  from  the 
cupidity  of  the  parent,  or  the  neglect  of  the  manufacturer ;  since 
to  profit  by  the  child's  labour  during  three-fourths  of  the  year,  he 
or  she  must  be  regularly  in  attendance  in  some  public  or  private 
school  conducted  by  some  authorized  teacher  during  the  other  fourth. 

This  lays  the  foundation  for  that  wide-spread  intelligence  which 
prevails  amongst  the  factory  operatives  of  the  United  States  ;  and 
though  at  first  sight  the  manufacturer  may  appear  to  be  restricted 
in  the  free  use  of  the  labour  offered  to  him,  the  system  re-acts  to 
the  permanent  advantage  of  both  employer  and  employed. 

The  skill  of  hand  which  comes  (jf  experience  is,  notwitiistanding 
present  defects,  rapidly  following  the  perceptive  power  sd  keenly 
awakened  by  early  intellectual  training..  Quickly  learning  from 
the  skilful  European  artisans  thrown  amongst  them  by  emigra- 
tion, or  imported  as  instructors,  with  minds,  as  already  stated, 
prepared  by  sound  practical  education,  the  Americans  have  laid 


486  THE  RISE  OF  MANUFACTURES 

the  foundation  of  a  wide-spread  system  of  manufacturing  opera- 
tions, the  influence  of  which  cannot  be  calculated  upon,  and  are 
daily  improving  upon  the  lessons  obtained  from  their  older  and 
more  experienced  compeers  of  Europe. 

Commercially,  advantages  of  no  ordinar)^  kind  are  presented  to 
the  manufacturing  States  of  the  American  Union.  The  immense 
development  of  its  resources  in  the  west,  the  demands  of  a  popu- 
lation increasing  daily  by  emigration  from  Europe,  as  also  by  the 
results  of  a  healthy  natural  process  of  inter-emigration,  which 
tends  to  spread  over  an  enlarged  surface  the  population  of  the 
Atlantic  States ;  the  facilities  of  communication  by  lakes,  rivers, 
and  railways ;  and  the  cultivation  of  European  tastes,  and  conse- 
quently of  European  wants  ;  all  tend  to  the  encouragement  of 
those  arts  and  manufactures  which  it  is  the  interest  of  the  citizens 
of  the  older  States  to  cultivate,  and  in  which  they  have  so  far 
succeeded  that  their  markets  may  be  said  to  be  secured  to  them  as 
much  as  manufacturers,  as  they  have  hitherto  been,  and  will  doubt- 
less continue  to  be,  as  merchants.  For  whether  the  supply  is 
derived  from  the  home  or  foreign  manufacturer,  the  demand  can- 
not fail  to  be  greater  than  the  industry  of  both  can  supply.  This 
once  fairly  recognised,  those  jealousies  which  have  ever  tended  to 
retard  the  progress  of  nations  in  the  peaceful  arts,  will  be  no  longer 
suffered  to  interfere,  by  taking  the  form  of  restrictions  on  commerce 
and  the  free  intercourse  of  peoples. 

The  extent  to  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  as  yet 
succeeded  in  manufactures  may  be  attributed  to  indomitable  energy 
and  an  educated  intelligence,  as  also  to  the  ready  welcome  accorded 
to  the  skilled  workmen  of  Europe,  rather  than  to  any  peculiar 
native  advantages  ;  since  these  latter  have  only  developed  them- 
selves as  manufacturing  skill  and  industry  have  progressed.  Only 
one  obstacle  of  any  importance  stands  in  the  way  of  constant  ad- 
vance towards  greater  perfection,  and  that  is  the  conviction  that 
perfection  is  already  attained.  This  opinion,  which  prevails  to  a 
large  extent,  is  unworthy  of  that  intelligence  which  has  overcome 
so  many  difficulties,  and  which  can  only  be  prevented  from  achiev- 
ing all  it  aspires  to,  by  a  vain-glorious  conviction  that  it  has  nothing 
more  to  do. 


CHAPTER  X 

REPRESENTATIVE  VIEWS   OF  THE   PRO- 
TECTIVE TARIFF 

INTRODUCTION 

Next  to  currency  problems  no  purely  economic  subject  has  aroused  so  much 
interest  in  the  United  States,  and  played  so  great  a  part  in  political  discussion 
both  in  and  out  of  Congress  as  the  tariff  policy  of  the  federal  government. 
From  the  first  measure  to  raise  a  revenue  from  import  duties  in  1 789  until  the 
present  time  no  generation  of  the  American  people  has  escaped  the  tariff  con- 
troversy. More  than  anything  else  this  controversy  has  furnished  our  states- 
men and  the  public  at  large  with  such  knowledge  of  economic  science  as  they 
have  acquired.  It  is  this  aspect  of  the  subject,  together  with  its  influence  upon 
our  politics,  rather  than  any  direct  effect  upon  economic  development,  which 
makes  it  an  important  factor  in  American  economic  history. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  result  of  the  long  discussion  of  the  relative 
merits  of  free  trade  and  protection  is  the  way  it  has  increased  the  disposi- 
tion of  our  people  to  exaggerate  the  influence  of  the  government  in  eco- 
nomic affairs.  From  the  first  our  public  men  have  made  this  the  chief  factor 
in  explaining  whatever  of  prosperity  or  depression  the  country  has  experi- 
enced. Other  influences  have  not  been  appreciated  or  have  been  ignored 
altogether.  Tariff  discussion  has  gready  increased  this  tendency.  Clay  set  an 
example  of  it  in  his  great  speech  on  the  American  System  in  1832.  "If  I  were 
to  select  any  term  of  seven  years  since  the  adoption  of  the  present  Consti- 
tution which  exhibited  a  scene  of  the  most  wide-spread  dismay  and  desolation, 
it  would  be  exactly  that  term  of  seven  years  which  immediately  preceded 
the  establishment  of  the  tariff  of  1824."  "  If  the  term  of  seven  years  were  to 
be  selected,  of  the  greatest  prosperity  which  this  people  have  enjoyed  since  the 
establishment  of  their  present  Constitution,  it  would  be  exactly  that  period  of 
seven  years  which  immediately  followed  the  passage  of  the  tariff  of  1824." 
The  inevitable  conclusion  was:  "This  transformation  of  the  condition  of  the 
country  from  gloom  and  distress  to  brightness  and  prosperity  has  been  mainly 
the  work  of  American  legislation  fostering  American  industry,  instead  of  allow- 
ing it  to  be  controlled  by  foreign  legislation,  cherishing  foreign  industry." 
Calhoun,  McDufifie,  and  Hayne  were  hardly  less  emphatic  in  attribudng  the 
undoubted  economic  ills  of  South  Carolina  to  the  same  legislation.  From  that 
time  to  this  it  has  been  the  practice  of  public  men  on  both  sides  to  follow 
these  examples,  and  the  general  public  has  usually  accepted  their  explanations. 

4S7 


488  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  such  hasty  generalizations  have  little 
or  no  foundation  in  fact.  The  influences  of  protective  duties  are  not  to  be  dis- 
covered by  such  a  simple  method.  They  are  so  mingled  with  other  influences 
affecting  economic  conditions  that  only  the  most  minute  investigation  of  each 
industry  can  reveal  them,  and  even  then  the  results  are  likely  to  be  uncertain 
and  inconclusive.  This  is  certainly  the  case  with  our  tariff  history  before  the 
Civil  War.  It  is  not  going  too  far  to  say  that  no  important  feature  in  our  eco- 
nomic development  during  that  period  can  be  attributed  unmistakably  to  tariff 
legislation.  No  important  industries  can  be  said  to  have  been  created  or  pre- 
vented from  growth  by  that  legislation.  Other  influences  determined  the  main 
features  of  development,  and  the  tariff  policy  did  nothing  more  than  modify 
them  a  litde,  where  it  had  any  effect  at  all.  The  best  evidence  of  this  is  the 
fact  that  the  change  from  the  high  duties  of  the  early  years  to  the  low  duties 
of  the  later  ones  brought  no  corresponding  change  in  the  course  of  economic 
development.  The  growth  of  manufactures  continued  after  the  change  of 
policy  and  was  no  less  rapid  than  in  former  years.  The  superintendent  of 
the  census  of  i860  declared,  "The  returns  of  the  Manufactures  exhibit  a 
most  gratifying  increase,  and  present  at  the  same  time  an  imposing  view  of 
the  magnitude  to  which  this  branch  of  the  national  industry  has  attained  within 
the  last  decennium." 

The  reasons  for  the  small  influence  of  tariff  policy  during  this  period  may 
be  found  in  two  circumstances.  In  the  first  place,  the  growth  of  manufactures 
in  the  northeastern  states  was  already  being  forced  by  the  impossibility  of  se- 
curing them  through  commerce.  As  McDuffie  pointed  out,  import  duties  were 
not  needed  to  prevent  the  northern  people  from  purchasing  foreign  manufac- 
tures. The  impossibility  of  exporting  anything  with  which  to  pay  for  them 
was  sufficient  for  this  purpose.  Protective  duties  might  cause  the  South  and 
West  to  purchase  domestic  instead  of  foreign  goods  and  thus  to  stimulate  the 
growth  of  manufactures.  Their  influence  in  this  direction,  however,  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  very  great,  since  domestic  manufactures  continued  to  in- 
crease under  the  lower  duties  of  the  acts  of  1846  and  1857.  What  appears  to 
have  happened  was  this :  the  commercial  relations  of  the  country  with  the  out- 
side world  made  the  development  of  manufactures  desirable,.  Various  inven- 
tions and  improvements  in  the  arts  made  that  development  easy.  The  import 
duties  helped  on  the  process  to  some  extent,  but  their  influence  was  too  small 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  larger  ones  that  in  reality  dominated  the  situation. 

A  second  circumstance  tending  to  diminish  the  importance  of  tariff  policy 
was  the  large  area  of  the  country.  From  the  free-trade  point  of  view  the  prin- 
cipal effect  of  protection  is  to  interfere  with  territorial  division  of  labor.  In  a 
small  country  this  interference  may  be  great  enough  to  amount  to  a  serious 
handicap ;  but  in  a  country  of  continental  proportions  it  is  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. The  territorial  division  of  labor  inside  the  country  may  be  extensive 
enough  to  compensate  to  a  considerable  extent  for  such  loss.  This  circum- 
stance has  greatly  reduced  the  disadvantages  of  protection  in  this  country 


INTRODUCTION  489 

and  rendered  the  arguments  for  free  trade  mueh  less  forcible  than  when  applied 
to  the  smaller  countries  of  Europe. 

If  our  public  men  have  overestimaled  the  influence  of  tariff  policy  upon 
the  country  as  a  whole,  they  have  not  failed  to  recognize  the  true  relation  of 
that  policy  to  the  industry  of  their  particular  section  ;  and  their  atdtude  toward 
the  policy  of  protection  has  accurately  reflected  this  relation.  Southern  states- 
men saw  clearly  enough  that  this  policy  could  bring  no  economic  advantage  to 
their  section.  Some  oi  them  were  willing  at  first  to  support  it  for  the  sake  of 
the  political  advantages  that  might  result  to  the  nation  as  a  whole.  To  place 
the  manufacturer  by  the  side  of  the  agriculturalist,  to  use  Jefferson's  phrase, 
would  save  them  from  the  turmoil  of  European  wars.  But  that  this  involved 
economic  sacrifice  was  clearly  recognized  ;  and  the  solid  opposition  of  the  South 
to  the  policy  after  1816  was  the  result  of  no  delusion.  Their  only  mistake 
was  in  overestimating  the  amount  of  the  sacrifice  the  policy  involved  for  them 
and  in  attributing  to  it  many  economic  ills  that  were  due  to  other  causes. 

The  position  of  the  Middle  States  and  West  was  almost  equally  decided  and 
sprang  from  as  thorough  an  understanding  of  their  interests.  By  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  their  representatives  in  Congress  voted  in  favor  of  the  adoption 
of  the  policy  of  protection  in  1824.  The  people  of  this  section  were  for  the 
most  part  agriculturalists,  and  they  saw  clearly  that  prosperity  could  only  come 
to  them  with  a  market  for  their  products.  Since  foreign  markets  could  not  be 
had,  a  home  market  was  the  only  alternative,  and  the  building  up  of  manufac- 
tures seemed  to  them  the  only  way  of  securing  this.  With  the  growth  of  the 
southern  market  for  agricultural  produce  the  protective  sentiment  weakened, 
especially  in  the  West,  and  by  1 846  this  section  had  swung  to  the  opposite  side 
of  the  question.  It  was  also  influenced  by  the  repeal  of  the  English  corn  laws. 
It  was  this  change  which  made  possible  the  adoption  of  the  low  tariff  policy  of 
that  year. 

New  England  was  divided  in  her  interest  throughout  the  period.  Commerce 
and  shipping  had  long  been  the  principal  source  of  her  wealth,  and  these 
had  nothing  to  gain  and  much  to  lose  from  the  policy  of  protection,  especially 
as  they  rested  largely  upon  the  carriage  of  southern  commodities  to  foreign 
markets.  On  the  other  hand,  as  a  manufacturing  community  it  shared  with 
the  Middle  States  in  the  benefits  of  protection.  Undl  1824  the  commercial 
interest  was  the  stronger.  Only  fifteen  of  her  congressmen  voted  for  the  pro- 
tective measure  of  that  year,  while  twenty-three  voted  against  it.  After  that  the 
manufacturing  interest  increased,  and  from  1828  until  1S46  a  majority  of  her 
people  were  in  favor  of  protection.  After  that  time,  however,  either  because 
protection  was  deemed  unnecessary  or  because  commerce  became  relatively 
more  important,  the  protective  sentiment  declined,  and  in  1857  eighteen  of 
her  congressmen  voted  to  lower  the  dudes,  while  only  nine  voted  against  it. 

The  following  record  of  votes  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  more 
important  tariff  measures  of  the  period  will  show  the  sentiment  of  each  section 
at  different  dates.    It  should  be  noted  that  the  question  of  protection  played 


490 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


a  subordinate  part  in  the  Act  of  1857.  It  was  passed  to  relieve  currency 
difficulties.  The  opposition  to  it,  however,  was  due  in  large  measure  to  the 
existence  of  protective  sentiment. 


Act  of  1816 

Act  of  1824 

Act  of  1833 

Act  of  1846 

Act  of  1857 

Yeas 

Nays 

Yeas 

Nays 

Yeas 

Nays 

Yeas 

Nays 

Yeas 

Nays 

Southern  States    .     .     . 

17 

33 

3 

64 

63 

'> 

49 

12 

53 

0 

Middle  States  .... 

44 

ID 

60        15 

24 

47 

iS 

47 

24 

28 

Western  States      .     .     . 

10 

I 

29         0 

22 

8 

17 

21 

35 

New  England  States  .     . 

17 

10 

15    23 

ID 

28 

9 

19 

18 

9 

I.    THE  NATIONAL  VIEW:  PROTECTION    AS    A    MEANS    OF 

DEFENSE 

^  Jeffefsoi  s  Letter  to  Benjamin  Austin,  1816 

You  tell  me  I  am  quoted  by  those  who  wish  to  continue  our  de- 
pendence on  England  for  manufactures.  There  was  a  time  when  I 
might  have  been  so  quoted  with  more  candor,  but  within  the  thirty 
years  which  have  since  elapsed,  how  are  circumstances  changed ! 
We  were  then  in  peace.  Our  independent  place  among  nations 
was  acknowledged,  A  commerce  which  offered  the  raw  material  in 
exchange  for  the  same  material  after  receiving  the  last  touch  of  in- 
dustry, was  worthy  of  welcome  to  all  nations.  It  was  expected  that 
those  especially  to  whom  manufacturing  industry  was  important, 
would  cherish  the  friendship  of  such  customers  by  every  favor,  by 
every  inducement,  and  particularly  cultivate  their  peace  by  every 
act  of  justice  and  friendship.  Under  this  prospect  the  question 
seemed  legitimate,  whether,  with  such  an  immensity  of  unimproved 
land,  courting  the  hand  of  husbandry,  the  industry  of  agriculture, 
or  that  of  manufactures,  would  add  most  to  the  national  wealth  ? 
And  the  doubt  was  entertained  on  this  consideration  chiefly,  that  to 
the  labor  of  the  husbandman  a  vast  addition  is  made  by  the  spon- 
taneous energies  of  the  earth  on  which  it  is  employed  :  for  one 
grain  of  wheat  committed  to  the  earth,  she  renders  twenty,  thirty, 
and   even  fifty  fold,   whereas  to  the   labor  of  the  manufacturer 

1  Writings,  XIV,  389-393. 


PROTECTION  AS  A  MEANS  OF  DEFENSE  491 

nothing  is  added.  Pounds  of  flax,  in  his  hands,  yield,  on  the  con- 
trary, but  pennyweights  of  lace.  This  exchange,  too,  laborious  as 
it  might  seem,  what  a  field  did  it  promise  for  the  occupations  of 
the  ocean  ;  what  a  nursery  for  that  class  of  citizens  who  were  to 
exercise  and  maintain  our  equal  rights  on  that  element  ?  This  was 
the  state  of  things  in  1785,  when  the  "  Notes  on  Virginia  "  were 
first  printed  ;  when,  the  ocean  being  open  to  all  nations,  and  their 
common  right  in  it  acknowledged  and  exercised  under  regulations 
sanctioned  by  the  assent  and  usage  of  all,  it  was  thought  that  the 
doubt  might  claim  some  consideration.  Ikit  who  in  1785  could 
foresee  the  rapid  depravity  which  was  to  render  the  close  of  that 
century  the  disgrace  of  the  history  of  man  ?  Who  could  have  im- 
agined that  the  two  most  distinguished  in  the  rank  of  nations,  for 
science  and  civilization,  would  have  suddenly  descended  from  that 
honorable  eminence,  and  setting  at  defiance  all  those  moral  laws 
established  by  the  Author  of  nature  between  nation  and  nation,  as 
between  man  and  man,  would  cover  earth  and  sea  with  robberies 
and  piracies,  merely  because  strong  enough  to  do  it  with  temporal 
impunity ;  and  that  under  this  disbandment  of  nations  from  social 
order,  we  should  have  been  despoiled  of  a  thousand  ships,  and 
have  thousands  of  our  citizens  reduced  to  Algerine  slavery.  Yet 
all  this  has  taken  place.  One  of  these  nations  interdicted  to  our 
vessels  all  harbors  of  the  globe  without  having  first  proceeded  to 
some  one  of  hers,  there  paid  a  tribute  proportioned  to  the  cargo, 
and  obtained  her  license  to  proceed  to  the  port  of  destination.  The 
other  declared  them  to  be  the  lawful  prize  if  they  had  touched  at 
the  port,  or  been  visited  by  a  ship  of  the  enemy  nation.  Thus 
were  we  completely  excluded  from  the  ocean.  Compare  this  state 
of  things  with  that  of  '85,  and  say  whether  an  opinion  founded  in 
the  circumstances  of  that  day  can  be  fairly  applied  to  those  of  the 
present.  We  have  experienced  what  we  did  not  then  believe,  that 
there  exist  both  profligacy  and  power  enough  to  exclude  us  from 
the  field  of  interchange  with  other  nations  :  that  to  be  independent 
for  the  comforts  of  life  we  must  fabricate  them  ourselves.  We 
must  now  place  the  manufacturer  by  the  side  of  the  agriculturist. 
The  former  question  is  suppressed,  or  rather  assumes  a  new  form. 
Shall  we  make  our  own  comforts,  or  go  without  them,  at  the  will 


492  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

of  a  foreign  nation  ?  He,  therefore,  who  is  now  against  domestic 
manufacture,  must  be  for  reducing  us  either  to  dependence  on  that 
foreign  nation,  or  to  be  clothed  in  skins,  and  to  hve  hke  wild 
beasts  in  dens  and  caverns.  I  am  not  one  of  these  ;  experience 
has  taught  me  that  manufactures  are  now  as  necessary  to  our  inde- 
pendence as  to  our  comfort ;  and  if  those  who  quote  me  as  of  a 
different  opinion,  will  keep  pace  with  me  in  purchasing  nothing 
foreign  where  an  equivalent  of  domestic  fabric  can  be  obtained, 
without  regard  to  difference  of  price,  it  will  not  be  our  fault  if  we 
do  not  soon  have  a  supply  at  home  equal  to  our  demand,  and  wrest 
that  weapon  of  distress  from  the  hand  which  has  wielded  it.  If  it 
shall  be  proposed  to  go  beyond  our  own  supply,  the  question  of  '85 
will  then  recur,  will  our  surplus  labor  be  then  most  beneficially 
employed  in  the  culture  of  the  earth,  or  in  the  fabrications  of  art  ? 
We  have  time  yet  for  consideration,  before  that  question  will  press 
upori  us  ;  and  the  maxim  to  be  applied  will  depend  on  the  circum- 
stances which  shall  then  exist ;  for  in  so  complicated  a  science  as 
political  economy,  no  one  axiom  can  be  laid  down  as  wise  and  ex- 
pedient for  all  times  and  circumstances,  and  for  their  contraries. 
Inattention  to  this  is  what  has  called  for  this  explanation,  which 
reflection  would  have  rendered  unnecessary  with  the  candid,  while 
nothing  will  do  it  with  those  who  use  the  former  opinion  only  as  a 
stalking  horse,  to  cover  their  disloyal  propensities  to  keep  us  in 
eternal  vassalage  to  a  foreign  and  unfriendly  people. 

^  Madisou' s  Message  to  Congirss,  February,  iSl^ 

.  .  .  The  reviving  interests  of  commerce  will  claim  the  legisla- 
tive attention  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  and  such  regulations  will, 
I  trust,  be  seasonably  devised  as  shall  secure  to  the  United  States 
their  just  proportion  of  the  navigation  of  the  world.  The  most 
liberal  policy  toward  other  nations,  if  met  by  corresponding  dis- 
positions, will  in  this  respect  be  found  the  most  beneficial  pol- 
icy towards  ourselves.  But  there  is  no  subject  that  can  enter 
with  greater  force  and  merit  into  the  deliberations  of  Congress, 
than  a  consideration  of  the  means  to  preserve  and  promote  the 

1  Statesman's  Manual,  I,  326. 


PROTECTION  AS  A  MEANS  OF  DEFENSE  493 

manufactures  whicli  have  swung  into  existence,  and  attained  an 
unparalleled  maturity  throughout  the  United  States  during  the 
period  of  the  luiropean  wars.  I'his  source  of  national  independ- 
ence and  wealth  I  anxiously  recommend,  therefore,  to  the  prompt 
and  constant  guardianship  of  Congress. 

'^  Madison' s  Message  to  Cojigrcss,  December,  iSl^ 

In  adjusting  the  duties  on  imports  to  the  object  of  re\-enue,  the 
influence  of  the  tariff  on  manufactures  will  necessarily  present  itself 
for  consideration.  However  wise  the  theory  may  be  which  leaves 
to  the  sagacity  and  interest  of  individuals  the  application  of  their 
industry  and  resources,  there  are  in  this,  as  in  other  cases,  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule.  Besides  the  condition  which  the  theory 
itself  implies  of  a  reciprocal  adoption  by  other  nations,  experience 
teaches  that  so  many  circumstances  must  occur,  in  introducing  and 
maturing  manufacturing  establishments,  especially  of  the  more  com- 
plicated kinds,  that  a  country  may  remain  long  without  them,  al- 
though sufficiently  advanced,  and  in  some  respects  even  peculiarly 
fitted  for  carrying  them  on  with  success.  Under  circumstances  giv- 
ing a  powerful  impulse  to  manufacturing  industry,  it  has  made 
among  us  a  progress,  and  exhibited  an  efficiency,  which  justify  the 
belief  that  with  a  protection  not  more  than  is  due  to  the  enterpris- 
ing citizens  whose  interests  are  now  at  stake,  it  will  become  at  an 
early  day  not  only  safe  against  occasional  competitions  from  abroad, 
but  a  source  of  domestic  wealth  and  even  of  external  commerce. 
In  selecting  the  branches  more  especially  entitled  to  the  public 
patronage,  a  preference  is  obviously  claimed  by  such  as  will  relieve 
the  United  States  from  a  dependence  on  foreign  supplies,  ever 
subject  to  casual  failures,  for  articles  necessary  for  the  public  de- 
fence, or  connected  with  the  primary  wants  of  individuals.  It  will 
be  an  additional  recommendation  of  particular  manufactures,  where 
the  materials  for  them  are  extensively  drawn  from  our  agriculture, 
and  consequently  impart  and  insure  to  that  great  fund  of  national 
prosperity  and  independence  an  encouragement  which  can  not  fail 
to  be  rewarded. 

1  Statesman's  Manual,  I,  331 -33-- 


494  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

^  Jfadisoii's  Lcttcj-  to  D.  Lynch,  iSiy 

Although  I  approve  the  pohcy  of  leaving  to  the  sagacity  of  in- 
dividuals, and  to  the  impulse  of  private  interest,  the  application  of 
industry  and  capital,  I  am  equally  pfersuaded  that  in  this,  as  in  other 
cases,  there  are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule,  which  do  not  impair 
the  principle  of  it.  Among  these  exceptions  is  the  policy  of  en- 
couraging domestic  manufactures  within  certain  limits,  and  in  ref- 
erence to  certain  articles. 

Without  entering  into  a  detailed  view  of  the  subject,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  every  prudent  nation  will  wish  to  be  independent 
of  other  nations  for  the  necessary  articles  of  food,  of  raiment,  and 
of  defence  ;  and  particular  considerations  applicable  to  the  United 
States  seem  to  strengthen  the  motives  to  this  independence. 

Besides  the  articles  falling  under  the  above  description,  there 
may  be  others,  for  manufacturing  which  natural  advantages  exist, 
which  require  temporary  interpositions  for  bringing  them  into  reg- 
ular and  successful  activity. 

When  the  fund  of  industry  is  acquired  by  emigrations  from 
abroad,  and  not  withdrawn  or  withheld  from  other  domestic  em- 
ployments, the  case  speaks  for  itself. 

I  will  only  add,  that  among  the  articles  of  consumption  and  use, 
the  preference  in  many  cases  is  decided  merely  by  fashion  or  by 
habits.  As  far  as  an  equality,  and  still  more  where  a  real  superi- 
ority, is  found  in  the  articles  manufactured  at  home,  all  must  be 
sensible  that  it  is  politic  and  patriotic  to  encourage  a  preference 
of  them,  as  affording  a  more  certain  source  of  supply  for  every 
class,  and  a  more  certain  market  for  the  surplus  products  of  the 
agricultural  class. 

2  Ca  I /levin's  Speech  on  the  Taj  iff  Bill  of  l8l6 

The  security  of  a  country  mainly  depends  on  its  spirit  and  its 
means  ;  and  the  latter  principally  on  its  moneyed  resources.  Modi- 
fied as  the  industiy  of  this  country  now  is,  combined  with  our 
peculiar  situation  and  want  of  a  naval  ascendency,  whenever  we 

1  Writings,  III,  42-43.  2  Works,  II,  164-168. 


ruo'i'KxjTiON  AS  A  MEANS  oi'  I ) I-. I' i:\si-:        495 

have  the  misfortune  to  be  involved  in  a  war  with  a  nation  domi- 
nant on  the  oeean  —  and  it  is  almost  only  with  sueh  wc  can  at 
present  be  —  the  moneyed  resources  of  the  countr)'  to  a  great 
extent  must  fail.  He  took  it  for  granted  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
this  body  to  adopt  those  measures  of  jM'udent  foresight  which  the 
event  of  war  made  necessary.  We  cannot,  he  presumed,  be  indif- 
ferent to  dangers  from  abroad,  unless,  indeed,  the  House  is  pre- 
pared to  indulge  in  the  phantom  of  eternal  peace,  which  seems  to 
possess  the  dream  of  some  of  its  members.  Could  such  a  state 
exist,  no  foresight  or  fortitude  would  be  necessary  to  conduct  the 
affairs  of  the  republic  ;  but  as  it  is  the  mere  illusion  of  the  imagi- 
nation, as  every  people  that  ever  has  or  ever  will  exist  is  subjected 
to  the  vicissitudes  of  peace  and  war,  it  must  ever  be  considered  as 
the  plain  dictate  of  wisdom  in  peace  to  prepare  for  war.  What, 
then,  let  us  consider,  constitute  the  resources  of  this  country,  and 
what  are  the  effects  of  war  on  them  ?  Commerce  and  agriculture, 
till  lately  almost  the  only,  still  constitute  the  principal,  sources  of 
our  wealth.  So  long  as  these  remain  uninterrupted,  the  country 
prospers  ;  but  war,  as  we  are  now  circumstanced,  is  equally  de- 
structive to  both.  They  both  depend  on  foreign  markets  ;  and  our 
country  is  placed,  as  it  regards  them,  in  a  situation  strictly  insular  ; 
a  wide  ocean  rolls  between.  Our  commerce  neither  is  nor  can  be 
protected  by  the  present  means  of  the  countiy.  What,  then,  are 
the  effects  of  a  war  with  a  maritime  power  —  with  England  .?  Our 
commerce  annihilated,  spraiding  individual  misery  and  producing 
national  poverty ;  our  agriculture  cut  off  from  its  accustomed 
markets,  the  surplus  product  of  the  farmer  perishes  on  his  hands, 
and  he  ceases  to  produce  because  he  cannot  sell.  His  resources  are 
dried  up,  while  his  expenses  are  greatly  increased  ;  as  all  manu- 
factured articles,  the  necessaries  as  well  as  the  conveniences  of 
life,  rise  to  an  extravagant  price.  The  recent  war  fell  with  peculiar 
pressure  on  the  growers  of  cotton  and  tobacco,  and  other  great 
staples  of  the  country  ;  and  the  same  st?ite  of  things  will  recur  in 
the  event  of  another,  unless  prevented  by  the  foresight  ol"  this 
body.  If  the  mere  statement  of  facts  did  not  carry  conviction  to 
every  mind,  as  he  conceives  it  is  calculated  to  do,  additional  argu- 
ments might  be  drawn  from  the  general  nature  of  wealth.    Neither 


496  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

agriculture,  manufactures,  nor  commerce,  taken  separately,  is  the 
cause  of  wealth  ;  it  flows  from  the  three  combined,  and  cannot 
exist  without  each.  The  wealth  of  any  single  nation  or  an  indi- 
vidual, it  is  true,  may  not  immediately  depend  on  the  three,  but 
such  wealth  always  presupposes  their  existence.  He  viewed  the 
words  in  the  most  enlarged  sense.  Without  commerce,  industry 
would  have  no  stimulus ;  without  manufactures,  it  would  be  with- 
out the  means  of  production  ;  and  without  agriculture  neither  of 
the  others  can  subsist.  When  separated  entirely  and  permanently, 
they  perish.  War  in  this  country  produces,  to  a  great  extent,  that 
effect ;  and  hence  the  great  embarrassment  which  follows  in  its 
train.  The  failure  of  the  wealth  and  resources  of  the  nation 
necessarily  involved  the  ruin  of  its  finances  and  its  currency.  It 
is  admitted  by  the  most  strenuous  advocates,  on  the  other  side, 
that  no  country  ought  to  be  dependent  on  another  for  its  means 
of  defence ;  that,  at  least,  our  musket  and  bayonet,  our  cannon 
and  ball  ought  to  be  of  domestic  manufacture.  But  what,  he 
asked,  is  more  necessary  to  the  defence  of  a  country  than  its 
currency  and  finance  ?  Circumstanced  as  our  country  is,  can  these 
stand  the  shock  of  war  ?  Behold  the  effect  of  the  late  war  on 
them.  When  our  manufactures  are  grown  to  a  certain  perfection, 
as  they  soon  will  under  the  fostering  care  of  Government,  we  will 
no  longer  experience  these  evils.  The  farmer  will  find  a  ready 
market  for  his  surplus  produce ;  and,  what  is  almost  of  equal 
consequence,  a  certain  and  cheap  supply  of  all  his  wants.  His 
prosperity  will  diffuse  itself  to  every  class  in  the  community  ;  and, 
instead  of  that  languor  of  industry  and  individual  distress  now 
incident  to  a  state  of  war  and  suspended  commerce,  the  wealth 
and  vigor  of  the  community  will  not  be  materially  impaired.  The 
arm  of  Government  will  be  nerved  ;  and  taxes  in  the  hour  of 
danger,  when  essential  to  the  independence  of  the  nation,  may  be 
greatly  increased  ;  loans,  so  uncertain  and  hazardous,  may  be  less 
relied  on  ;  thus  situated,  the  storm  may  beat  without,  but  within 
all  will  be  quiet  and  safe.  To  give  perfection  to  this  state  of  things, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  add,  as  soon  as  possible,  a  system  of  internal 
improvements,  and  at  least  such  an  extension  of  our  navy  as  will 
prevent  the  cutting  off  our  coasting  trade.    The  advantage  of  each 


I'RO'rFX'TloX  AS  A  MEANS  OF  DEFENSE  497 

is  so  striking  as  not  to  require  illustration,  especially  after  the 
experience  of  the  recent  war.  It  is  thus  the  resources  of  this 
Government  and  people  would  be  placed  beyond  the  power  of  a 
foreign  war  materially  to  impair.  Hut  it  may  be  said  that  the 
derangement  then  experienced,  resulted,  not  from  the  cause 
assigned,  but  from  the  errors  of  the  weakness  of  the  Government, 
lie  admitted  that  man\-  fmancial  blunders  were  committed,  for 
the  subject  was  new  to  us  ;  that  the  taxes  were  not  laid  sufficiently 
early,  or  to  as  great  an  extent  as  they  ought  to  have  been  ;  and 
that  the  loans  were  in  some  instances  injudiciously  made  ;  but  he 
ventured  to  affirm  that,  had  the  greatest  foresight  and  fortitude 
been  exerted,  the  embarrassment  would  have  been  still  very  great ; 
and  that  even  under  the  best  management,  the  total  derangement 
which  was  actually  felt  would  not  have  been  postponed  eighteen 
months,  had  the  war  so  long  continued.  How  could  it  be  other- 
wise .''  A  war  such  as  this  countiy  was  then  involved  in,  in  a  great 
measure  dries  up  the  resources  of  individuals,  as  he  had  already 
proved  ;  and  the  resources  of  the  Government  are  no  more  than 
the  aggregate  of  the  surplus  incomes  of  individuals  called  into 
action  by  a  system  of  taxation.  It  is  certainly  a  great  political  evil, 
incident  to  the  character  of  the  industry  of  this  country,  that,  how- 
ever prosperous  our  situation  when  at  peace,  with  an  uninterrupted 
commerce  —  and  nothing  Ihen  could  exceed  it  —  the  moment  that 
we  were  involved  in  war  the  whole  is  reversed.  When  resources 
are  most  needed,  when  indispensable  to  maintain  the  honor,  yes, 
the  very  existence  of  the  nation,  then  they  desert  us.  Our  currency 
is  also  sure  to  experience  the  shock,  and  become  so  deranged  as  to 
prevent  us  from  calling  out  fairly  whatever  of  means  is  left  to  the 
country.  The  result  of  a  war  in  the  present  state  of  our  naval 
power,  is  the  blockade  of  our  coast,  and  consequent  destruction 
of  our  trade.  The  wants  and  habits  of  the  country,  founded  on 
the  use  of  foreign  articles,  must  be  gratified  ;  importation  '  to  a 
certain  extent  continues,  through  the  policy  of  the  enemy  or  unlaw- 
ful traffic  ;  the  exportation  of  our  bulky  articles  is  prevented,  too ; 
the  specie  of  the  country  is  drawn  to  pay  the  balance  perpetually 
accumulating  against  us  ;  and  the  final  result  is,  a  total  derange- 
ment of  our  currency.    To  this  distressing  state  of  things  there 


49S  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

were  two  remedies  —  and  only  two  ;  one  in  our  power  immediately, 
the  other  requiring  much  time  and  exertion  ;  but  both  constituting, 
in  his  opinion,  the  essential  policy  of  this  country  :  he  meant  the 
navy  and  domestic  manufactures.  By  the  former,  we  could  open 
the  way  to  our  markets  ;  by  the  latter,  we  bring  them  from  beyond 
the  ocean,  and  naturalize  them.  Had  we  the  means  of  attaining 
an  immediate  naval  ascendency,  he  acknowledged  that  the  policy 
recommended  by  this  bill  would  be  very  questionable  ;  but  as  that 
is  not  the  fact  —  as  it  is  a  period  remote,  with  any  exertion,  and 
will  be  probably  more  so  from  that  relaxation  of  exertion  so  natural 
in  peace,  when  necessity  is  not  felt,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  this 
House  to  resort,  to  a  considerable  extent,  at  least  as  far  as  is  pro- 
posed, to  the  only  remaining  remedy. 

II.    THE   MIDDLE    STATES   AND  WEST  —  MANUFACTURES 
AND   A   HOME    MARKET 

^  Clays  Speech  of  182^ 

In  casting  our  eyes  around  us,  the  most  prominent  circumstance 
which  fixes  our  attention  and  challenges  our  deepest  regret  is  the 
general  distress  which  pervades  the  whole  countiy.  It  is  forced 
upon  us  by  numerous  facts  of  the  most  incontestable  character.  It 
is  indicated  by  the  diminished  exports  of  native  produce  ;  by  the 
depressed  and  reduced  state  of  our  foreign  navigation ;  by  our  di- 
minished commerce  ;  by  successive  unthrashed  crops  of  grain,  per- 
ishing in  our  barns  and  barn-yards  for  the  want  of  a  market ;  by 
the  alarming  diminution  of  the  circulating  medium  ;  by  the  numer- 
ous bankruptcies,  not  limited  to  the  trading  classes,  but  extending 
to  all  orders  of  society ;  by  a  universal  complaint  of  the  want  of 
employment,  and  a  consequent  reduction  of  the  wages  of  labor  ;  by 
the  ravenous  pursuit  after  public  situations,  not  for  the  sake  of  their 
honors  and  the  performance  of  their  public  duties,  but  as  a  means 
of  private  subsistence ;  by  the  reluctant  resort  to  the  perilous  use 
of  paper  money ;  by  the  intervention  of  legislation  in  the  delicate 
relation  between  debtor  and  creditor ;   and,  above  all,  by  the  low 

1  Taussig,  State  Papers  and  Speeches  on  the  Tariff,  pp.  254,  255,  256-257, 
258-260,  265,  266-268. 


MANUFACTURES  AND  A  HOME  MARKET 


499 


and  depressed  state  of  the  value  of  almost  every  description  of  the 
whole  mass  of  the  property  of  the  nation,  which  has,  on  an  average, 
sunk  not  less  than  about  fifty  per  centum  within  a  few  years.  .  .  . 
What  is  the  cause  of  this  wide-spreading  distress,  of  this  deep  de- 
pression, which  we  behold  stamped  on  the  public  countenance?  .  .  . 

...  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  during  almost  the  whole 
existence  of  this  government,  we  have  shaped  our  industr)^,  our 
navigation,  and  our  commerce,  in  reference  to  an  extraordinary 
war  in  Europe,  and  to  foreign  markets  which  no  longer  exist ;  in 
the  fact  that  we  ha\e  depended  too  much  upon  foreign  sources  of 
supply,  and  excited  too  litdc  the  native  ;  in  the  fact  that,  whilst 
we  have  culti\'ated,  with  assiduous  care,  our  foreign  resources,  we 
have  suffered  those  at  home  to  wither  in  a  state  of  neglect  and 
abandonment.  The  consequence  of  the  termination  of  the  war  of 
Europe  has' been  the  resumption  of  European  commerce,  luiropean 
navigation,  and  the  extension  of  European  agriculture  and  liuro- 
pean  industr)-  in  all  its  branches.  Europe,  therefore,  has  no  longer 
occasion,  to  anything  like  the  same  extent  as  that  she  had  during 
her  wars,  for  American  commerce,  American  navigation,  the  prod- 
uce of  American  industr)'.  Europe,  in  commotion,  and  con\ailsed 
throughout  all  her  members,  is  to  America  no  longer  the  same 
Europe  as  she  is  now,  tranquil,  and  watching  with  the  most  vigi- 
lant attention  all  her  own  peculiar  interests  without  regard  to  the 
operation  of  her  policy  upon  us.  The  effect  of  this  altered  state  of 
Europe  upon  us  has  been,  to  circumscribe  the  employment  of  our 
marine,  and  greatly  to  reduce  the  value  of  the  produce  of  our  ter- 
ritorial labor.  The  further  effect  of  this  twofold  reduction  has  been 
to  decrease  the  value  of  all  property,  whether  on  the  land  or  on 
the  ocean,  and  which  I  suppose  to  be  about  fifty  per  cent.  And 
the  still  further  effect  has  been  to  diminish  the  amount  of  our  circu- 
lating medium,  in  a  proportion  not  less,  by  its  transmission  abroad, 
or  its  withdrawal  by  the  banking  institutions,  from  a  necessity  which 
they  could  not  control.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  The  greatest  want  of  civilized  society  is  a  market  for  the 
sale  and  exchange  of  the  surplus  of  the  produce  of  the  labor  of  its 
members.  This  market  may  exist  at  home  or  abroad,  or  both  ;  but 
it  must  exist  somewhere,  if  society  prospers  ;  and  wherever  it  does 


500  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

exist,  it  should  be  competent  to  the  absorption  of  the  entire  surplus 
of  production.  It  is  most  desirable  that  there  should  be  both  a 
home  and  a  foreign  market.  But  with  respect  to  their  relative  su- 
periority, I  cannot  entertain  a  doubt.  The  home  market  is  first  in 
order,  and  paramount  in  importance.  The  object  of  the  bill  under 
consideration  is,  to  create  this  home  market,  and  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  a  genuine  American  policy.  It  is  opposed  ;  and  it  is  in- 
cumbent upon  the  partisans  of  the  foreign  policy  (terms  which  I 
shall  use  without  any  invidious  intent)  to  demonstrate  that  the 
foreign  market  is  an  adequate  vent  for  the  surplus  produce  of  our 
labor.  But  is  it  so  ?  First,  foreign  nations  cannot,  if  they  would, 
take  our  surplus  produce.  If  the  source  of  supply,  no  matter  of 
what,  increases  in  a  greater  ratio  than  the  demand  for  that  supply, 
a  glut  of  the  market  is  inevitable,  even  if  we  suppose  both  to  re- 
main perfectly  unobstructed.  The  duplication  of  our  population 
takes  place  in  terms  of  about  twenty-five  years.  The  term  will  be 
more  and  more  extended  as  our  numbers  multiply.  But  it  will  be 
a  sufficient  approximation  to  assume  this  ratio  for  the  present.  We 
increase,  therefore,  in  population,  at  the  rate  of  about  4%  per  an- 
num. Supposing  the  increase  of  our  production  to  be  in  the  same 
ratio,  we  should,  every  succeeding  year,  have  of  surplus  produce 
4%  more  than  that  of  the  preceding  year,  without  taking  into  the 
account  the  differences  of  seasons  which  neutralize  each  other. 
If,  therefore,  we  are  to  rely  upon  the  foreign  market  exclusively, 
foreign  consumption  ought  to  be  shown  to  be  increasing  in  the 
same  ratio  of  4*}^  per  annum,  if  it  be  an  adequate  vent  for  our  sur- 
plus produce.  But,  as  I  have  supposed  the  measure  of  our  increas- 
-ing  production  to  be  furnished  by  that  of  our  increasing  population, 
so  the  measure  of  their  power  of  consumption  must  be  determined  by 
that  of  the  increase  of  their  population.  Now,  the  total  foreign  popu- 
lation, who  consume  our  surplus  produce,  upon  an  average,  do  not 
double  their  aggregate  number  in  a  shorter  term  than  that  of  about 
one  hundred  years.  Our  powers  of  production  increase,  then,  in  a 
ratio  four  times  greater  than  their  powers  of  consumption.  And 
hence  their  utter  inability  to  receive  from  us  our  surplus  produce. 
But,  secondly,  if  they  could,  they  will  not.  The  policy  of  all 
Europe  is  adverse  to  the  reception  of  our  agricultural  produce,  so 


MANUFAC'rURP:S  AND  A  HOME  MARKET 


501 


far  as  it  comes  into  collision  with  its  own  ;  and  under  that  limita- 
tion we  are  absolutely  forbid  to  enter  their  ports,  except  under  cir- 
cumstances which  deprive  them  of  all  value  as  a  steady  market. 
The  policy  of  all  luirope  rejects  those  great  staples  of  our  countr)^ 
which  consist  of  objects  of  human  subsistence.  The  policy  of  all 
Europe  refuses  to  receive  from  us  anything  but  those  raw  materials 
of  smaller  value,  essential  to  their  manufactures,  to  which  they  can 
give  a  higher  value,  with  the  exception  of  tobacco  and  rice,  which 
they  cannot  produce.  Even  Great  Britain,  to  which  we  are  its  best 
customer,  and  from  which  we  receive  nearly  one  half  in  value  of 
our  whole  imports,  will  not  take  from  us  articles  of  subsistence 
produced  in  our  country  cheaper  than  can  be  produced  in  (ireat 
Britain,  In  adopting  this  exclusive  policy,  the  states  of  Eurojx'  do 
not  inquire  what  is  best  for  us,  but  what  suits  themselves  respec- 
tively ;  they  do  not  take  jurisdiction  of  the  cjuestion  of  our  interests, 
but  limit  the  object  of  their  legislation  to  that  of  the  conservation 
of  their  own  peculiar  interests,  leaving  us  free  to  prosecute  ours 
as  we  please.  .  .   . 

Our  agricultural  is  our  greatest  interest.  It  ought  ever  to  be 
predominant.  All  others  should  bend  to  it.  And,  in  considering 
what  is  for  its  advantage,  we  should  contemplate  it  in  all  its  varie- 
ties, of  planting,  farming,  and  grazing.  Can  we  do  nothing  to  in- 
vigorate it ;  nothing  to  correct  the  errors  of  the  past,  and  to  brighten 
the  still  more  umpromising  prospects  which  lie  before  us  ?  We 
have  seen,  I  think,  the  causes  of  the  distresses  of  the  country. 
We  have  seen  that  an  exclusive  dependence  upon  the  foreign 
market  must  lead  to  still  severer  distress,  to  impoverishment,  to 
ruin.  We  must  then  change  somewhat  our  course.  We  must  give 
a  new  direction  to  some  portion  of  our  industry.  We  must  speed- 
ily adopt  a  genuine  American  policy.  Still  cherishing  the  foreign 
market,  let  us  create  also  a  home  market,  to  give  further  scope  to 
the  consumption  of  the  produce  of  American  industry.   .   .   . 

The  creation  of  a  home  market  is  not  only  necessary  to  procure 
for  our  agriculture  a  just  reward  of  its  labors,  but  it  is  indispen- 
sable to  obtain  a  supply  of  our  necessary  wants.  If  we  cannot  sell, 
we  cannot  buy.  That  portion  of  our  population  (and  we  have 
seen  that  it  is  not  less  than  four  fifths)  which  makes  comparatively 


502  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

nothing  that  foreigners  will  buy,  has  nothing  to  make  purchases 
with  from  foreigners.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  are  told  of  the  amount 
of  our  exports  supplied  by  the  planting  interest.  They  may  enable 
the  planting  interest  to  supply  all  its  wants  ;  but  they  bring  no 
ability  to  the  interest  not  planting  ;  unless,  which  cannot  be  pre- 
tended, the  planting  interest  was  an  adequate  vent  for  the  surplus 
produce  of  the  labor  of  all  other  interests.  It  is  in  vain  to  tantalize 
us  with  the  greater  cheapness  of  foreign  fabrics.  There  must  be 
an  ability  to  purchase,  if  an  article  be  obtained,  whatever  may  be 
the  price,  high  or  low,  at  which  it  is  sold.  And  a  cheap  article  is 
as  much  beyond  the  grasp  of  him  who  has  no  means  to  buy,  as  a 
high  one.  Even  if  it  were  true  that  the  American  manufacturer 
would  supply  consumption  at  dearer  rates,  it  is  better  to  have  his 
fabrics  than  the  unattainable  foreign  fabrics  ;  because  it  is  better 
to  be  ill  supplied  than  not  supplied  at  all.  A  coarse  coat,  which 
will  communicate  warmth  and  cover  nakedness,  is  better  than  no 
coat.  The  superiority  of  the  home  market  results,  first,  from  its 
steadiness  and  comparative  certainty  at  all  times  ;  secondly,  from 
the  creation  of  reciprocal  interest ;  thirdly,  from  its  greater  secur- 
ity ;  and,  lastly,  from  an  ultimate  and  not  distant  augmentation  of 
consumption  (and  consequently  of  comfort)  from  increased  quantity 
and  reduced  prices.  But  this  home  market,  highly  desirable  as  it 
is,  can  only  be  created  and  cherished  by  the  protection  of  our  own 
legislation  against  the  inevitable  prostration  of  our  industry  which 
must  ensue  from  the  action  of  foreign  policy  and  legislation.  The 
effect  and  the  value  of  this  domestic  care  of  our  own  interests  will 
be  obvious  from  a  few  facts  and  considerations.  Let  us  suppose 
that  half  a  million  of  persons  are  now  employed  abroad  in  fabri- 
cating for  our  consumption  those  articles  of  which,  by  the  operation 
of  this  bill,  a  supply  is  intended  to  be  provided  within  ourselves. 
That  lialf  a  million  of  persons  are,  in  effect,  subsisted  by  us  ;  but 
their  actual  means  of  subsistence  are  drawn  from  foreign  agricul- 
ture. If  we  could  transport  them  to  this  country,  and  incorporate 
them  in  the  mass  of  our  own  population,  there  would  instantly  arise 
a  demand  for  an  amount  of  provisions  equal  to  that  which  would 
be  requisite  for  their  subsistence  throughout  the  whole  year.  That 
demand,  in  the  article  of  flour  alone,  would  not  be  less  than  the 


COMMERCE  VKKSUS  MANUFACTURES  503 

quantity  of  about  900,000  barrels,  besides  a  proportionate  quantity 
of  beef  and  pork  and  other  artieles  of  subsistence.  But  900,000 
barrels  of  flour  exceeded  the  entire  quantit\'  exported  last  year  by 
nearly  150,000  barrels.  What  activity  would  not  this  give,  what 
ch(ierfulness  would  it  not  communicate  to  our  now  dispirited  farm- 
ing interest !  But  if,  instead  of  these  five  hundred  thousand  arti- 
sans emigrating  from  abroad,  we  give  by  this  bill  employment  to 
an  equal  number  of  our  own  citizens  now  engaged  in  unprofitable 
agriculture,  or  idle  from  the  want  of  business,  the  beneficial  effect 
upon  the  productions  of  our  farming  labor  would  be  nearly  doubled. 
The  cjuantity  would  be  diminished  by  a  subtraction  of  the  produce 
from  the  labor  of  all  those  who  should  be  diverted  from  its  pursuits 
to  manufacturing  industry,  and  the  value  of  the  residue  would  be 
enhanced,  both  by  that  diminution  and  the  creation  of  the  home 
market,  to  the  extent  supposed.  .  .  . 


III.  NEW  ENGLAND  — COMMERCE  AND  NAVIGATION 
VERSUS  MANUFACTURES 

1  Webster  s  Spi-cih  of  1S24 

...  I  deeply  regret  the  necessit}^  which  is  likely  to  be  im- 
posed upon  me,  of  giving  a  general  affirmative  or  negative  vote  on 
the  whole  of  the  bill.  I  cannot  but  think  this  mode  of  proceeding 
liable  to  great  objections.  It  exposes  both  those  who  support  and 
those  who  oppose  the  measure  to  veiy  unjust  and  injurious  misap- 
prehensions. There  may  be  good  reasons  for  favoring  some  of 
the  provisions  of  the  bill,  and  equally  strong  reasons  for  opposing 
others  ;  and  these  provisions  do  not  stand  to  each  other  in  the 
relation  of  principal  and  incident  .... 

Being  intrusted  with  the  interests  of  a  district  highly  commer- 
cial, and  deeply  interested  in  manufactures  also,  I  wish  to  state 
my  opinions  on  the  present  measure  ;  not  as  on  a  whole,  for  it 
has  no  entire  and  homogeneous  character  ;  but  as  on  a  collection 
of  different  enactments,  some  of  which  meet  my  approbation  and 
some  of  which  do  not.   .   .   . 

1  Works,  III,  94-95,  97,  100,  102,  103-106,  133-134,  129. 


504  VIEWS  OF  thp:  protective  tariff 

...  I  dissent  entirely  from  the  justice  of  that  picture  of  dis- 
tress which  he  [Clay]  has  drawn.  I  have  not  seen  the  realit)',  and 
know  not  where  it  exists.  W'ithin  my  observation  there  is  no  cause 
for  so  gloomy  and  terrifying"  a  representation.  In  respect  to  the 
New  England  States,  with  the  condition  of  which  I  am,  of  course, 
most  acquainted,  the  present  appears  to  me  a  period  of  very  gen- 
eral prosperity.  Not,  indeed,  a  time  for  great  profits  and  sudden 
acquisition  ;  not  a  day  of  extraordinary  activity  and  successful  specu- 
lation. There  is,  no  doubt,  a  considerable  depression  of  prices, 
and  in  some  degree  a  stagnation  of  business.  But  the  case  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Speaker  was  not  one  of  depression,  but  of  distress  ; 
of  universal,  pervading,  intense  distress,  limited  to  no  class,  and 
to  no  place.  We  are  represented  as  on  the  very  verge  and  brink  of 
national  ruin.  So  far  from  acquiescing  in  these  opinions,  I  believe 
there  has  been  no  period  in  which  the  general  prosperity  was  bet- 
ter secured,  or  rested  on  a  more  solid  foundation.  As  applicable 
to  the  eastern  States,  I  put  this  remark  to  their  Representatives, 
and  ask  them  if  it  is  not  true.  When  has  there  been  a  time  in 
which  the  means  of  living  have  been  more  accessible  and  more 
abundant  .'*  when  has  labor  been  rewarded,  I  do  not  say  with  a 
larger,  but  with  a  more  certain  success  .?  Profits,  indeed,  are  low ; 
in  some  pursuits  of  life,  which  it  is  not  proposed  to  benefit,  but 
to  burden  by  this  bill,  very  low.  But  still  I  am  unacquainted  with 
any  proofs  of  extraordinary  distress.  What,  indeed,  are  the  gen- 
eral indications  of  the  state  of  the  country  ?  There  is  no  famine 
nor  pestilence  in  the  land,  nor  war,  nor  desolation.  There  is  no 
writhing  under  the  burden  of  taxation.  The  means  of  subsistence 
are  abundant ;  and  at  the  veiy  moment  when  the  miserable  condi- 
tion of  the  country  is  asserted,  it  is  admitted  that  the  wages  of 
labor  are  high  in  comparison  with  those  of  any  other  country.  A 
country,  then,  enjoying  a  profound  peace,  a  perfect  civil  liberty, 
with  the  means  of  subsistence  cheap  and  abundant,  with  the  reward 
of  labor  sure,  and  its  wages  higher  than  anywhere  else,  cannot  be 
represented  in  gloom,  melancholy,  and  distress,  but  by  the  effort 
of  extraordinary  powers  of  tragedy.   .   .   . 

The  general  result,  therefore,  of  a  fair  examination  of  the 
present  condition  of  things,  seems  to  me  to  be  that  there  is  a 


COMMERCE  I7':h'srs  MANUFACTURES  505 

considerable  depression  of  prices  and  curtailment  of  profit ;  and, 
in  some  parts  of  the  country,  it  must  be  admitted,  there  is  a  great 
degree  of  pecuniar)'  embarrassment  arising- from  the  difficulty  of 
paying  debts  wiiicli  were  contracted  when  prices  were  high.  With 
these  qualifications,  the  general  state  of  the  country  may  be  said 
to  be  pros]3erous  ;  and  these  are  not  sufficient  to  give  to  the  whole 
face  of  affairs  any  appearance  of  general  distress.   .   ,   . 

.  .  .  The  year  i<Si9  was  a  year  of  numerous  failures  and  very 
considerable  distress,  and  would  have  furnished  far  better  grounds 
than  exist  at  present  for  that  gloomy  representation  of  our  ccjndi- 
tion  which  has  been  presented.  Mr.  Speaker  has  alluded  to  the 
strong  inclination  which  exists,  or  has  existed,  in  various  jxuts  of 
the  countr}'  to  issue  pajjcr  money,  as  a  proof  of  great  existing  diffi- 
culties. I  regard  it  rather  as  a  veiy  productive  cause  of  those 
difficulties  ;  and  the  committee  will  not  fail  to  observe  that  there 
is,  at  this  moment,  much  the  loudest  comj:)laint  of  distress  pre- 
cisely where  there  has  been  the  greatest  attempt  to  relieve  it  by 
systems  of  paper  credit.  And  on  the  other  hand,  content,  pros- 
perity, and  happiness,  are  most  observable  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  there  has  been  the  least  endeavor  to  administer 
relief  by  law.  .  .  . 

...  I  regard,  sir,  this  issue  of  irredeemable  paper  as  the 
most  prominent  and  deplorable  cause  of  whate\'er  pressure  still 
exists  in  the  country  ;  and  further,  I  would  put  the  (juestion  to 
the  members  of  this  Committee,  whether  it  is  not  from  that  ]3art 
of  the  people  who  have  tried  this  paper  system,  and  tried  it  to 
their  cost,  that  this  bill  receives  the  most  earnest  support .?  .  .   . 

.  .  .  The  depression  of  prices  and  the  stagnation  of  business 
have  been  in  truth  the  necessary  result  of  circumstances.  No  gov- 
ernment could  prevent  them,  and  no  government  can  altogether 
relieve  the  people  from  their  effect.  We  had  enjoyed  a  day  of 
extraordinary  prosperity ;  we  had  been  neutral  while  the  world 
was  at  war,  and  had  found  a  gi'eat  dem.and  for  our  products,  our 
navigation,  and  our  labor.  We  had  no  right  to  expect  that  that 
state  of  things  would  continue  always.  W^ith  the  return  of  peace 
foreign  nations  would  struggle  for  themselves,  and  enter  into  com- 
petition with  us  in  the  great  objects  of  pursuit. 


5o6  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

Now,  sir,  what  is  the  remedy  for  existing  evils  ?  .  .  .  We  are 
bound  to  see  that  there  is  a  fitness  and  an  aptitude  in  whatever 
measures  may  be  recommended  to  reUeve  the  evils  that  afflict  us  ; 
and  before  we  adopt  a  system  that  professes  to  make  great  altera- 
tions, it  is  our  duty  to  look  carefully  to  each  leading  interest  of  the 
community,  and  see  how  it  may  probably  be  affected  by  our  pro- 
posed legislation. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  what  is  the  condition  of  our  commerce  ? 
Here  we  must  clearly  perceive  that  it  is  not  enjoying  that  rich  har- 
vest which  fell  to  its  fortune  during  the  continuance  of  the  Euro- 
pean wars.  It  has  been  greatly  depressed,  and  limited  to  small 
profits.  Still,  it  is  elastic  and  active,  and  seems  capable  of  recover- 
ing itself  in  some  measure  from  its  depression.  The  shipping 
interest  also  has  suffered  severely,  still  more  severely,  probably, 
than  commerce.  If  anything  should  strike  us  with  astonishment 
it  is  that  the  navigation  of  the  United  States  should  be  able  to 
sustain  itself.  Without  any  government  protection  whatever,  it 
goes  abroad  to  challenge  competition  with  the  whole  world  ;  and, 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  it  has  yet  been  able  to  maintain  800,000 
tons  in  the  employment  of  foreign  trade.  How,  sir,  do  the  ship- 
owners and  navigators  accomplish  this  .''  How  is  it  that  they  are 
able  to  meet,  and  in  some  measure  overcome,  universal  competi- 
tion ?'  Not,  sir,  by  protection  and  bounties,  but  by  unwearied  exer- 
tion, by  extreme  economy,  by  unshaken  perseverance,  by  that 
manly  and  resolute  spirit  which  relies  on  itself  to  protect  itself. 
These  causes  alone  enable  American  ships  still  to  keep  their  ele- 
ment, and  show  the  flag  of  their  country  in  distant  seas.  The 
rates  of  insurance  may  teach  us  how  thoroughly  our  ships  are 
built,  and  how  skillfully  and  safely  they  are  navigated.  Risks  are 
taken,  as  I  learn,  from  the  United  States  to  Liverpool,  at  !''/(,,  and 
from  the  United  States  to  Canton  and  back  as  low  as  39^.  But 
when  we  look  to  the  low  rate  of  freight,  and  when  we  consider, 
also,  that  the  articles  entering  into  the  composition  of  a  ship,  with 
the  exception  of  wood,  are  dearer  here  than  in  other  countries,  we 
cannot  but  be  utterly  surprised  that  the  shipping  interest  has  been 
able  to  sustain  itself  at  all.  I  need  not  say  that  the  navigation  of 
the  country  is  essential  to  its  honor  and  its  defense.    Yet,  instead  of 


COMMERCE  FEJ^srs  MANUFACTURES  507 

proposing  benefit  for  it  in  this  hour  of  its  depression,  we  propose 
by  this  measure  to  lay  up(jn  it  new  and  heavy  burdens.  In  the  dis- 
cussion, the  other  day,  of  that  provision  of  the  bill  which  proposes 
to  tax  tallow  for  the  benefit  of  the  oil  merchants  and  whalemen,  we 
had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  eloquent  eulogiums  upon  that  portion  of 
our  shipping  employed  in  the  whale  fishery,  and  strong  statements 
of  its  importance  to  the  public  interest.  But  the  same  1)ill  jiro- 
poses  a  severe  tax  upon  that  interest  for  the  benefit  of  the  iron 
manufacturer  and  the  hemp  grower.  So  that  the  tallow  chandlers 
and  soapboilers  are  sacrificed  to  the  oil  merchants,  in  order  that 
these  again  may  contribute  to  the  manufacturers  of  iron  and  the 
growers  of  hemp. 

If  such  be  the  state  of  our  commerce  and  navigation,  what  is 
the  condition  of  our  home  manufactures  .?  How  are  they  amidst 
the  general  depression  .?  Do  they  need  further  protection  .?  and  if 
any,  how  much  .?  On  all  these  points,  we  have  had  much  general 
statement,  but  little  precise  information.  In  the  very  elaborate 
speech  of  Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  not  supplied  with  satisfactory 
grounds  of  judging  in  these  various  particulars.  Who  can  tell, 
from  anything  yet  before  the  committee,  whether  the  proposed 
duty  be  too  high  or  too  low,  on  any  one  article .?  Gentlemen  tell 
us,  that  they  are  in  favor  of  domestic  industry;  so  am  I.  They 
would  give  it  protection;  so  would  I.  But  then  all  domestic 
industry  is  not  confined  to  manufactures.  The  employments  of 
agriculture,  commerce,  and  navigation,  are  all  branches  of  the 
same  domestic  industr)^ ;  they  all  furnish  employment  for  Ameri- 
can capital  and  American  labor.  And  when  the  question  is, 
whether  new  duties  shall  be  laid,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  further 
encouragement  to  particular  manufactures,  ever)'  reasonable  man 
must  ask  himself,  both  whether  the  proposed  new  encouragement 
be  necessary,  and  whether  it  can  be  given  without  injustice  to 
other  branches  of  industry.  .  .  . 

Let  me  now  ask,  sir,  what  relief  this  bill  proposes  to  some  of 
those  great  and  essential  interests  of  the  country,  the  condition  of 
which  has  been  referred  to  as  proof  of  national  distress  ;  and 
which  condition,  although  I  do  not  think  it  makes  out  a  case  of 
distress,  yet  does  indicate  depression. 


5oS  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

And  first,  sir,  as  to  our  foreign  trade.  Mr.  Speaker  has  stated 
that  there  has  been  a  considerable  falhng  off  in  the  tonnage  em- 
ployed in  that  trade.  This  is  true,  lamentably  tnie.  In  my  opinion, 
it  is  one  of  those  occurrences  which  ought  to  arrest  our  immediate, 
our  deep,  our  most  earnest  attention.  What  does  this  bill  propose 
for  its  relief  ?  Sir,  it,  proposes  nothing  but  new  burdens.  It  pro- 
poses to  diminish  its  employment,  and  it  proposes,  at  the  same 
time,  to  augment  its  expense,  by  subjecting  it  to  heavier  taxation. 
Sir,  there  is  no  interest  in  regard  to  which  a  stronger  case  for  pro- 
tection can  be  made  out  than  the  navigating  interest.  Whether  we 
look  at  its  present  condition,  which  is  admitted  to  be  depressed  ; 
the  number  of  persons  connected  with  it,  and  dependent  upon  it 
for  their  daily  bread  ;  or  its  importance  to  the  country  in  a  polit- 
ical point  of  view,  it  has  claims  upon  our  attention  which  cannot 
be  exceeded.  But  what  do  we  propose  to  do  for  it  ?  I  repeat,  sir, 
simply  to  burden  and  to  tax  it.  By  a  statement  which  I  have 
already  submitted  to  the  Committee,  it  appears  that  the  shipping 
interest  pays,  annually,  more  than  half  a  million  dollars  in  duties 
on  articles  used  in  the  construction  of  ships.  We  propose  to  add 
nearly,  or  quite,  fifty  per  cent  to  this  amount,  at  the  veiy  moment 
that  we  bring  forth  the  languishing  state  of  this  interest  as  a  proof 
of  national  distress.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  our  shipping 
employed  in  foreign  commerce  has,  at  this  moment,  not  the 
shadow  of  government  protection.  It  goes  abroad  upon  the  wide 
sea  to  make  its  own  way,  and  earn  its  own  bread,  in  a  professed 
competition  with  the  whole  world.  Its  resources  are  its  own  fru- 
gality, its  own  skill,  its  own  enterprise.  It  hopes  to  succeed,  if  it 
shall  succeed  at  all,  not  by  extraordinary  aid  of  government,  but 
by  patience,  vigilance,  and  toil.  This  right  arm  of  the  nation's 
safety  strengthens  its  own  muscle  by  its  own  efforts,  and  by  un- 
wearied exertion  in  its  own  defense  becomes  strong  for  the  defense 
of  the  country.   .   .   . 

Again,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  failures  and  the  bankruptcies  which 
have  taken  place  in  our  large  cities  have  been  mentioned  as  prov- 
ing the  little  success  attending  commerce,  and  its  general  decline. 
But  this  bill  has  no  balm  for  those  wounds.  It  is  very  remarkable 
that,  when  losses  and  disasters  of  certain  manufacturers  —  those  of 


COMMERCE  VERSrs  MANUFACTURES  509 

iron,  for  instance  —  are  mentioned,  it  is  done  for  the  purpose  of 
invoicing  aid  for  the  distressed.  Not  so  with  the  losses  and  disas- 
ters of  commerce  ;  tliese  last  are  narrated,  and  not  unfrequently 
much  exaggerated,  to  ]jro\e  the  ruinous  nature  of  the  employment, 
and  to  show  that  it  ought  to  be  abandoned,  and  the  capital  engaged 
in  it  turned  to  other  objects.   .   .   . 

I  will  now  proceed,  sir,  to  state  some  objections  which  I  fec-1,  of 
a  more  general  nature,  to  the  course  of  Mr.  Speaker's  observations. 

He  seems  to  me  to  argue  the  question  as  if  all  domestic  industr)- 
were  confined  to  the  production  of  manufactured  articles  ;  as  if  the 
employment  of  our  own  capital,  and  our  own  labor,  in  the  occupa- 
tions of  commerce  and  navigation,  were  not  as  emphatically  domes- 
tic industry  as  any  other  occupation.  Some  other  gentlemen,  in 
the  course  of  the  debate,  have  spoken  of  the  price  paid  for  every 
foreign  manufactured  article  as  so  much  given  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  foreign  labor,  to  the  prejudice  of  our  own.  \\\xt  is  not 
every  such  article  the  product  of  our  own  labor  as  truly  as  if  we 
had  manufactured  it  ourselves  .?  Our  labor  has  earned  it,  and  paid 
the  price  for  it.  It  is  so  much  added  to  the  stock  of  national 
wealth.  If  the  commodity  w-ere  dollars,  nobody  would  doubt  the 
truth  of  this  remark  ;  and  it  is  precisely  as  correct  in  its  application 
to  any  other  commodity  as  to  silver.  One  man  makes  a  yard  of 
cloth  at  home  ;  another  raises  agricultural  products,  and  buys  a 
yard  of  imported  cloth.  Both  these  are  equally  the  earnings  of 
domestic  industry,  and  the  only  questions  that  arise  in  the  case 
are  two  :  the  first  is,  which  is  the  best  mode,  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, of  obtaining  the  article ;  the  second  is,  how  far  this 
question  is  proper  to  be  decided  by  government,  and  how  far  it  is 
proper  to  be  left  to  individual  discretion.  There  is  no  founda- 
tion for  the  distinction  which  attributes  to  certain  employments 
the  peculiar  appellation  of  American  industry  ;  and  it  is,  in  my 
judgment,  extremely  unwise  to  attempt  such  discriminations. 

We  are  asked,  what  nations  have  ever  attained  eminent  pros- 
perity without  encouraging  manufactures  .?  I  may  ask,  what  nation 
ever  reached  the,  like  prosperity  without  promoting  foreign  trade  .? 
I  regard  these  interests  as  closely  connected,  and  am  of  opinion 
that  it  should  be  our  aim  to  cause  them  to  flourish  together. 


5IO  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

I  know  it  would  be  very  easy  to  promote  manufactures,  at  least  for 
a  time,  but  probably  only  for  a  short  time,  if  we  might  act  in  dis- 
regard of  other  interests.  We  could  cause  a  sudden  transfer  of 
capital,  and  a  violent  change  in  the  pursuits  of  men.  We  could 
exceedingly  benefit  some  classes  by  these  means.  But  what,  then, 
becomes  of  the  interests  of  others }  The  power  of  collecting  reve- 
nue by  duties  on  imports,  and  the  habit  of  the  government  of  col- 
lecting almost  its  whole  revenue  in  that  mode,  will  enable  us,  with- 
out exceeding  the  bounds  of  moderation,  to  give  great  advantages 
to  those  classes  of  manufactures  which  we  may  think  most  useful 
to  promote  at  home.  What  I  object  to  is  the  immoderate  use  of 
the  power,  —  exclusions  and  prohibitions  ;  all  of  which,  as  I  think, 
not  only  interrupt  the  pursuits  of  individuals,  with  great  injury  to 
themselves,  and  little  or  no  benefit  to  the  country,  but  also  often 
divert  our  own  labor,  or,  as  it  may  very  properly  be  called,  our  own 
domestic  industry,  from  those  occupations  in  which  it  is  well  em- 
ployed and  well  paid,  to  others  in  which  it  will  be  worse  employed 
and  worse  paid.   .   .   . 

But  I  have  a  yet  stronger  objection  to  the  course  of  Mr.  Speaker's 
reasoning ;  which  is,  that  he  leaves  out  of  the  case  all  that  has 
been  already  done  for  the  protection  of  manufactures,  and  argues 
the  question  as  if  those  interests  were  now,  for  the  first  time,  to 
receive  aid  from  duties  on  imports.  .  .  . 

1  Wcdsfrrs  Speech  of  1S28 

New  England,  sir,  has  not  been  a  leader  in  this  policy.  On  the 
contrary,  she  held  back  herself  and  tried  to  hold  others  back  from 
it,  from  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  to  1824.  Up  to  1824,  she 
was  accused  of  sinister  and  selfish  designs,  because  she  discoun- 
tenanced the  pjvg-?rss  of  this  policy.  It  was  laid  to  her  charge 
then,  that,  having  established  her  manufactures  herself,  she  wished 
that  others  should  not  have  the  power  of  rivalling  her,  and  for  that 
reason  opposed  all  legislative  encouragement.  Under  this  angry 
denunciation  against  her,  the  act  of  1824  passed.  Now,  the  impu- 
tation is  precisely  of  an  opposite  character.    The  present  measure 

1  Works,  III,  229-231. 


COMMERCE  VERSUS  MANUFACTURES  511 

is  pronounced  to  be  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  New  England  ; 
to  be  brought  forward  by  her  agency,  and  designed  to  gratify  the 
cupidity  of  the  proprietors  of  her  wealthy  estiiblishments. 

Both  charges,  sir,  are  equally  without  the  slightest  foundation. 
The  opinion  of  New  England  up  to  1824  was  founded  in  the  con- 
viction that,  on  the  whole,  it  was  wisest  and  best,  both  for  herself 
and  others,  that  manufactures  should  make  haste  slowly.  She  felt 
a  reluctance  to  trust  great  interests  on  the  foundation  of  govern- 
ment patronage  ;  for  who  could  tell  how  long  such  patronage 
would  last,  or  with  what  steadiness,  skill,  or  perseverance  it  would 
continue  to  be  granted  ?  It  is  now  nearly  fifteen  years  since,  among 
the  first  things  which  I  ever  ventured  to  say  here,  I  expressed  a  seri- 
ous doubt  whether  this  government  was  fitted,  by  its  construction, 
to  administer  aid  and  protection  to  particular  pursuits  ;  whether, 
having  called  such  pursuits  into  being  by  indications  of  its  favor, 
it  would  not  afterwards  desert  them,  should  troubles  come  upon 
them,  and  leave  them  to  their  fate.  Whether  this  prediction,  the 
result,  certainly,  of  chance,  and  not  of  sagacity,  is  about  to  be  ful- 
filled, remains  to  be  seen. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  true,  that,  from  the  very  first  commence- 
ment of  the  government,  those  who  have  administered  its  concerns 
have  held  a  tone  of  encouragement  and  invitation  towards  those 
who  should  embark  in  manufactures.  All  the  Presidents,  I  believe 
without  exception,  have  concurred  in  this  general  sentiment ;  and 
the  very  first  act  of  Congress  laying  duties  on  imports  adopted  the 
then  unusual  expedient  of  a  preamble,  apparently  for  litde  other 
purpose  than  that  of  declaring  that  the  duties  which  it  imposed 
were  laid  for  the  encouragement  and  protection  of  manufactures. 
When,  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war,  duties  were  doubled, 
we  were  told  that  we  should  find  a  mitigation  of  the  weight  of  tax- 
ation in  the  new  aid  and  succor  which  would  be  thus  afforded  to 
our  own  manufacturing  labor.  Like  arguments  were  urged,  and 
prevailed,  but  not  by  the  aid  of  New  England  votes,  when  the  tariff 
was  afterwards  arranged,  at  the  close  of  the  war  in  18 16.  Finally, 
after  a  whole  winter's  deliberation,  the  act  of  1824  received  the 
sanction  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  setded  the  policy  of  the 
country.   What,  then,  was  New  England  to  do  .?  She  was  fitted  for 


512  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

manufacturing  operations,  by  the  amount  and  character  of  her 
population,  by  her  capital,  by  the  vigor  and  energy  of  her  free  labor, 
by  the  skill,  economy,  enterprise,  and  perseverance  of  her  people. 
I  repeat,  What  was  she  under  these  circumstances  to  do  ?  A  great 
and  prosperous  rival  in  her  near  neighborhood,  threatening  to  draw 
from  her  a  part,  perhaps  a  great  part,  of  her  foreign  commerce  ; 
was  she  to  use,  or  to  neglect,  those  other  means  of  seeking  her  own 
prosperity  which  belonged  to  her  character  and  her  condition  ?  Was 
she  to  hold  out  for  ever  against  the  course  of  the  government,  and 
see  herself  losing  on  one  side,  and  yet  make  no  effort  to  sustain 
herself  on  the  other  ?  No,  sir.  Nothing  was  left  to  New  England, 
after  the  act  of  1824,  but  to  conform  herself  to  the  will  of  others. 
Nothing  was  left  to  her,  but  to  consider  that  the  government  had 
fixed  and  determined  its  own  policy  ;  and  that  "^oXxcy  v^-&s, protection . 
New  England,  poor  in  some  respects,  in  others  is  as  wealthy  as 
her  neighbors.  Her  soil  would  be  held  in  low  estimation  by  those 
who  are  acquainted  with  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  fertile 
plains  of  the  South.  But  in  industry,  in  habits  of  labor,  skill,  and 
in  accumulated  capital,  the  fruit  of  two  centuries  of  industry,  she 
may  be  said  to  be  rich.  After  this  final  declaration,  this  solemn 
promulgation  of  the  policy  of  the  government,  I  again  ask,  What 
was  she  to  do  .''  Was  she  to  deny  herself  the  use  of  her  advantages, 
natural  and  acquired  t  Was  she  to  content  herself  with  useless  re- 
grets .''  Was  she  longer  to  resist  what  she  could  no  longer  prevent .'' 
Or  was  she,  rather,  to  adapt  her  acts  to  her  condition  ;  and,  seeing 
the  policy  of  the  government  thus  settled  and  fixed,  to  accommo- 
date to  it  as  well  as  she  could  her  own  pursuits  and  her  own  in- 
dustiy .''  Every  man  will  see  that  she  had  no  option.  Every  man 
will  confess  that  there  remained  for  her  but  one  course.  She  not 
only  saw  this  herself,  but  had  all  along  foreseen,  that,  if  the  sys- 
tem of  protecting  manufactures  should  be  adopted,  she  must  go 
largely  into  them.  I  believe,  sir,  almost  eveiy  man  from  New 
l^^ngland  who  voted  against  the  law  of  1824  declared  that,  if,  not- 
withstanding his  opposition  to  that  law,  it  should  still  pass,  there 
would  be  no  alternative  but  to  consider  the  course  and  policy  of  the 
government  as  then  settled  and  fixed,  and  to  act  accordingly.  The 
law  did  pass  ;  and  a  vast  increase  of  investment  in  manufacturing 


COMMERCE  rERSfrs  MANUFACTURES  513 

establishments  was  the  consequence.  Those  who  made  such  invest- 
ments probably  entertained  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  as  much  as 
was  promised  would  be  effectually  granted  ;  and  that  if,  owing  to 
any  unforeseen  occurrence  or  untoward  event,  the  benefit  designed 
by  the  law  to  any  branch  of  manufactures  should  not  be  realized,  it 
would  furnish  a  fair  case  for  the  consideration  of  government. 
Certainly  they  could  not  expect,  after  what  had  passed,  that  inter- 
ests of  great  magnitude  would  be  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  very 
first  change  of  circumstances  which  might  occur.  .  .  . 

^  Webster  s  Speech  of  18^6 

I  have  said  many  times,  and  it  is  true,  that,  up  to  the  year  1824, 
the  people  of  that  part  of  the  country  to  which  I  belong,  being  ad- 
dicted to  commerce,  having  been  successful  in  commerce,  their 
capital  being  very  much  engaged  in  commerce,  were  averse  to  en- 
tering upon  a  system  of  manufacturing  operations.  Every  member 
in  Congress  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  with  the  exception,  I 
think,  of  one,  voted  against  the  act  of  1824.  But  what  were  we  to 
do.?  Were  we  not  bound,  after  18 17  and  1824,  to  consider  that 
the  policy  of  the  country  was  settled,  had  become  settled,  as  a  policy, 
to  protect  the  domestic  industry  of  the  country  by  solemn  laws  .'' 
The  leading  speech  which  ushered  in  the  act  of  1824  was  called  a 
speech  for  the  "American  System."  The  bill  was  carried  princi- 
pally by  the  Middle  States.  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  would 
have  it  so  ;  and  what  were  we  to  do  .?  Were  we  to  stand  aloof  from 
the  occupations  which  others  were  pursuing  around  us  1  Were  we 
to  pick  clean  teeth  on  a  constitutional  doubt  which  a  majority  in  the 
councils  of  the  nation  had  overruled  .''  No,  sir ;  we  had  no  option. 
All  that  was  left  us  was  to  fall  in  with  the  settled  policy  of  the 
country ;  because,  if  anything  can  ever  settle  the  policy  of  the 
country  or  if  anything  can  ever  settle  the  practical  construction  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  country,  it  must  be  these  repeated  decisions 
of  Congress,  and  enactments  of  successive  laws  conformable  to 
these  decisions.  New  England,  then,  did  fall  in.  She  went  into 
manufacturing  operations,  not  from  original  choice,  but  from  the 

1  Works,  V,  1 87-1 88. 


SH 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


necessity  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the  legislation  of  the  coun- 
try had  placed  her.  And,  for  one,  I  resolved  then,  and  have  acted 
upon  the  resolution  ever  since,  that,  having  compelled  the  Eastern 
States  to  go  into  these  pursuits  for  a  livelihood,  the  country  was 
bound  to  fulfil  the  just  expectations  which  it  had  inspired.  .  .  . 


IV.    THE    SOUTH  — PROTECTION   A   BURDEN   WITH 
NO    COMPENSATIONS 

1  LIcDitffies  Speech  of  iSjO 

Sir,  I  am  well  convinced  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  not  realized,  even  in  a  partial  degree,  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  oppression  under  which  the  people  of  the  southern  States 
are  laboring.  I  shall  proceed,  therefore,  to  inquire,  in  the  first 
place,  what  is  the  operation  of  your  system  of  impost  duties  upon 
the  various  portions  of  the  Union,  regarding  it  merely  as  a  system 
of  revenue. 

Has  it  any  pretensions  to  be  regarded  as  a  just  and  equal  system 
of  taxation  .?  Is  not  the  fact  undeniable,  that  almost  the  whole  bur- 
den of  federal  taxation  is  thrown  upon  those  branches  of  productive 
industry  which  furnish  the  exchanges  of  our  foreign  commerce, 
while  all  the  other  branches  of  domestic  production  are  free  from 
taxation,  and  a  large  portion  of  them  derive  considerable  bounties, 
indirectly,  from  the  very  burdens  imposed  upon  those  productions 
which  constitute  the  staples  of  foreign  commerce }  If  I  have  not 
entirely  mistaken  the  true  operation  of  the  revenue  laws  of  the 
United  States,  there  never  was  a  more  unequal  and  unjust  system 
of  taxation  devised  by  any  Government,  of  ancient  or  modern 
times. 

A  reference  to  the  treasury  statements  of  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  will  show  that  the  whole  amount  of  the  domestic 
productions  annually  exported  to  foreign  countries,  taking  an  aver- 
age of  years,  is  something  less  than  fifty-eight  millions  of  dollars. 
Taking  this  to  be  the  aggregate  value  of  the  domestic  exports  of 

1  Congressional  Debates,  VI,  843,  844,  845,  846-847,  849,  850,  851-852,  854- 
855,  855-858,  859-860,  860-S61. 


I'KO'I'KC   riON   A   r.URDKN   'IX)  'I'lIK   SOl'I'Il  515 

the  whole  Union,  it  may  be  estimated  llial  tliose  j^ortions  of  the. 
southern  and  southwestern  States  wliieh  arc  engaged  in  tlie  pro- 
duetion  of  the  great  agrieultural  stai)les  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and 
rice,  constituting  less  than  one-third  ]xu"t  of  the  Union,  export  to 
the  amount  of  thirty-seven  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  those  portions 
of  the  States  just  mentioned,  which  are  engaged  in  the  produc- 
tion of  cotton  and  rice,  constituting  less  tlian  one-fiflli  ])art  of  the 
Union,  export  to  the  amount  of  thirty  millions  of  dollars.  Now,  sir, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  proposition  in  political  economy 
more  undeniable,  than  that  the  amount  of  imposts  which  belong  to 
each  respective  portion  of  the  Union,  must  be  proportioned  to  their 
exports.  It  is  wholly  immaterial  who  are  the  carriers  and  importers 
of  the  merchandise  received  in  exchange  for  domestic  pi'oductions, 
or  through  what  custom-house  it  happens  to  pass  ;  it  must  still  be 
regarded  as  constituting  the  commerce  of  that  portion  of  the  coun- 
tiy,  in  exchange  for  the  productions  of  which  it  is  obtained  ;  and 
every  imposition  of  duties  upon  that  commerce  is  a  burden  of  tax- 
ation thrown  upon  the  domestic  industry  by  which  it  is  susfciined. 
If,  therefore,  you  would  know  what  stake  any  jmrticular  portion  of 
the  Union  has  in  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  country,  you  have 
only  to  ascertain  what  proportion  the  exports  of  domestic  produc- 
tions from  that  part  of  the  Union  bear  to  the  whole  amount  of  for- 
eign merchandise  imported  for  consumption.  How,  then,  are  the 
burdens  imposed  by  this  Government,  regarding  the  impost  duties 
as  a  mere  system  of  revenue,  distributed  among  the  various  States 
and  sections  of  this  Union  ?  If  I  shall  succeed  in  showing  that  the 
States  engaged  in  the  production  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice,  are 
taxed  by  the  Federal  Government  in  proporticni  to  the  amount  of 
their  exports,  it  will  follow  that  those  States  pay  very  nearly  two- 
thirds  of  the  whole  amount  of  the  federal  revenue.  It  will  also 
follow  that  the  States  engaged  in  the  production  of  cotton  and  rice 
alone,  with  a  population  of  little  more  than  two'  millions,  pay  more 
than  one-half  of  that  revenue.  I  am  aware,  sir,  that  these  proposi- 
tions are  calculated  to  startle  those  who  have  not  examined  the 
subject  attentively.  Gentlemen  will  think  it  scarcely  possible  that 
any  population  in  the  world  could  have  existed,  in  tolerable  com- 
fort, under  such  a  weight  of  taxes.    I  will  proceed,  then,  to  the 


5i6  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

proof  of  the  proposition,  that  the  exports  of  the  planting  States 
indicate  the.  proportion  of  federal  taxes  paid  by  these  States,  taking 
fairly  into  view  the  entire  operation  of  our  fiscal  system.  And  I  beg 
that  those  gentlemen  who  are  in  favor  of  the  existing  policy,  will 
examine  my  argument  critically,  and,  if  they  can  detect  any  fallacy 
in  it,  that  they  will  expose  it  to  this  committee.  My  sincere  desire 
is  to  arrive  at  the  truth.  If  I  am  in  error,  it  is  my  anxious  wish 
that  it  may  be  clearly  pointed  out,  as  very  important  issues  may 
probably  hang  upon  it. 

If  the  southern  planters  were  to  export  their  own  productions  in 
their  own  ships,  and  import,  in  the  same  way,  the  merchandise  ob- 
tained in  exchange  for  it,  would  any  doubt  exist  that  they  actually 
paid  into  the  treasury  an  amount  of  taxes  proportioned  to  their 
exports  .''  Exporting  productions  t(j  the  amount  of  thirty-seven  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  they  would  pay,  assuming  the  average  rate  of  the 
duties  even  at  forty  per  cent.,  fourteen  millions  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  while  the  States  producing  cotton  and  rice  would 
pay  twelve  millions.  Now,  as  the  importing  merchant  is  nothing 
more  than  the  agent  of  the  planter,  the  true  operation  of  impost 
duties  will  be  much  more  clearly  perceived  by  dispensing  with  this 
agency.  It  tends  to  confuse  the  inquirer,  by  keeping  out  of  view 
the  real  parties  to  the  proceeding.  The  merchant  certainly  bears 
his  own  share  of  the  burdens  of  federal  taxation  ;  but  the  burdens 
of  the  planter  are  in  no  degree  diminished  by  that  fact.  I  assume, 
then,  that  the  planter  is  subjected  to  precisely  the  same  burden,  as 
a  planter,  that  he  would  be  if  he  had  no  factor  or  commercial 
agent,  but  exported  his  own  produce  himself,  and  imported  what 
he  obtained  for  it  al:)road.   .   .   . 

...  I  maintain,  then,  that  an  import  duty  imposed  upon  those 
articles  of  foreign  merchandise  which  are  received  in  exchange  for 
the  domestic  productions  of  the  planting  States,  is  precisely  equiva- 
lent, in  the  existing  state  of  our  commercial  relations,  to  an  export 
duty  levied  upon  the  productions  of  those  States.  A  very  brief  ex- 
amination of  the  actual  state  of  our  commerce  with  Europe  will 
satisfy  the  House  that  those  articles  of  merchandise,  which  are  now 
imported  principally  from  Great  Britain,  Erance,  and  Holland,  in 
exchange  for  our  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice,  are  the  only  articles 


rROTKCTIOX  A  BURDEN  TO  THE  SOl^'ril 


517 


which  can  be  obtained  in  those  countries  for  tlie  productions  we 
send  them.  \Vhate\'er  impost  duty  you  impose,  we  must  still  con- 
tinue to  import  tlie  merchandise  on  which  it  is  levied,  until  the 
duty  reaches   the  point  of  prohibition.   .   .   . 

But,  whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the  matter  of  theory,  no  doubt 
can  be  entertained  as  to  the  matter  of  fact.  Highly  as  you  have 
taxed  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Holland,  we 
do  actually  import  those  manufactures,  almost  to  the  precise  amount 
of  the  agricultural  staples  exported  to  the  countries  in  question. 
We  find  it  more  ad\'antageous  to  import  the  productions  of  those 
countries  under  a  tax  of  forty-five  per  cent.,  than  to  import  specie 
free  of  duty.  Such  being  the  actual  state  of  the  trade  in  question, 
does  it  not  follow  that  a  duty  upon  the  exports  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
or  rice,  would  not  be  more  burdensome  to  the  planter,  nor  to  any 
other  interest  concerned,  than  an  equal  duty  upon  the  manufactures 
received  in  exchange  for  those  exports  ?  No  ingenuity  can  draw 
any  substantial  discrimination  between  the  actual  operation  of  the 
two  kinds  of  duty.  Can  it  be  at  all  material  to  the  planter,  whether 
he  pays  the  duty  upon  the  cargo  he  sends  out,  or  upon  that  which 
he  brings  back  .''  To  give  a  familiar  illustration,  which  e\'ery  man 
of  common  sense  will  readily  understand  —  would  it  be  any  more 
burdensome  to  the  planter  to  pay  a  toll  of  forty  per  cent,  upon  the 
cotton  he  sent  to  market,  than  it  would  be  to  pay  the  same  toll  on 
the  goods  he  received  in  exchange  for  it .''  The  question  is  too  plain 
to  be  argued.  It  would  simply  be  the  difference  between  paying  as 
he  went  to  market,  and  paying  as  he  returned  home.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  The  truth  is,  that  every  duty  levied  upon  production, 
whether  direct  or  indirect,  whether  of  impost  or  excise,  whether 
upon  exports  or  imports,  naturally  divides  itself  between  the  pro- 
ducers and  consumers,  according  to  the  relative  circumstances  in 
which  they  are  placed.  At  first  it  must  operate,  in  all  cases,  prin- 
cipally as  a  tax  upon  the  producer.  Suppose,  for  example,  that  an 
excise  duty  of  forty  per  cent,  were  all  at  once  levied  upon  hats.  The 
tax  would  be  collected  from  the  hatters.  They  would  actuall}-  pa)' 
the  money  to  the  Government.  Could  they  immediately  raise  the 
price  of  hats  in  proportion  to  the  tax  levied  upon  them  ?  They 
certainly  could  not.    The  only  possible  means  by  which  they  could 


5i8  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

raise  the  price  of  hats  at  all,  would  be  by  diminishing  the  produc- 
tion of  them.  If  the  supply  was  not  diminished,  nor  the  demand 
increased,  no  addition  whatever  could  be  made  to  the  price.  Now, 
a  tax  upon  any  article  certainly  does  not  increase  the  demand  for 
it.  Until  the  supply  is  diminished,  therefore,  by  the  withdrawal  of 
some  of  those  engaged  in  making  the  article,  the  price  cannot  be 
enhanced  ;  and  this  withdrawal  can  only  be  made  slowly  and  gradu- 
ally. Let  it  be  remarked,  that  it  is  only  by  the  faculty  of  abandon- 
ing the  branch  of  industry  subjected  to  attacks,  and  engaging  in 
some  other  that  is  more  profitable,  that  the  producer  can  throw 
any  material  part  of  the  burden  of  taxation  u]3on  the  consumer.  If, 
therefore,  a  tax  were  laid  upon  all  the  other  productions  of  the 
community  equal  to  that  supposed  to  be  laid  upon  hats,  the  hatters 
could  not  find  any  relief  by  resorting  to  other  pursuits.  They  surely 
would  not  leave  an  employment  to  which  they  were  trained  and 
accustomed,  and  in  which  their  capital  was  already  invested,  to 
embark  in  a  new  and  unaccustomed  pursuit,  subject  to  the  same 
taxation.  Such  a  change  would  not  relieve  them  from  the  tax,  and 
it  would  deprive  them  of  all  the  advantages  of  their  existing  invest- 
ments and  acquired  skill.  The  result  would,  therefore,  evidently 
be,  that  the  tax  would  fall  almost  entirely  upon  production.  There 
would  be  a  general  fall  in  the  profits  of  capital  and  the  wages  of  labor. 
The  tax  would  be  paid  by  the  producer,  and  yet  he  could  not,  in 
consequence  of  it,  raise  the  price  of  his  productions  anything  like 
in  proportion  to  it.  Now,  whatever  circumstances  in  the  condition 
of  any  class  of  producers  prevent  them  from  promptly  and  easily 
transferring  their  capital  and  labor  from  the  pursuits  in  which  they 
are  engaged  to  other  pursuits,  will  prevent  those  producers  from 
raising  the  price  of  their  productions,  in  consequence  of  any  tax 
that  may  be  imposed  upon  them  ;  and,  of  course,  from  throwing 
the  burden  of  that  tax  upon  the  consumers. 

Let  us  now  apply  these  obvious  and  well  established  principles 
of  political  economy  to  the  actual  condition  of  the  southern  plant- 
ers. The  Government  has  laid  a  tax  (I  will  assume  it  to  be  forty 
per  cent.)  upon  the  productions  of  their  industry.  What  is  the 
power  they  possess  to  throw  the  burden  upon  the  consumer  ?  Can 
they  diminish  their  production,  in  consequence  of  the  tax  imposed 


PRO'I^KCTION  A  BURDEN  TO  THE  SOUTH         519 

upon  their  staples  ?  Can  they  resort  to  any  other  employment 
more  profitable  than  the  one  in  whieh  they  are  enj^aj^ed,  even  with 
the  burdens  imposed  on  it  ?  Sir,  I  answer  from  my  own  knowled<;e 
and  experience,  that  they  cannot.  Nothing  could  be  more  impotent 
than  any  attempt  to  raise  the  price  of  their  cotton  in  foreign  mar- 
kets, by  diminishing  their  production  of  it.  Their  great  and  prin- 
cipal markets  are  in  foreign  countries,  where  they  meet  competitors 
from  all  the  cotton-growing  regions  of  the  world.  If  we  were  to 
diminish  the  quantity  of  our  own  production,  therefore,  with  a  view 
to  enhance  the  price  of  our  staple,  we  should  only  create  a  vacuum 
in  the  foreign  markets,  to  be  immediately  filled  up  by  the  cotton 
of  South  America,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  the  East  and  West  Indies. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  diminish  our  production  with  impunity.  It 
would  be  a  fatal  policy  ;  for  we  should  diminish  the  demand  for 
our  cotton,  and  open  a  market  for  the  cotton  of  other  countries,  in 
exactly  the  same  proportion.  There  is  neither  philosophy  nor  com- 
mon sense  in  the  idea  that  a  tax  imposed  upon  a  branch  of  produc- 
tive industry  which  depends  almost  exclusively  on  foreign  countries 
for  a  market,  can  be  thrown  upon  the  consumers.  Foreigners,  sir, 
are  the  principal  consumers  of  the  productions  of  southern  industry. 
But,  even  if  we  could  enhance  the  price  of  our  productions,  by  di- 
minishing the  quantity  produced,  how  is  this  to  be  effected  .''  Our 
entire  capital  is  invested  in  lands  and  negroes,  and  the  only  staples 
we  can  cultivate  to  any  advantage,  or  for  which  we  can  find  a  mar- 
ket, are  those  we  now  produce.  Shall  we,  then,  abandon  our  lands, 
manumit  our  slaves,  and  then  go  forth  to  seek  new  fortunes  in  dis- 
tant regions  ?  No,  sir  ;  our  citizens  would  sooner  perish  than  to  be 
thus  driven  from  their  rightful  inheritances  and  the  homes  of  their 
forefathers,  by  this  unrighteous  system  of  oppression. 

There  are  insuperable  objections  to  the  transfer  of  the  capital  and 
labor  of  the  southern  planter  from  the  production  of  their  present 
staples  to  any  other  employment.  It  has  been  suggested  that  we 
might  enter  upon  the  manufacturing  business.  All  our  habits  dis- 
qualify us  for  this  sort  of  employment.  It  would  require  ten  or 
fifteen  years  of  ruinous  experiment  before  we  could  acquire  even 
a  tolerable  degree  of  skill,  and,  even  then,  we  could  not  rival  the 
manufacturers  either  of  Europe  or  of  the  northern  States  of  this 


520  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

Union.  But,  even  if  we  could  succeed  so  far  as  to  equal  our 
domestic  competitors,  where  should  we  find  a  market  for  our  pro- 
ductions ?  It  would  be  absurd  to  go  to  Europe,  and  equally  so  to 
go  to  the  manufacturing  States  of  our  own  country.  From  Mexico 
■we  are  excluded  by  absurd  restrictions,  in  imitation  of  our  own; 
and,  wherever  a  foreign  market  might  be  open,  we  should  find 
ourselves  forestalled  and  excluded  by  the  manufactures  of  Great 
Britain  and  New  England.  Is  it  not  an  insulting  mockery,  then, 
to  tell  us  that  we  ought  tamely  to  submit  to  a  system  which  drives 
us  from  our  natural  pursuits,  because  we  have  the  wretched  privi- 
lege of  embarking  in  the  production  of  manufactures,  which  we 
have  no  skill  in  making,  and  for  which  we  could  find  no  market 
after  they  were  made  ?  Great  Britain  alone  could  supply  the  whole 
world  with  manufactures,  at  little  more  than  half  the  price  for  which 
we  could  afford  to  make  them. 

It  must  be  perfectly  obvious,  that,  even  with  more  oppressive  bur- 
dens than  they  have  yet  borne,  the  southern  planters  cannot,  to  any 
extent  worth  consideration,  divert  their  capital  and  labor  to  other 
employments,  and  thereby  diminish  the  production  of  their  staples, 
with  a  view  to  an  enhancement  of  their  price.   .   .   . 

But,  sir,  even  if  we  grant  that  the  tax  falls  exclusively  upon  the 
consumer,  I  ask  you,  who  consumes  the  productions  of  southern 
industr}^,  if  they  are  not  consumed  by  the  southern  people  .-*  They 
are  certainly  the  natural  consumers  of  what  they  receive  in  exchange 
for  their  own  productions.  If  they  do  not  consume  the  very  same 
articles  they  import,  entirely  and  exclusively,  they  must  consume 
some  other  articles  obtained  in  exchange  for  them.  Let  us  examine 
a  little  in  detail  what  becomes  of  the  imports  of  the  South.  In  the 
first  place,  the  Government  takes  forty  dollars  out  of  every  hun- 
dred. That  portion,  of  course,  the  planter  cannot  consume.  But 
surely  this  circumstance  does  not  diminish  the  burden  imposed 
upon  him.  The  fact  that  he  does  not  consume  it,  is  the  very  thing 
that  makes  the  law,  which  deprives  him  of  it,  a  burdensome  tax 
upon  his  industry.  As  to  the  remaining  sixty  dollars,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  people  of  the  southern  States  are  the  direct  con- 
sumers of  the  principal  part  of  it.  A  portion  of  it,  to  be  sure,  is 
exchanged  with  the  people  of  the  northern  States,  either  for  other 


PROTECTION  A   BURDEN  'I'O  THE  SOU'I'H  52 1 

foreign  merchandise  imported  by  them,  such  as  East  and  West 
India  produce,  or  for  their  own  manufactures.  But  this  is  precisely 
the  same  thing  as  if  the  southern  people  consumed  the  ver)'  articles 
obtained  abroad  for  their  own  produce.  What  does  it  matter  to 
the  planter,  whether  he  consumes  the  very  cloth  for  which  his 
cotton  is  exchanged,  or  the  tea,  and  coffee,  and  sugar  imported  by 
the  people  of  the  North,  in  exchange  for  their  productions  and 
industry,  or  the  manufactures  of  the  North  ?  These  foreign  pro- 
ductions and  domestic  manufactures  are  enhanced  in  price,  quite 
as  much  as  the  cloth  imported  by  the  planter,  in  consequence  of  the 
duties.  Thus  far,  then,  the  southern  people  pay  the  whole  amount 
of  the  imposts  laid  upon  their  productions,  regarding  them  as  con- 
sumers merely.  But  it  has  been  said  lliat  we  exchange  some  three 
millions  of  our  imports  for  the  live  stock  of  the  western  States, 
which  is  not  enhanced  in  price  by  any  duty.  But  even  here  the 
planter  is  not  entirely  relieved  from  his  burden.  Can  he  purchase 
as  much  live  stock  with  sixty  pieces  of  cloth,  as  he  c^uld  with  a 
hundred  ?  It  would  be  absurd  to  maintain  such  a  proposition  ;  and 
yet  this  is  the  only  way  in  which  he  could  rclicxe  himself  from  the 
whole  burden  of  the  impost.  The  fact  is,  that  he  would  be  able  to 
purchase  but  little  more  than  half  the  quantity  of  live  stock  from 
the  western  people,  that  he  could  have  purchased  if  no  duty  had 
been  laid  upon  his  imports.  In  this  way,  undoubtedly,  the  burden 
would  be  seriously  felt  by  the  western  people.  But  this  would  not 
mitigate  tlte  suffering  of  the  planter.  You  deprive  him  of  the  means 
of  purchasing  live  stock  to  a  very  great  amount,  and  to  that  extent 
cut  off  the  market  for  the  productions  of  western  industry.  By  this 
process,  as  in  all  cases  of  prohibition,  you  destroy  two  values  —  that 
of  the  planter  to  the  extent  of  the  imposts,  and  that  of  the  grower 
of  stock  to  the  extent  that  he  is  injured  by  losing  a  market  for  the 
productions  of  his  industry.   .   .   . 

Upon  the  whole,  then,  the  only  means  which  the  producer  has 
to  throw  the  burden  of  a  tax  from  his  shoulders,  is  to  diminish 
his  production  of  the  article  taxed  ;  and  the  means  which  the  con- 
sumer has  to  avoid  having  it  thrown  upon  him,  is  to  diminish  his 
consumption  of  that  article.  In  this  contest,  the  consumer  has 
a  decided  and   obvious  advantage.    It  may  be  very  confidently 


522  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

assumed,  therefore,  that  at  least  one-half  of  the  burden  of  the  im- 
post duties  laid  upon  the  return  productions  of  the  planter  would 
be  sustained  by  him  as  a  producer,  even  if  he  consumed  no  part 
of  those  productions.  But  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  people 
of  the  southern  States  consume,  of  the  articles  imported  in  ex- 
change for  their  staples,  of  other  foreign  articles  subject  to  pay 
duties,  and  of  domestic  manufactures,  equally  enhanced  by  the 
tariff,  to  the  amount  of  three-fourths  of  the  entire  return  which 
they  receive  for  their  exports.  ,  .  .It  follows  that  the  direct  oper- 
ation of  the  impost  duties  throws  upon  the  people  of  the  staple- 
growing  States  a  weight  of  taxation  very  nearly  proportioned  to 
their  exports,  .  .  . 

Thus  far,  I  have  confined  myself  to  the  consideration  of  the 
mere  fiscal  operations  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  have  at- 
tempted to  show  the  unequal  action  of  your  revenue  system  upon 
different  parts  of  the  Union,  without  reference  to  the  protection 
afforded  by  the  impost  duties  to  certain  branches  of  domestic  in- 
dustry. It  now  becomes  my  duty  to  trace  the  operation  of  what 
has  been  very  inappropriately  denominated  the  protecting  system  ; 
and  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  how  far  it  contributes  to  increase  the 
inequality  of  the  burdens  imposed  by  the  Federal  Government 
upon  the  people  of  the  staple-growing  States.  .   .   . 

What,  then,  let  us  briefly  inquire^  is  the  tendency,  and  what  has 
been  the  effect,  of  the  high  duties  imposed  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  manufactures  and   other  domestic  producti(?ns  ?    It  is 
too  plain  to  admit  of  argument :  indeed,  it  has  been  candidly  ad- 
mitted by  the  chairman   of  the   Committee  on  Manufactures,  in 
former  discussions,   that  domestic    productions  can  only  be  pro- 
tected by  prohibiting  the  foreign  articles  that  would  come  in  com- 
'  petition  with  them.    He  openly  avowed  that  he  aimed  at  prohibition, 
land  it  would  have  been  folly  to  have  aimed  at  less,  if  he  really 
I  meant  to  give  protection.    No  duty  can  give  any  protection  to  any 
domestic  fabric,  which  does  not  exclude  a  similar  foreign  fabric ; 
and,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  the  amount  of  protection  can- 
not exceed  the  amount  of  prohibition,  though  it  may,  and  generally 
docs,  fall  short  of  it.    You  cannot  create  a  demand,  for  example, 
for  any  domestic   manufacture,   by  legislation,  otherwise  than  by 


PROTECTION  A  BURDEN  TO  THE  SOmi         523 

• 

excluding  a  similar  foreign  nianufaclurc  ;  and  as  noui-  Irgisla- 
tion  is  calculated  to  enhance  the  price  of  the  article,  )()u  certainly 
cannot  create  by  it  a  demand  for  a  greater  amount  (^f  the  domestic 
fabric  than  you  exclude  of  the  foreign.  It  ma\-  be  confidently  as- 
sumed, therefore,  that  whatever  may  be  the  amount  of  iron  and 
salt,  and  manufactures  of  cotton,  wool,  iron,  and  hemp,  which  ha\'e 
been  brought  into  existence  in  the  United  Sfcites  by  the  system  of 
high  protecting  duties,  at  least  an  equal  amount  of  foreign  rival 
productions  has  been  excluded  by  those  duties.  It  will  not  be 
deemed  an  extravagant  estimate  to  suppose  that  the  protecting  sys- 
tem has  caused  to  be  produced,  annually,  articles  of  these  various 
kinds,  to  the  amount  of  twelve  millions  of  dollars,  which  would 
not  have  been  produced,  but  for  the  protection  given  them.  It 
follows,  then,  as  a  corollary,  that  at  least  an  equal  amount  of  these 
articles  of  foreign  production  must  have  been  excluded.  Ikit  these 
are  the  veiy  articles  which  we  receive  from  Great  I^ritain,  T^rance, 
and  Holland,  in  exchange  for  our  agricultural  staples.  By  exclud- 
ing twelve  millions  of  such  articles,  therefore,  we  necessarily 
diminish  the  foreign  demand  for  our  staples,  and  principally  cot- 
ton, to  that  amount.  There  is  scarcely  any  limit  to  the  consump- 
tion of  our  cotton  in  Europe,  but  that  which  is  imposed  by  our 
refusal  to  take  manufactures  in  exchange  for  it.  If,  therefore,  we 
were  permitted  to  import  the  twelve  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
manufactures  that  have  been  excluded  by  our  commercial  restric- 
tions, or,  rather,  if  they  had  never  been  excluded  by  those  restric- 
tions, it  cannot  be  reasonably  doubted  that  we  should  now  have  a 
demand  in  Europe  for  four  hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton,  be- 
yond the  existing  demand.  Even,  therefore,  if  we  grant,  what  is 
not  the  fact,  that  the  whole  of  the  domestic  demand  for  cotton  has 
been  produced  by  the  prohibitory  effect  of  our  tariff,  it  will  follow 
that  we  have  gained  a  market  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
bales,  by  sacrificing  one  for  four  hundred  thousand.  From  this 
estimate,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  proh.ibition  of  foreign  imports 
has  resulted  in  curtailing  the  entire  demand  for  cotton  in  the  mar- 
kets of  the  whole  world,  including  our  own,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  bales.  In  addition  then,  to  the  annual  burden  he  bears 
in  paying  the  duties  upon  the  imports  he  is  still  permitted  to  bring 


524  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

• 
into  the  country,  the  planter  sustains  an  annual  loss  of  seven  mil- 
lion five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  being  the  value  of  the  cotton 
for  which  he  has  lost  a  market,  in  consequence  of  the  unjust  re- 
strictions imposed  upon  his  lawful  commerce  by  the  suicidal  policy 
of  his  own  Government.   .  ■.  . 

The  great  misfortune  is,  sir  —  and  it  gives  us  the  true  key  to 
this  whole  system  —  that,  while  this  Government  is  an  undivided 
and  indivisible  unity,  the  country  over  which  it  extends  is  divided 
into  various  and  —  disguise  it  as  we  may  —  diametrically  adverse 
interests.  Hence,  it  results,  that  the  law  which  throws  a  restriction 
upon  the  commerce  of  the  southern  States,  to  the  great  and  obvi- 
ous injury  of  the  planter,  is  obviously  calculated,  and  professedly 
intended,  to  promote  the  interest  of  the  northern  manufacturer. 
If  the  manufacturer  can  gain  ten  per  cent,  by  the  restriction,  it  is 
his  interest  to  adhere  to  it,  though  it  impose  a  burden  of  forty  or 
fifty  per  cent,  upon  the  planter.  Hence  it  is  that  the  majority  of 
this  House  are  pursuing  a  policy  with  regard  to  the  interests  of  the 
whole  Union,  which  no  human  being  would  pursue  in  regard  to 
his  own  interest.  It  is  worth  while,  sir,  to  trace  the  operation  of 
this  policy  a  little  more  in  detail.  Great  Britain,  it  is  alleged,  will 
not,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  does  not,  in  fact,  purchase  the 
grain  of  the  northern,  middle,  and  western  States,  and,  conse- 
quently, those  States  have  nothing  wherewith  to  purchase  British 
manufactures.  This  is  the  complaint.  Now,  sir,  if  this  be  true,  the 
wisdom  of  man  could  not  more  effectually  exclude  British  manu- 
factures, or  give  a  more  complete  protection  to  domestic  manufac- 
tures, in  those  States.  If  they  have  nothing  to  give  in  exchange 
for  British  manufactures,  what  earthly  necessity  is  there  to  exclude 
them  by  law  ?  The  domestic  manufacturer  is  absolutely  secured 
against  foreign  competition  by  the  single  fact,  that  the  British 
manufacturer  will  not  take  anything  in  exchange  for  his  fabrics, 
which  the  people  of  those  States  have  to  give.  What,  then,  is  the 
real  object  of  the  restrictions  which  the  tariff  States  are  so  anxious 
to  throw  about  our  foreign  commerce  .''  It  is  not,  sir,  be  assured, 
to  prevent  those  States  from  importing  British  manufactures,  who 
have  nothing  to  give  in  exchange  for  them.  That  would  be  impo- 
tent and  gratuitous  legislation,    llic  true  object  —  disguise  it  as 


PROTECTION  A  BURDEN  TO  THE  SOiri'TT         525 

gentlemen  may  —  is  to  prevent  those  States  who  ha\e  the  means 
of  paying  for  British  manufactures,  and  who  have  a  deep  and  vital 
interest  in  preserving  that  branch  of  commerce,  from  importing 
those  manufactures,  in  order  to  promote  the  interest  of  those  States 
who  ha\e  not  the  means  of  paying  for  British  manufactures,  and 
who  really  have,  or  believe  they  have,  a  deep  and  vital  interest  in 
destroying  that  branch  of  commerce.  Twist  it  and  turn  it  as  you 
may,  "  to  this  complexion  it  must  come  at  last."  Hence  it  is,  that 
to  the  gross  inequality  of  the  revenue  system  of  the  United  States, 
the  majority  of  Congress  have  superadded  the  intolerable  burdens 
of  the  prohibitory  system.  Will  any  gentleman  from  Massachusetts, 
or  Rhode  Island,  or  Vermont,  have  the  hardihood  to  maintain  that 
the  duties  imposed  on  cotton  and  woollen  manufactures,  varying 
from  forty  to  sixty  per  cent,  are  ec|ually  a  burden  upon  his  constit- 
uents as  they  are  upon  mine  .''  Will  any  gentleman  from  Pennsyl- 
vania assert  that  the  enormous  duty  upon  iron  imposes  an  equal 
burden  upon  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  and  upon  those  of  South 
Carolina  ?  On  the  contrary,  do  not  these  gentlemen  distinctly  and 
openly  avow  that  the  duties  which  throw  a  grievous  and  o])pressive 
burden  upon  the  people  of  the  southern  States,  operate  as  a  bene- 
ficial and  sustaining  bounty  to  the  people  of  the  northern  and  east- 
ern States  .''  I  do  firmly  believe,  that^  if  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands  would  defray  the  whole  expenses  of  the  Government,  or  if 
the  staple-growing  States  would  assume  the  responsibility  of  paying 
those  expenses  out  of  revenues  raised  by  themselves,  there  are 
certain  States  in  this  Union  —  I  allude  to  those  emphatically 
denominated  tariff  States  —  that  would  not  consent  to  a  repeal  of 
the  impost  duties.  No,  sir,  they  gain  much  more  than  they  lose, 
by  the  aggregate  effect  of  the  duties  imposed,  and  the  disburse- 
ments made,  by  this  Government,  regarding  the  system  in  the  light 
of  a  mere  pecuniary  speculation.  If  a  foreign  invention  were  made, 
by  which  the  operations  of  Government  could  be  carried  on  with- 
out the  expenditure  of  a  single  dollar,  those  States  would  regard  it 
as  a  nuisance,  and  prohibit  its  importation  by  as  rigorous  penalties 
as  are  now  proposed  in  regard  to  foreign  manufactures.  A  greater 
calamity  could  scarcely  happen  to  the  interests  of  northern  capital, 
confederated  in  favor  of  the  protecting  system,  than  would  result 


526  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

from  an  entire  suspension  of  the  fiscal  operations  of  this  Govern- 
ment, including  both  taxation  and  disbursement.  .  .  . 

The  representatives  of  the  manufacturing  and  tariff  States  allege 
that  they  have  large  and  extensive  manufacturing  establishments, 
which  it  is  their  interest  and  their  right  to  encourage  and  protect, 
and  deny  the  right  of  the  southern  representatives  to  interfere  with 
their  protecting  policy.  Now,  sir,  as  a  southern  representative,  I 
claim  no  right  to  interfere  with  any  protection,  which  any  portion 
of  the  northern  States  may  choose  to  extend,  at  their  own  expense, 
to  their  own  manufactories.  All  I  pretend  to  claim,  is  the  right  to 
put  my  veto  upon  this  scheme  of  injustice  and  plunder,  by  which 
the  property,  the  rightful  and  exclusive  property,  of  my  constituents, 
is  unconstitutionally  applied  to  that  object. 

There  cannot  be  a  proposition  more  self-evidently  just  and  equi- 
table, than  that  those  States  in  which  the  manufacturing  establish- 
ments are  situated,  should  bear  the  burden  of  protecting  them. 
Can  a  man  be  found,  sir,  in  this  House,  or  out  of  it,  who  would 
have  the  boldness  to  contest  this  position  ?  Then  why  do  not  the 
manufacturing  States  protect  their  own  manufactures  .''  Will  it  be 
pretended  that  they  have  not  the  constitutional  power  ?  Has  not 
the  Legislature  of  every  State  in  the  Union  an  unlimited  power  to 
impose  taxes  upon  the  people  of  the  State,  and  appropriate  the 
proceeds,  in  the  form  of  bounties,  for  the  protection  of  domestic 
manufactures,  or  any  other  branch  of  domestic  industry  ?  No  man 
of  common  information  —  no  man,  indeed,  of  common  sense,  will 
deny  that  every  vState  Legislature  has  this  power.   .   .   . 

How,  then,  has  it  come  to  pass,  that,  while  the  manufacturers 
have  been,  for  more  than  ten  years  past,  clamoring  at  our  doors  for 
protection,  the  Legislature  of  no  single  State  in  the  Union,  so  far 
as  I  am  informed,  has  ever  appropriated  a  cent,  or  raised  a  finger, 
to  sustain  these  languishing  and  suffering  interests,  which  certainly 
have  a  claim  upon  the  States  for  protection,  if  indeed  they  have 
any  claim  at  all  ?  Sir,  I  have  frequently  put  this  question  in  former 
discussions  upon  this  floor,  and  have  never  found  a  man  bold 
enough  to  answer  it.  The  advocates  of  the  protecting  system  have 
invariably  passed  it  over  with  a  prudent  and  profound  silence.  The 
reason  is  obvious.    No  man  dare  to  avow  openly  the  true  cause  why 


PROTECTION  A   BURDEN    TO    THE  SOUTH  527 

the  manufacturing  States,  having  the  undoubted  power,  will  not 
extend  any  protection  to  their  own  manufactures,  but  send  them 
to  Congress  for  relief. 

The  moral  sense  of  this  nation  would  not  tolerate  the  avowal, 
that  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  for  example,  will  not  tax  her  own 
citizens  to  afford  protection  to  her  own  manufactiux'S,  because  the 
Federal  Government  can  be  made  the  imrighteous  instrument  of 
taxing  the  people  of  the  southern  Slxites  for  the  purpose  of  afford- 
ing that  protection. 

This,  sir,  disguise  it  as  gentlemen  may,  is  the  true  question  in- 
volved in  the  protecting  system.  The  tariff  States  would  permit 
every  establishment  within  their  limits  to  sink  into  utter  ruin,  before 
they  would  levy  taxes  from  their  own  citizens  to  nourish  and  sus- 
tain them.  That  would  be  too  plain  and  palpable  a  proceeding.  It 
would  instantly  open  the  eyes  of  the  i^eople  to  the  true  character  of 
the  protecting  system.  It  would  tear  off  from  the  monster  the  veil 
which  conceals  its  horrible  deformity,  and  break  its  infatuating 
charm  forever.  If  the  protection  afforded  to  the  manufacturers  by 
this  Government  were  entirely  withdrawn  to-morrow,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve there  is  a  State  Legislature  in  the  Union,  that  would  dare  to 
substitute  an  ecjuivalent  protection  -in  the  form  of  pecuniary  boun- 
ties drawn  from  the  people  of  the  State,  and  appropriated  from  the 
public  treasury.  Nothing  that  could  be  possibly  suggested,  in  the 
way  of  argument,  would  exhibit  the  palpable  injustice  of  this  system 
in  so  strong  a  light  as  the  course  pursued,  in  this  respect,  by  the 
Legislatures  of  the  tariff  States.  Would  any  man  believe,  sir,  that 
the  Legislature  of  a  sovereign  State  would  memorialize  Congress  to 
protect  the  manufactures  of  that  State,  by  imposing  restrictions  and 
duties  upon  the  commerce  of  other  States,  when  that  Legislature, 
having  the  admitted  power  to  protect  those  manufactures,  utterly 
neglects  to  do  it  ?  Yet  such  was  the  conduct  of  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts  ;  and  such  is,  substantially,  the  course  pursued  by 
the  Legislatures  of  all  the  tariff  States,   .   .   . 

.  ,  .  I  will  now  invite  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  some  con- 
siderations calculated  to  show  that  it  involves  a  violation  of  the  great 
and  fundamental  principles  of  civil  and  political  liberty.  There 
is  not  one  of  those  principles  of  more  vital  importance,  or  more 


528  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

absolutely  consecrated  by  all  the  historical  associations  of  both  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  than  that  which  secures  the  people 
against  all  taxes  and  burdens  not  imposed  by  their  own  representa- 
tives. This  principle,  indeed,  is  essentially  involved  in  the  very 
notion  of  self-government.  Now,  sir,  owing  to  the  federative  char- 
acter of  our  Government,  the  great  geographical  extent  of  our 
territory,  and  the  diversity  of  the  pursuits  of  our  citizens  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  Union,  it  has  so  happened  that  two  great  interests 
have  sprung  up,  standing  directly  opposed  to  each  other.  One  of 
them  consists  of  those  manufactures  which  the  northern  and  middle 
States  are  capable  of  producing,  but  which,  owing  to  the  high  price 
of  labor  and  high  profits  of  capital  in  those  States,  cannot  hold 
competition  with  foreign  manufactures,  without  the  aid  of  bounties, 
directly  or  indirectly  given,  either  by  the  General  Government  or 
by  the  State  Governments.  The  other  of  these  interests  consists 
of  the  great  agricultural  staples  of  the  southern  States,  which  can 
find  a  market  only  in  foreign  countries,  and  which  can  be  advan- 
tageously sold  only  in  exchange  for  the  foreign  manufactures 
which  come  in  competition  with  those  of  the  northern  and  middle 
States.  It  follows,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  that  it  is  the  inter- 
est of  the  manufacturers  in  the  northern  and  middle  States  to  pro- 
hibit, by  heavy  taxation,  the  importation  of  those  foreign  manufac- 
tures, which  it  is  as  undoubtedly  the  interest  of  the  southern  planters 
to  import  as  free  from  taxation  as  possible.  These  interests,  then, 
stand  diametrically  and  irreconcilably  opposed  to  each  other.  The 
interest,  the  pecuniary  interest  of  the  northern  manufacturer  is 
directly  promoted  by  every  increase  of  the  taxes  imposed  upon 
southern  commerce  ;  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  add,  that  the  inter- 
est of  the  southern  planters  is  promoted  by  every  diminution  of 
the  taxes  imposed  upon  the  productions  of  their  industr)-'.  If,  under 
these  circumstances,  the  manufacturers  were  clothed  with  the  power 
of  imposing  taxes,  at  their  pleasure,  upon  the  foreign  imports  of 
the  planter,  no  doubt  would  exist  upon  the  mind  of  any  man,  that 
it  would  have  all  the  characteristics  of  an  absolute  and  unqualified 
despotism.  It  will  be  my  purpose,  then,  to  show,  that,  by  the  aid 
of  various  associated  interests,  the  manufacturing  capitalists  have 
obtained  a  complete  and  permanent  control  over  the  legislation  of 


PROTECTION  A  BITRDEN  TO  THE  SOUTH 


529 


Congress  on  this  subject.  A  great  numl:>cr  of  causes  have  con- 
tributed to  give  the  manufacturing  interest  this  ascendency.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  Men  confederated  together  upon  sehish  and  interested  prin- 
ciples, whether  in  puisuit  of  the  offices  or  tlie  bounties  of  Govern- 
ment, are  ever  more  actixe  and  \'igilant  than  the  great  majority,  who 
act  from  disinterested  and  patriotic  impulses.  I  lave  we  not  witnessed 
it  on  this  floor,  sir  .?  Who  c\er  knew  the  tariff  men  to  divide  on  any 
question  affecting  their  confederated  interests  ?  If  you  propose  to 
reduce  any  one  of  the  duties,  no  matter  how  obvious  the  expediency 
of  the  reduction,  they  will  tell  you,  if  not  in  plain  words,  at  least 
by  their  conduct,  that  the  duty  you  propose  to  reduce  is  veiy  oppres- 
sive and  unjust,  as  in  the  case  of  salt  ;  or  veiy  absurd  and  suicidal, 
as  in  the  case  of  raw  wool ;  but  that,  if  you  reduce  either  of  these 
duties,  a  proposition  will  be  made  to  reduce  some  other,  and  then 
some  other,  until  the  whole  system  of  confederated  interests  will  be 
shaken  to  its  centre.  The  watchword  is,  stick  together,  right  or 
wrong,  upon  every  question  affecting  the  common  cause.  Such, 
sir,  is  the  concert  and  vigilance,  and  such  the  combinations  by 
which  the  manufacturing  party,  acting  upon  the  interests  of  some, 
and  the  prejudices  of  others,  have  obtained  a  decided  and  perma- 
nent control  over  public  opinion  in  all  the  tariff  States.  All  the 
representatives  of  those  States,  however  decidedly  opposed  in  {prin- 
ciple to  the  prohibitory  policy,  are  constrained  to  regard  the  inter- 
est of  the  manufacturers  as  that  of  their  constituents  at  large.  No 
man,  sir,  from  a  manufacturing  district,  would  dare  to  vote  against 
any  measure,  however  unjust  and  oppressive,  if  it  be  only  deemed 
beneficial  to  the  manufacturers,  and  denominated  a  tariff.   .  .   . 

What,  then,  becomes  of  the  great  principle  of  liberty,  to  which 
I  have  adverted,  which  secures  the  people  against  any  burdens  of 
taxation  not  imposed  by  their  own  representatives  ?  Is  it  not  abso- 
lutely annulled  —  nay,  is  it  not  completely  reversed,  as  to  the 
people  of  the  southern  States,  in  all  cases  involving  the  interest  of 
the  manufacturers,  and  the  policy  of  the  protecting  system  .''  Is  not 
the  majority  of  Congress  composed  of  the  representatives  of  those 
who  have  a  direct  and  positive  pecuniary  interest  in  imposing  taxes 
upon  the  people  of  the  southern  States,  in  the  form  of  high  and 
prohibitory  duties  upon  their  lawful  commerce  —  the  product  of 


DJ^ 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


their  honest  industr}^  ?  Does  not  that  majority  declare  it  to  be  its 
interest,  and  avow  it  to  be  its  object,  to  pursue  this  system  of  pro- 
hibitory duties  until  the  whole  of  that  commerce  which  gives  value 
to  the  agricultural  productions  of  the  southern  States,  and  with- 
out which  our  fields  would  be  left  desolate,  shall  be  utterly  and 
absolutely  abolished  ?  .  .  . 

It  is  in  vain,  then,  that  the  people  of  the  South  attempt  to  palter 
with  this  question,  or  to  disguise  any  longer  the  sad  reality  of  their 
condition.  They  have  no  security  against  taxation,  but  the  will  of 
those  who  have  a  settled  interest  and  fixed  determination  to  increase 
their  burdens  ;  they  have  no  rights  of  property,  no  title  to  that 
commerce  which  gives  the  principal  value  to  the  productions  of 
their  industry,  which  they  do  not  hold  by  the  same  miserable  and 
degrading  tenure.  They  are,  to  all  intents  and  piu'poses,  the  slaves 
of  northern  monopolists.  If  I  w^ere  called  upon  to  give  a  definition 
of  slavery,  I  could  not  use  language  more  appropriate  than  that 
which  should  accurately  describe  the  condition  of  the  people  of  the 
southern  States. 

There  is  no  form  of  despotism  that  has  ever  existed  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth,  more  monstrous  and  horrible  than  that  of  a  rep- 
resentative Government  acting  beyond  the  sphere  of  its  respon- 
sibility. Liberty  is  an  empty  sound,  and  representation  worse  than 
a  vain  delusion,  unless  the  action  of  the  Government  be  so  reg- 
ulated that  responsibility  and  power  shall  be  co-extensive.  Now,  I 
would  be  glad  to  know,  under  what  responsibility  the  majority  of 
this  House  act,  in  imposing  burdens  upon  the  industry  of  the 
southern  people,  and  in  waging  this  merciless  warfare  against 
their  commerce.  Are  they,  in  the  slightest  degree,  responsible  to 
those  upon  whom  they  impose  these  heav}^  burdens  ?  Have  they 
any  feelings  of  common  interest  or  common  sympathy  to  restrain 
them  from  oppression  and  tyranny  ?  Does  the  system  of  prohibi- 
tory duties,  which  falls  with  such  a  destructive  power  upon  the 
dearest  interests  of  the  southern  people,  impose  any  burden,  or  in- 
flict any  injury  at  all,  upon  the  constituents  of  that  majority  by  which 
it  has  been  adopted  ? 

The  very  reverse  of  all  this  is  the  truth.  The  majority  which 
imposes  these  oppressive  taxes  upon  the  people  of  the  South,  so 


PROTECTION  A   IJIRDEX  TO  THE  Sorill  531 

far  from  being  responsible  to  them,  or  to  those  who  have  any 
common  interest  or  common  sympathy  with  them,  in  relation 
to  the  matter,  are  responsible  to  the  ver)'  men  who  have  been, 
for  the  last  ten  years,  making  the  welkin  ring  with  their  clamors 
for  the  imposition  of  these  very  burdens.  Yes,  sir,  those  who 
lay  the  iron  hand  of  unconstitutional  and  lawless  taxation  upon 
the  people  of  the  southern  States,  are  not  the  representatives  of 
those  who  pay  the  taxes,  or  have  any  participation  in  it,  but  the 
representatives  of  those  who  receive  the  bounty,  and  put  it  in  their 
pockets.  .  .  . 

I  am  aware  that  the  answer  given  to  all  this  will  be,  that  it  is 
the  right  of  the  majorit)-  to  govern,  and  the  duty  of  the  minority 
to  submit.  There  is  no  political  principle  more  undeniably  true,  in 
all  the  cases  to  which  it  properly  applies.  But  it  is  subject  to  two 
ver\-  important  limitations  in  our  federative  system  of  Government, 
growing  out  of  the  constitutional  compact,  and  founded  upon  the 
principles  of  natural  justice.  In  the  first  place,  the  majority  cannot 
rightfully  do  any  thing  not  authorized  by  the  constitutional  charter. 
The  great  object  of  a  wTitten  constitution  is  to  restrain  the/najority. 
It  is  founded  upon  the  idea  that  an  unchecked  majority'  is  as  dan- 
gerous as  an  unchecked  minorit}-.  I  believe,  when  cut  loose  from 
the  moorings  of  an  effective  and  real  responsibilit)',  it  is  more  so. 
But  of  that  hereafter. 

In  the  second  place,  the  right  of  the  majorit)'  to  govern,  in  a  po- 
litical system  composed  of  confederated  sovereignties,  and  extending 
over  geographical  subdixisions  ha\"ing  diversified  and  conflicting 
interests,  must  be  limited  to  those  cases  where  there  is  a  common 
interest  per\ading  the  whole  confederacy.  This  is  a  limitation 
growing  out  of  the  ver\-  nature  and  object  of  the  compact,  even 
upon  the  exercise  of  powers  expressly  granted.  The  submission  of 
interests  which  are  essentially  adverse  to  the  control  of  a  common. 
Go\ernment,  necessarily  invohes  the  destruction  of  one  or  the 
other  of  them.  This  is  the  foundation  of  the  checks  and  balances, 
even  of  consolidated  Governments,  and  of  the  partition  of  power 
among  distinct  sovereignties  in  this  confederacy.^ 

1  This  is  a  clear  statement  of  the  situation  which  gave  rise  to  the  theorj-  of  nulli- 
fication developed  by  Calhoun.    See  Disquisition  on  Government,  Works,  I 


532  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

It  is  contrary  to  the  clearest  principles  of  natural  justice,  that  the 
majority,  merely  because  they  have  the  power,  should  violate  the 
rights  and  destroy  the  separate  and  peculiar  interests  of  the  minor- 
ity. This  would  make  power  and  right  synonymous  terms.  The 
majority  have  no  natural  right,  in  any  case,  to  govern  the  minority. 
It  is  a  mere  conventional  right,  growing  out  of  necessity  and  conven- 
ience. On  the  contrary,  the  right  of  the  minorit)'  to  the  enjoyment 
of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  without  any  unjust  interference  on  the 
part  of  the  majority,  is  the  most  sacred  of  the  natural  rights  of  man. 

When  the  great  antagonist  interests  of  society  become  arrayed 
against  each  other,  particularly  when  they  are  separated  by  distance, 
and  distinguished  by  a  difference  of  climate,  character,  and  civil 
institutions,  the  great  object  of  the  Government  should  undoubtedly 
be,  not  to  become  the  partisan  of  either  of  those  interests,  but  to  in- 
terpose its  power  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  stronger  from 
destroying  the  weaker.  Instead,  however,  of  assuming  this  attitude, 
instead  of  restraining  the  major  interest  from  doing  this  act  of 
injustice  and  oppression,  this  Government  degrades  itself  into  the 
character  of  a  partisan  of  the  stronger  interest,  and  an  instrument 
of  its  oppression.  It  cannot  be  otherwise,  sir,  as  long  as  the  majority 
in  Congress,  being  nothing  more  than  the  agent  of  the  major  inter- 
est in  the  confederacy,  assumes  the  power  of  arbitrarily  and  unjustly 
appropriating  to  its  own  use  the  rightful  and  exclusive  property  of 
the  minority.    The  majority  can  have  no  such  rightful  power.   .   .   . 

I  ha\'e  said  that  there  cannot  be  imagined  a  more  odious  and 
intolerable  form  of  despotism,  than  that  of  a  majority,  stimulated 
b)-  motixes  of  self-interest,  and  acting  without  any  restraining  power 
upon  the  interests  of  the  minority.  A  just  analysis  and  exposition 
of  the  true  character  and  principles  of  that  combination,  or,  more 
properly,  conspiracy  of  interests,  which  constitutes  the  tariff  majority 
in  the  United  States,  will  exhibit  this  idea  in  a  more  striking  point 
of  view  than  anything  I  have  yet  advanced  on  the  subject.   .   .   . 

I  beg  leave  now  to  suggest,  for  the  consideration  of  the  com- 
mittee, some  historical  analogies  which  are  calculated  to  exhibit, 
in  a  strong,  practical  point  of  view,  the  tyranny  and  injustice  of 
this  proscriptive  system  of  legislation  which  the  majority  of  Con- 
gress have  carried  on  for  the  last  ten   years  against  the  lawful 


PROTECTION  A   BURDEN  TO  'I'llK  SOI'III  533 

commerce  of  the  southern  States.  What,  then,  is  the  sum  and 
substance  of  that  system  ?  It  is  precisely  this,  sir  :  that  the  southern 
States  shall  be  prohibited  from  carryinj^  on  commerce  in  certain 
articles  with  the  nations  of  the  world,  and  sliall  1)e  restricted  to  an 
intercourse  with  the  tariff  States  of  this  Union.  This  reduces  the 
southern  States  to  a  state  of  colonial  Yassala,<^e  to  the  tariff  States, 
decidedly  worse  than  that  of  our  ancestors  U)  (ireat  J^ritain.  What 
was  the  amount  of  the  colonial  vassalage  of  our  ancestors  ?  it  was 
nothing  more  than  that  they  should  be  "'  prohibited  from  carr\ing 
on  commerce,  in  certain  articles,  witli  the  nations  of  tlie  world,  and 
should  be  restricted  to  an  intercourse  with  (ireat  liritiiin." 

The  southern  States,  then,  are  reduced  to  the  very  same  relation 
to  the  tariff  States,  in  point  of  principle,  as  that  in  which  all  the 
colonies  formerly  stood  to  (ireat  liritain.  They  ha\'e  changed  their 
masters,  to  be  sure  ;  and  I  will  now  proceed  to  inquire  what  they 
have  gained  by  the  change. 

I  confidently  assert  that  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  tariff 
States  upon  the  commerce  of  the  planting  States,  are  one  hundred 
times  more  injurious  and  oppressive  than  all  the  colonial  restrictions 
and  taxes  which  Great  Britain  ever  imposed,  or  attempted  to  im- 
pose, upon  the  commerce  of  our  forefathers.  Yes,  sir,  a  revolution 
which  severed  a  mighty  empire  into  fragments,  and  which  history 
has  already  recorded  as  the  first  in  the  annals  of  human  liberty, 
originated  in  restrictions  and  impositions,  not  a  whit  more  tyran- 
nical in  principle,  and,  as  I  will  proceed  to  demonstrate,  not  a 
hundredth  part  so  oppressive  in  point  of  fact,  as  the  restrictions 
and  impositions  now  unconstitutionally  imposed  upon  the  south- 
ern States. 

The  prohibition  which  excluded  our  ancestors  from  the  com- 
merce of  all  other  countries  but  (ireat  Britain,  was  almost  jHu-cly 
nominal.  Without  that  prohibition,  the  trade  of  the  colonics  would 
have  been  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  mother  country.  She 
furnished  them  with  the  best  market  in  the  world  for  all  the  j^ro- 
ductions  of  their  industry.  She  supplied  the  articles  they  wanted 
cheaper  than  they  could  be  obtained  from  any  other  nation,  and 
gave  them  a  better  price  for  their  productions.  But  the  very  oppo- 
site of  this  is  true  as  to  the  restrictions  of  which  we  now  complain. 


534 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


Instead  of  coinciding  with  the  natural  course  of  trade,  they  come 
directly  in  contact  with  it.  The  southern  States  are  excluded  from 
their  natural  markets  —  the  very  best  in  the  world,  for  the  purpose 
of  confining  them  to  a  market  which  is,  in  all  respects,  the  very 
worst.  Europe  now  consumes  five-sixths  of  our  agricultural  staples, 
and  the  consumption  would  be  indefinitely  extended,  if  the  trade 
was  unrestricted  ;  the  tariff  States  could  not  consume,  under  any 
circumstances,  more  than  one-fifth  of  these  staples.  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Holland  could  furnish  us  with  such  manufactures  as 
we  want,  at  a  price  one-third  less  than  that  for  which  they  ever  can 
be  furnished  by  the  manufacturing  States  of  this  Union ;  and,  under 
these  circumstances,  w'e  are  compelled  to  purchase  from  these  States, 
and  denied  our  natural  right  of  purchasing  from  foreign  nations. 
In  one  word,  we  are  excluded  from  the  very  best  markets  in  the 
world,  and  confined  to  that  in  which  we  can  get  least  for  what  we 
have  to  sell,  and  are  compelled  to  gi\'e  most  for  what  we  desire  to 
purchase. 

The  duties  and  restrictions  imposed  upon  the  commerce  of  the 
southern  States  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  tariff  States,  amount 
to  a  larger  sum  of  taxation  and  oppression  in  a  single  year,  than  all 
the  restrictions  and  taxes  imposed  upon  all  the  colonies  by  the 
British  Parliament,  from  the  date  of  the  stamp  act  to  the  breaking 
out  of  the  revolutionary  war. 

The  southern  States  are  to  all  intents  and  purposes  recolonized, 
as  much  so  as  if  the  British  Parliament  had  the  supreme  legislative 
power  of  regulating  their  commerce.   .   .   . 

I  must  now  invite  the  attention  of  the  committee  for  a  few  mo- 
ments to  a  brief  exposition  of  the  actual  condition  of  suffering  to 
which  the  southern  States  have  been  reduced  by  this  system.  I  will 
draw  no  picture  of  the  imagination,  but  present  a  few  decisive  facts 
that  will  speak  a  language  too  unecjuivocal  to  admit  of  but  one  in- 
terpretation. For  the  last  twelve  years,  the  condition  of  the  country 
has  been  growing  worse  and  worse,  in  a  steady  progression.  Dur- 
ing this  time,  the  price  of  cotton  has  fallen  from  thirty  to  ten  cents 
a  pound,  and  every  thing  else  in  a  corresponding  degree.  This  state 
of  things  is  peculiarly  distressing.  Almost  any  condition  is  tolerable 
which  is  permanent.  We  become  reconciled  to  it  by  habit,  and  make 


PROTECTION  A  BURDEN  TO  '11  IE  SOU'III 


535 


all  our  calculations  and  pecuniary  arrangements  to  accord  with  it.  liut 
when  tariff  is  passed  after  tariff,  extending  further  and  further  the 
oppressive  influence  of  the  system,  constant  pecuniary  embarrass- 
ment is  the  almost  unavoidable  result.^  No  prudence  can  avoid  it. 
An  unexpected  decline  in  the  price  of  produce  baffles  the  calcula- 
tions even  of  the  most  cautious ;  and,  in  this  downward  tendency 
of  things,  the  planter  almost  invariably  finds,  each  successive  year, 
his  means  of  meeting  his  pecuniary  engagements  less  than  he 
reasonably  calculated  when  he  made  them. 

The  profits  of  the  cotton  planter,  with  all  the  natural  advantages 
with  which  Providence  has  favored  him,  are  now  actually  less  than 
those  of  any  other  description  of  capitalists  in  the  Union.  I  speak 
of  what  I  personally  know,  when  I  assert  that  the  labor  of  a  slave 
in  the  field  does  not  yield  the  owner  more  than  twelve  and  a  half 
cents  per  day,  on  an  average.  Now,  sir,  I  leave  it  to  any  gentleman 
from  the  middle  or  eastern  States,  to  say  whether  the  price  of  com- 
mon field  labor  is  not  three  or  four  times  as  high.  Taking  the  aver- 
age of  the  various  kinds  of  labor  in  those  States,  I  feel  authorized 
to  say,  it  ma}'  be  set  down  at  fifty  cents  a  day.  I  am  aware  of  the 
prevalence  of  an  idea  that  slave  labor  is  not  as  efficient  as  free 
labor ;  but,  as  regards  agricultural  pursuits,  it  is  entirely  erroneous. 
No  white  man  from  New  England,  or  any  where  else,  can  do  more 
field  labor  than  a  South  Carolina  slave.  Taking  the  average  of  the 
year,  the  southern  planter  has  greatly  more  labor  performed  by 
each  hand,  than  the  northern  farmer.  With  us,  there  is  no  season 
of  rest  from  one  end  of  the  day,  or  from  one  end  of  the  year,  to 
the  other.  The  winter  season,  which  is  a  period  of  festivity  and 
rest  with  the  northern  farmers,  is,  with  our  planters,  "a  period  of 
active  and  laborious  preparation  for  the  ensuing  spring.  If,  not- 
withstanding, he  cultivates  the  most  valuable  staple  in  the  world, 
and  works  thus  incessantly  through  the  whole  year,  the  labor  of 
the  southern  planter  is  not  one-fourth  part  as  productive  as  the 
average  of  northern  labor,  docs  it  not  furnish  a  striking  commen- 
tary upon  the  ruinous  and  exhausting  effects  of  your  oppressive 
system  of  taxation  ?    If  the  soil  and  climate  of  Pennsylvania  or 

^  (^f.  Haynes'  speech  in  the  Senate  at  the  same  time.  These  statements  apply- 
to  South  CaroHna,  but  not  to  the  whole  South. 


536  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

New  York  were  as  well  adapted  to  the  culture  of  cotton  as  those 
of  South  Carolina  or  Georgia,  I  am  well  satisfied,  a  Pennsylvania 
or  New  York  farmer  could  not  afford  to  cultivate  cotton  for  less 
than  twenty  cents  a  pound,  with  all  the  industry  and  economy  he 
could  use.  Let  any  man  acquainted  with  the  business  of  cotton 
planting  make  an  estimate  of  the  price  for  which  he  could  afford 
to  raise  cotton,  using  hired  labor  at  fifty  cents  a  day,  and  he  will 
find  the  statement  I  have  made  amply  confirmed  by  the  result. 


V.    WAGES   AND   THE   TARIFF 

A.    High  Wages  an  Obstacle  to  Manufactures^ 

Hamiltoif  s  Report  on  Manufactures,  ly^I 

The  objections  to  the  pursuit  of  manufactures  in  the  United 
States,  which  next  present  themselves  to  discussion,  represent  an 
impracticability  of  success  arising  from  three  causes  :  scarcity  of 
hands,  dearness  of  labor,  want  of  capital. 

The  two  first  circumstances  are  to  a  certain  extent  real,  and 
within  due  limits  ought  to  be  admitted  as  obstacles  to  the  success 
of  manufacturing  enterprise  in  the  United  SUites.  But  there  are 
various  considerations  which  lessen  their  force,  and  tend  to  afford 
an  assurance  that  they  are  not  sufficient  to  prevent  the  advantageous 
prosecution  of  many  vciy  useful  and  extensive  manufactories. 

With  regard  to  scarcity  of  hands,  the  fact  itself  must  be  applied 
with  no  small  cjualification  to  certain  parts  of  the  United  States, 
There  are  large  districts  which  may  be  considered  as  pretty  fully 
peopled,  and  which,  notwithstanding  a  continual  drain  for  distant 
settlement,  are  thickly  interspersed  with  flourishing  and  increasing 
towns.  If  these  districts  have  not  already  reached  the  point  at 
which  the  complaint  of  scarcity  of  hands  ceases,  they  are  not  re- 
mote from  it,  and  are  approaching  fast  towards  it.  And  having 
perhaps  fewer  attractions  to  agriculture  than  some  other  parts  of 
the  Union,  they  exhibit  a  proportionably  stronger  tendency  towards 

1  For  evidence  of  high  wages  in  America  in  colonial  times,  see  P'ranklin  and 
Pownall,  pp.  75,  107. 


WAGES  AND  'I'lIK  TARII-F  537 

other  kinds  of  industry.  In  these  districts  may  be  discerned  no 
inconsiderable  maturity  for  manufacturing  estabUshments. 

But  there  are  circumstances  whicli  have  been  ah-eady  noticed 
with  another  view,  that  materially  diminish  eveiywhere  the  effect 
of  a  scarcity  of  hands.  These  circumstances  are  :  the  great  use 
which  can  be  made  of  women  and  children,  on  which  point  a  very 
pregnant  and  instructive  fact  has  been  mentioned  ;  the  vast  exten- 
sion given  by  late  improvements  to  the  employment  of  machines, 
which,  substituting  the  agency  of  fire  and  water,  has  prodigiously 
lessened  the  necessity  for  manual  labor  ;  the  employment  of  per- 
sons ordinarily  engaged  in  other  occupations  during  the  seasons 
or  hours  of  leisure,  which,  besides  giving  occasion  to  the  exertion 
of  a  greater  quantity  of  labor  by  the  same  nimiber  of  persons,  and 
thereby  increasing  the  general  stock  of  labor,  as  has  elsewhere  been 
remarked,  may  also  be  taken  into  the  calculation  as  a  resource  for 
obviating  the  scarcity  of  hands  ;  lastly,  the  attraction  of  foreign  emi- 
grants. Whoever  inspects  with  a  careful  eye  the  composition  of 
our  towns,  will  be  made  sensible  to  what  an  extent  this  resource 
may  be  relied  upon.  This  exhibits  a  large  proportion  of  ingenious 
and  valuable  workmen  in  different  arts  and  trades,  who,  by  expatri- 
ating from  Europe,  have  improved  their  own  condition  and  added 
to  the  industry  and  wealth  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a  natural  in- 
ference from  the  experience  we  have  already  had,  that  as  soon  as 
the  United  States  shall  present  the  countenance  of  a  serious  prose- 
cution of  manufactures,  as  soon  as  foreign  artists  shall  be  made 
sensible  that  the  state  of  things  here  affords  a  moral  certainty  of 
employment  and  encouragement,  competent  numbers  of  European 
workmen  will  transplant  themselves  effectually  to  insure  the  suc- 
cess of  the  design.  How  indeed  can  it  otherwise  happen,  consider- 
ing the  various  and  powerful  inducements  which  the  situation  of 
this  country  offers  ;  addressing  themselves  to  so  many  strong  pas- 
sions and  feelings,  to  so  many  general  and  particular  interests  ? 

It  may  be  affirmed,  therefore,  in  respect  to  hands  for  canying 
on  manufactures,  that  we  shall  in  a  great  measure  trade  upon  a  for- 
eign stock,  reserving  our  own  for  the  cultivation  of  our  lands  and 
the  manning  of  our  ships,  as  far  as  character  and  circumstances 
shall  incline.    It  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  the  objection  to 


538  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

the  success  of  manufactures  deduced  from  the  scarcity  of  hands, 
is  ahke  apphcable  to  trade  and  navigation,  and  yet  these  are  per- 
ceived to  flourish,  without  any  sensible  impediment  from  that  cause. 

As  to  the  dearness  of  labor  (another  of  the  obstacles  alleged), 
this  has  relation  principally  to  two  circumstances  :  one,  that  which 
has  been  just  discussed,  or  the  scarcity  of  hands  ;  the  other,  the 
greatness  of  profits. 

As  far  as  it  is  a  consequence  of  the  scarcity  of  hands,  it  is  miti- 
gated by  all  the  considerations  which  have  been  adduced  as  les- 
sening that  deficiency.  It  is  certain,  too,  that  the  disparity  in  this 
respect  between  some  of  the  most  manufacturing  parts  of  Europe 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  United  States  is  not  nearly  so  great 
as  is  commonly  imagined.  It  is  also  much  less  in  regard  to  artifi- 
cers and  manufacturers  than  in  regard  to  country  laborers  ;  and 
while  a  careful  comparison  shows  that  there  is  in  this  particular 
much  exaggeration,  it  is  also  evident  that  the  effect  of  the  degree 
of  disparity  which  does  truly  exist  is  diminished  in  proportion  to 
the  use  which  can  be  made  of  machinery.   .   .   . 

There  are  grounds  to  conclude  that  undertakers  of  manufactures 
in  this  country  can  at  this  time  afford  to  pay  higher  wages  to  the 
workmen  they  may  employ  than  are  paid  to  similar  workmen  in 
luu'ope.  The  prices  of  foreign  fabrics  in  the  markets  of  the  United 
States,  which  will  for  a  long  time  regulate  the  prices  of  the  domes- 
tic ones,  may  be  considered  as  compounded  of  the  following  in- 
gredients :  The  first  cost  of  materials,  including  the  taxes,  if  any, 
v/hich  are  paid  upon  them  where  they  are  made,  the  expense  of 
grounds,  buildings,  machinery  and  tools  ;  the  wages  of  the  persons 
employed  in  the  manufactory  ;  the  profits  on  the  capital  or  stock 
employed  ;  the  commissions  of  agents  to  purchase  them  where 
they  are  made ;  the  expense  of  transportation  to  the  United 
States,  including  insurance  and  other  incidental  charges ;  the  taxes 
or  duties,  if  any,  and  fees  of  office  which  are  paid  on  their  expor- 
tation ;  the  taxes  or  duties,  and  fees  of  office  which  are  paid  on 
their  importation. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  items,  the  cost  of  materials,  the  advan- 
tage upon  the  whole  is  at  present  on  the  side  of  the  United  States ; 
and  the  difference  in  their  favor  must  increase  in  proportion  as  a 


WAGES  AND  THE  'JARII'l' 


539 


certain  and  extensive  domestic  demand  sliall  induce  tlie  proprietors 
of  land  to  devote  more  of  their  attention  to  the  production  (^f  those 
materials.  It  ought  not  to  escape  observation,  in  a  comparison  on 
this  point,  that  some  of  the  principal  manufacturing  countries  of 
Europe  arc  much  more  dependent  on  foreign  supply  for  the  mate- 
rials of  their  manufactures  than  would  be  the  United  States,  who 
are  cajxible  of  supplying  themselves  with  the  greater  abundance, 
as  well  as  a  greater  variety,  of  the  requisite  materials. 

As  to  the  second  item,  the  expense  of  grounds,  buildings,  ma- 
chinery and  tools,  an  equality  at  least  may  be  assumed  ;  since 
advantages  in  some  particulars  will  counterbalance  temporary  dis- 
advantages in  others. 

As  to  the  third  item,  or  the  article  of  wages,  the  comparison 
certainly  turns  against  the  United  States,  though,  as  before  ob- 
served, not  in  so  great  a  degree  as  is  commonly  supposed. 

The  fourth  item  is  alike  applicable  to  the  foreign  and  to  the 
domestic  manufacture.  It  is  indeed  more  properly  a  result  than 
a  particular  to  be  compared. 

But  with  respect  to  all  the  remaining  items,  they  are  alone  appli- 
cable to  the  foreign  manufacture,  and  in  the  strictest  sense  extraor- 
dinaries  ;  constituting  a  sum  of  extra  charge  on  the  foreign  fabric, 
which  cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than  from  fifteen  to  thirty  per 
cent,  on  the  cost  of  it  at  the  manufactory. 

This  sum  of  extra  charge  may  confidently  be  regarded  as  more 
than  a  counterpoise  for  the  real  difference  in  the  price  of  labor ; 
and  is  a  satisfactory  proof  that  manufactures  may  prosper  in  defi- 
ance of  it  in  the  United  States.   .  .  . 

Clay  s  Speech  of  lS2^ 

But,  according  to  the  opponents  of  the  domestic  policy,  the  pro- 
posed system  will  force  capital  and  labor  into  new  and  reluctant  em- 
ployments ;  we  are  not  prepared,  in  consequence  of  the  high  price 
of  wages,  for  the  successful  establishment  of  manufactures,  and  we 
must  fail  in  the  experiment.  We  have  seen  that  the  existing  occupa- 
tions of  our  society,  those  of  agriculture,  commerce,  navigation,  and 
the  learned  professions,  are  overflowing  with  competitors,  and  that 


540 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


the  want  of  employment  is  severely  felt.  Now  what  does  this  bill 
propose  ?  To  open  a  new  and  extensive  field  of  business,  in  which 
all  that  choose  may  enter.  There  is  no  compulsion  upon  any  one  to 
engage  in  it.  An  option  only  is  given  to  industry,  to  continue  in 
the  present  unprofitable  pursuits,  or  to  embark  in  a  new  and  prom- 
ising one.  The  effect  will  be  to  lessen  the  competition  in  the  old 
branches  of  business,  and  to  multiply  our  resources  for  increasing 
our  comforts  and  augmenting  the  national  wealth.  The  alleged 
fact  of  the  high  price  of  wages  is  not  admitted.  The  truth  is  that 
no  class  of  society  suffers  more,  in  the  present  stagnation  of  busi- 
ness, than  the  laboring  class.  That  is  a  necessary  effect  of  the  de- 
pression of  agriculture,  the  principal  business  of  the  community. 
The  wages  of  able-bodied  men  vary  from  $5  to  ^8  per  month, 
and  such  has  been  the  want  of  employment,  in  some  parts  of  the 
Union,  that  instances  have  not  been  unfrequent  of  men  working 
for  the  means  of  present  subsistence.  If  the  wages  for  labor  here 
and  in  England  are  compared,  they  will  be  found  not  to  be  essen- 
tially different.  .  .  . 

Webster  s  SpcccJi  of  1S24 

.  .  .  The  present  price  of  iron  at  Stockholm,  I  am  assured  by 
importers,  is  ^53  per  ton  on  board,  $48  in  the  yard  before  loading, 
and  probably  not  far  from  $40  at  the  mines.  Freight,  insurance, 
etc.,  may  be  fairly  estimated  at  $1 5,  to  which  add  our  present  duty  of 
$  1 5  more,  and  these  two  last  sums,  together  with  the  cost  on  board 
at  Stockholm,  give  $83  as  the  cost  of  Swedes  iron  in  our  market. 
In  fact,  it  is  said  to  have  been  sold  last  year  at  $81.50  to  $82  per 
ton.  We  perceive  by  this  statement  that  the  cost  of  the  iron  is 
doubled  in  reaching  us  from'  the  mine  in  which  it  is  produced.  In 
other  words,  our  present  duty,  with  the  expense  of  transportation, 
gives  an  advantage  to  the  American,  over  the  foreign  manufacturer, 
of  1 00^0.  Why  then  cannot  the  iron  be  manufactured  at  home.'' 
Our  ore  is  said  to  be  as  good,  and  some  of  it  better.  It  is  under  our 
feet,  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  [Clay]  tells  us  that  it  might 
be  wrought  by  persons  who  otherwise  will  not  be  employed.  Why 
then  is  it  not  wrought .''  Nothing  could  be  more  sure  of  constant 
sale.    It  is  not  an  article  of  changeable  fashion,  but  of  absolute, 


WAGES  AND  TllK  TARIM' 


541 


permanent  necessity,  and  such,  thcrctorc,  as  would  always  meet  a 
steady  demand.   .  .   . 

Sir,  the  true  explanation  of  this  appears  to  me  to  lie  in  the 
different  prices  of  labor  ;  and  here  I  apprehend  is  the  grand  mis- 
take in  the  argiunent  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee.  He  says 
it  would  cost  the  nation,  as  a  nation,  nothing  to  make  our  ore  into 
iron.  Now,  I  think  it  would  cost  us  ])recisely. that  which  we  can 
worst  afford  ;  that  is,  great  labor.  Although  bar  iron  is  very  prop- 
erly considered  a  raw  material  in  respect  to  its  various  future 
uses,  yet,  as  bar  iron,  the  principal  ingredient  in  its  cost  is  labor. 
Of  manual  labor,  no  nation  has  more  than  a  certain  cjuantity,  nor 
can  it  be  increased  at  will.  As  to  some  operations,  indeed,  its 
place  may  be  supplied  by  machinery  ;  but  there  are  other  services 
which  machinery  cannot  perform  for  it,  and  which  it  must  perform 
for  itself.  A  most  important  question  for  every  nation,  as  well  as 
for  every  individual,  to  propose  to  itself,  is,  how  it  can  best  apply 
that  quantity  of  labor  which  it  is  able  to  perform  ?  Labor  is  the 
great  producer  of  wealth  ;  it  moves  all  other  causes.  If  it  call  ma- 
chineiy  to  its  aid,  it  is  still  employed  not  only  in  using  the  machin- 
ery, but  in  making  it.  Now,  with  respect  to  the  quantity  of  labor, 
as  we  all  know,  different  nations  are  differently  circumstanced. 
Some  need,  more  than  anything,  work  for  hands,  others  require 
hands  for  work  ;  and  if  we  ourselves  are  not  absolutely  in  the  latter 
class,  we  are  still,  most  fortunately,  very  near  it.  I  cannot  find  that 
we  have  those  idle  hands  of  which  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
speaks.  The  price  of  labor  is  a  conclusive  and  unanswerable  refu- 
tation of  that  idea  ;  it  is  known  to  be  higher  with  us  than  in  any 
other  civilized  state,  and  this  is  the  greatest  of  all  proofs  of  gen- 
eral happiness.  Labor  in  this  countr}^  is  independent  and  proud. 
It  has  not  to  ask  the  patronage  of  capital,  but  capital  solicits  the 
aid  of  labor.  This  is  the  general  truth  in  regard  to  the  condition 
of  our  whole  population,  although  in  the  large  cities  there  are, 
doubtless,  many  exceptions.  The  m.ere  capacity  to  labor  in  common 
agricultural  employments  gives  to  our  young  men  the  assurance  of 
independence.  We  have  been  asked,  sir,  by  the  Chairman  of  the 
Committee,  in  a  tone  of  some  pathos,  whether  w^e  will  allow  to  the 
serfs  of  Russia  and  Sweden  the  benefit  of  making  iron  for  us.? 


542 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


Let  me  inform  the  gentleman,  sir,  that  those  same  serfs  do  not 
earn  more  than  seven  cents  a  day,  and  that  they  work  in  these 
mines  for  that  compensation  because  they  are  serfs.  And  let  me 
ask  the  gentleman  further,  whether  we  have  any  labor  in  this  coun- 
try that  cannot  be  better  employed  than  in  a  business  which  does 
not  yield  the  laborer  more  than  seven  cents  a  day  ?  This,  it  appears 
to  me,  is  the  true  cjuestion  for  our  consideration.  There  is  no  rea- 
son for  saying  that  we  will  work  iron  because  we  have  mountains 
that  contain  the  ore.  We  might  for  the  same  reason  dig  among  our 
rocks  for  the  scattered  grains  of  gold  and  silver  which  might  be 
found  there.  The  true  inquiiy  is,  can  we  produce  the  article  in  a 
useful  state  at  the  same  cost,  or  nearly  at  the  same  cost,  or  at  any 
reasonable  approximation  towards  the  same  cost,  at  which  we  can 
import  it.   .   .   . 

B.    High  Wages  the  Result  of  Manufactures 

1  Wclistcrs  Speech  of  lS^6 

Now,  sir,  taking  the  mass  of  men  as  they  exist  among  us,  what 
is  it  that  constitutes  their  prosperity .''  Throughout  the  country, 
perhaps  more  especially  at  the  North,  from  early  laws  and  habits, 
there  is  a  distribution  of  all  the  property  accumulated  in  one  gen- 
eration among  the  whole  succession  of  sons  and  daughters  in  the 
next.  Property  is  everywhere  distributed  as  fast  as  it  is  accumu- 
lated, and  not  in  more  than  one  case  out  of  a  hundred  is  there  an 
accumulation  beyond  the  earnings  of  one  or  two  generations.  The 
first  consecjuence  of  this  is  a  great  division  of  property  into  small 
parcels,  and  a  considerable  equality  in  the  condition  of  a  great 
portion  of  the  people.  The  next  consequence  is,  that,  out  of  the 
whole  mass,  there  is  a  very  small  proportion,  hardly  worthy  of  being 
named,  that  docs  not  pursue  some  active  business  for  a  living. 
Who  is  there  that  lives  on  his  income  .?  How  many,  out  of  millions 
of  prosperous  people  between  this  place  and  the  British  Provinces, 
and  throughout  the  North  and  West,  are  there  who  live  without 
being  engaged  in  active  business  .''  The  number  is  not  worth  nam- 
ing.   This  is  therefore  a  country  of  labor.    I  do  not  mean  manual 

1  Works,  Y,  226-227,  230-231. 


WAGES  AND  THE  TAR  I  IT  543 

labor  entirely.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  that ;  but  I  mean  some 
sort  of  employment  that  requires  personal  attention,  either  of  over- 
sight or  manual  performance  ;  some  form  of  active  business.  That 
is  the  character  of  our  people,  and  that  is  the  condition  of  our 
people.  Our  destiny  is  labor.  Now,  what  is  the  first  great  cause 
of  prosperity  with  such  a  people  ?  Simply,  employment.  Why,  we 
have  cheap  food  and  cheap  clothing,  and  there  is  no  sort  of  doubt 
that  these  things  are  very  desirable  to  all  persons  of  moderate  cir- 
cumstances, and  laborers.  But  they  are  not  the  first  requisites. 
The  first  requisite  is  that  which  enables  men  to  buy  food  and  cloth- 
ing, cheap  or  dear.  And  if  I  were  to  illustrate  my  opinions  on  this 
subject  by  example,  I  should  take,  of  all  the  instances  in  the  world, 
the  present  condition  of  Ireland.  .   .   . 

Now,  sir,  no  man  can  deny  that  the  course  of  things  in  this 
country,  for  the  last  twent)^  or  thirty  years,  has  had  a  wonderful 
effect  in  producing  a  variety  of  employments.  How  much  employ- 
ment has  been  furnished  by  the  canals  and  railroads,  in  addition 
to  the  great  amount  of  labor,  not  only  in  the  factories,  rendered  so 
odious  in  some  quarters  by  calling  them  monopolies  and  close  cor- 
porations, but  in  the  workshops,  in  the  warehouses,  on  the  sea  and 
on  the  land,  and  in  every  department  of  business  !  There  is  a  great 
and  general  activity,  and  a  great  variety  in  the  employments  of 
men  amongst  us  ;  and  that  is  just  exactly  what  our  condition  ought 
to  be. 

The  interest  of  every  laboring  community  requires  diversity  of 
occupations,  pursuits,  and  objects  of  industry.  The  more  that  diver- 
sity is  multiplied  or  extended,  the  better.  To  diversify  emplo)-ment 
is  to  increase  employment,  and  to  enhance  wages.  And,  sir,  take 
this  great  truth  ;  place  it  on  the  title-page  of  every  book  of  political 
economy  intended  for  the  use  of  the  United  States  ;  put  it  in  every 
Farmer's  Almanac ;  let  it  be  the  heading  of  the  column  in  every 
Mechanic's  Magazine ;  proclaim  it  eveiywhere,  and  make  it  a 
proverb,  \\\2X  where  there  is  work  for  the  hands  of  men,  their  ivill 
be  work  for  their  teeth.  Where  the^-e  is  employment,  there  will 
be  bread.  It  is  a  great  blessing  to  the  poor  to  have  cheap  food  ; 
but  greater  than  that,  prior  to  that,  and  of  still  higher  value,  is 
the  blessing  of  being  able  to  buy  food  by  honest  and  respectable 


544 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


employment.  PZmployment  feeds,  and  clothes,  and  instructs.  Em- 
ployment gives  health,  sobriety,  and  morals.  Constant  employment 
and  well-paid  labor  produce,  in  a  country  like  ours,  general  pros- 
perity, content,  and  cheerfulness.  Thus  happy  have  we  seen  the 
country.    Thus  happy  may  we  long  continue  to  see  it,  .  .  . 

1  Speech  of  IV.  Hunt  of  Neiv  York,  hi  House  of  Representatives, 
JuJie  26,  18^6 

Disguise  it  as  you  may,  the  tariff  question  is  the  great  question 
of  American  labor.  Shall  it  be  fostered,  encouraged,  and  sustained 
by  our  legislation  .?  This  question  "comes  home  to  the  business 
and  bosoms  "  of  all  the  laboring  men  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
of  vital  interest  to  them,  whether  regarded  in  reference  to  their 
outward  comfort,  their  moral  condition,  or  the  education  of  their 
children.  If  the  Government  withdraws  its  protecting  care,  and 
adopts  the  free-trade  policy,  we  are  at  once  exposed  to  a  ruinous 
competition  with  the  cheap  labor  and  capital  of  the  old  and  popu- 
lous nations.  It  is  a  protective  tariff  which  gives  to  American  indus- 
tiy  the  only  effectual  guaranty  that  it  will  not  be  brought  down  to 
a  level  with  the  degraded  labor  of  Europe.  It  furnishes  the  only 
security  that  our  standard  of  wages  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the 
cost  of  production  in  those  countries  where  the  life  of  the  laborer 
is  but  an  incessant  struggle  for  bread. 

In  shaping  the  policy  of  a  country  like  ours,  there  is  something 
more  to  be  considered  by  a  statesman  than  the  mere  question  where 
we  can  buy  cheapest.  Until  manufactures  are  so  firmly  and  exten- 
sively established  as  to  reduce  prices  by  domestic  competition,  it  is  no 
doubt  true  that  most  fabrics  can  be  purchased  cheaper  abroad  than 
at  home,  if  we  regard  only  the  nominal  money  price.  But  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  depends  upon  the  full  and  profitable  em- 
ployment of  its  industry  ;  and  the  great  question  to  determine  is, 
by  what  system  can  we  make  our  labor  most  efficient  and  produc- 
tive }  What  will  secure  to  the  country  the  largest  augmentation  of 
national  wealth,  and  to  the  industrious  man  the  largest  return  for 
his  efforts  .?    It  must  be  a  system  which  provides  for  labor  such 

1  Congressional  Globe,  ist  session,  2gth  Congress,  Appendix,  p.  967. 


WAGES  AXI)  Till'.  TARIFF 


545 


various  pursuits  and  channels  as  shall  ensure  a  more  stead)-  and 
universal  employment  of  its  powers. 

...  It  is  of  o;reat  moment  to  the  industrious  classes  that  capital 
shall  he  in\ested  in  those  enterprises  which  gixe  the  largest  employ- 
ment to  labor.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  many  of  our  manufac- 
turing establishments,  in  those  branches  which  have  gained  a  firm 
footing,  will  be  enabled  to  continue  their  operations  even  under  low 
duties  ;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  foreignxompetition  will  com- 
pel them,  in  self-preservation,  to  reduce  the  rale  of  wages.  When 
you  have  opened  your  ports  to  the  productions  of  c  hr;ip  labor  from 
abroad,  our  industr)-  must  either  be  measured  by  the  same  standard 
or  driven  from  employment.  This  effect  is  inevitable.  Capifcd  will 
suffer  to  some  extent,  especially  in  those  smaller  establishments 
whose  means  are  limited  ;  but  the  proposed  change  will  fall  with 
the  greatest  severity  on  the  industrious  millions.  Labor  must  bear 
the  heaviest  ills  and  penalties  of  mis-government ;  the  reduction  of 
wages  in  manufacturing  business,  and  the  transfer  of  industry  from 
accustomed  employments,  must  depress  the  wages  of  agricultural 
labor  in  a  similar  decree. 


'fc>^ 


^  Speech  of  R.  C.  IVinthrop  of  MassacJuisetts,  in  House  of 
Representatives,  June  2^,  1 8^6 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  repeat,  is  what  the  policy  of  protection 
aims  at.  It  looks  at  the  working-man,  not  in  his  mere  brute  ca- 
pacity of  a  consumer,  but  in  his  higher  nature  of  a  producer.  It 
looks  not  to  reducing  the  price  of  what  he  eats  or  what  he  wears, 
but  to  keeping  up  the  price  of  his  own  labor.  It  looks,  in  short,  to 
wages  first,  wages  last,  wages  altogether.  Shall  the  wages  of  the 
zuhole  civili::ed  commercial  world  be  equalized  and  levelled  off? 
This  is  the  briefest,  tmest,  most  concise,  and  most  comprehensive 
statement  of  the  question  between  free  trade  and  protection.  The 
wages  of  labor  —  by  which  is  to  be  understood  not  merely  the  wages 
which  are  paid  by  the  capitalist  to  the  hired  hand,  but  the  wages 
also  which  are  earned  by  labor  of  any  kind  working  on  its  own  ac- 
count—  are  now  higher  in  this  country  than  in  any  other  beneath 

1  Congressional  Globe,  ist  session,  29th  Congress,  Appendix,  p.  973. 


546  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

the  sun.  If  anybody  doubts  this,  let  him  stop  the  first  emigrant 
whom  he  meets  in  the  street,  and  ask  him  why  he  came  over  here, 
what  conditions  he  left  behind  him,  and  in  what  circumstances  he 
finds  himself  within  six  months  after  his  arrival  ?  If  anybody  doubts 
this,  let  him  turn  to  the  Parliamentary  debaters,  the  economical  es- 
sayists, or  even  the  corn-law  rhymers  of  England,  and  see  what 
they  say  as  to  the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  British  operatives. 

VI.    SOME    INDIVIDUAL  VIEWS 

A.    Development  of  the  Productive  Powers  — 
List  and  Hamilton 

1 .  .  .  The  causes  of  wealth  are  quite  a  different  thing  from 
wealth  itself.  An  individual  may  possess  wealth,  that  is,  exchange- 
able values  ;  but  if  he  is  not  able  to  produce  more  values  than  he 
consumes,  he  will  be  impoverished.  An  individual  may  be  poor, 
but  if  he  can  produce  more  than  he  consumes,  he  may  grow  rich. 

The  power  of  creating  wealth  is  then  vastly  more  important  than 
wealth  itself  ;  it  secures  not  only  the  possession  and  the  increase  of 
property  already  acquired,  but  even  the  replacing  of  that  which  is 
lost.  If  this  be  so  with  mere  individuals,  how  much  more  is  it  true 
with  nations,  which  cannot  live  upon  their  own  income  !  Germany 
has  been  in  every  age  wasted  by  pestilence,  famine,  or  civil  and  for- 
eign war,  but  has  always  preserved  the  greater  part  of  her  productive 
power,  and  thus  has  always  quickly  recovered  her  prosperity  ;  whilst 
Spain,  rich  and  powerful,  but  trampled  upon  by  despots  and  priests, 
Spain,  in  full  possession  of  internal  peace,  has  sunk  into  constantly 
increasing  poverty  and  misery.  The  same  sun  still  shines  upon  the 
Spaniards,  they  possess  still  the  same  soil,  their  wines  are  as  rich 
as  ever,  they  are  still  the  same  people  as  before  the  discovery  of 
America,  and  before  the  establishment  of  the  Inquisition  ;  but  Spain 
has  lost  by  degrees  her  productive  power,  and  has  thus  become  a 
poor  and  miserable  country.  The  war  of  emancipation  cost  the 
Colonies  of  North  America  hundreds  of  millions,  but  their  inde- 
pendence increased  so  immensely  their  productive  power,  that  a 

1  List,  National  System  of  r(jlitical  Economy,  pp.  208-209,  222,  306,  2S4,  285, 
286,  287,  294,  295-296. 


SOME  I\l)I\'lI)rAL  \' I i:\vs 


547 


few  years  of  peace  added  to  their  wealtli  t;reater  possessions  tlian 
they  before  enjoyed.  Compare  the  state  of  h'rance  in  1H09,  with 
that  of  1H39  :  what  a  thfference  !  And  ^ct  !•" ranee,  since  1S09,  has 
lost  a  considerable  part  of  the  European  continent,  has  undergone 
two  devastating  invasions,  and  paid  millions  upon  millions  for 
the  expenditures  of  war.   .   .   . 

The  property  of  a  nation  does  not  depend  on  the  quantity  of 
riches  and  of  exchangeable  values  it  possesses,  but  u])on  the  de- 
gree in  whicli  the  productive  power  is  developed.   .   .   . 

A  nation  finds  its  productix'e  energy  in  the  moral  and  phvsical 
power  of  individuals,  in  its  civil  and  political  institutions,  in  the  nat- 
ural resources  placed  at  its  disposal ;  finally,  in  the  instruments 
of  which  it  has  tlie  use,  and  which  are  themsehes  tlie  material 
products  of  previous  efforts  of  body  and  mind,  that  is,  products 
of  previous  agricultural,  manufacturing,  and  commercial  material 
capital.   .   .   . 

It  is  plain  indeed  that  the  occupation  of  manufacturers  develops 
and  brings  into  exercise  faculties  and  talents  of  a  far  higher  and 
more  varied  order  than  do^-s  agriculture.   .   .   . 

It  is  obvious  that  agriculture  requires  only  the  same  kind  of 
qualification,  bodily  strength,  and  perseverance  in  the  execution  of 
rude  tasks,  united  to  a  certain  disposition  to  order  ;  whilst  manu- 
facture exacts  an  immense  variety  of  intellectual  qualifications  and 
of  talents  natural  and  acquired.  The  demand  for  this  great  diver- 
sity of  faculties  in  a  manufacturing  state  gives  to  each  individual 
an  opportunity  of  obtaining  employment  or  a  vocation  conformable 
to  his  aptitude,  whilst  in  an  agricultural  state  such  a  choice  is  very 
limited.  In  the  former,  mental  accjuiivments  are  in  inuth  higher 
esteem  than  in  the  second,  in  which  the  merit  of  a  man  is  gener- 
ally measured  by  his  bodily  strength.  It  is  not  rare  in  the  former 
to  find  feeble  or  ph\sically  disabled  men  receiving  higher  remuner- 
ation than  able  bodied  and  strong  men.  The  least  strong,  as  women 
and  children,  the  impotent  and  the  aged,  find  in  the  manufactory 
employment  and  remuneration.   .   .   . 

The  union  of  the  sciences  with  the  industrial  arts  has  created 
that  great  physical  power  which  in  modern  times  is  a  ten-fold  sub- 
stitute for  the  labor  of  slaxes  in  anliciuity,  and  which  is  destined  to 


548  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

exert  so  important  an  influence  upon  the  condition  of  the  masses, 
upon  the  civilization  of  barbarous  people,  upon  the  salubrity  of  in- 
habited countries,  and  upon  the  power  of  nations  long  civilized. 
That  vast  physical  agent  is  the  power  of  machinery,   .   .   . 

New  inventions  and  improvements  are  but  little  appreciated  by 
a  purely  agricultural  population.  Those  who  thus  employ  their 
minds  among  such  people,  generally  lose  their  time  and  their  labor. 
In  a  manufacturing  State,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  no  way  which 
conducts  a  man  of  scienc-e  or  of  skill  to  wealth  and  consideration 
sooner  than  that  of  invention  and  discovery.  In  the  latter,  genius 
is  better  appreciated  and  more  highly  remunerated  than  talent ;  and 
talent,  more  than  physical  power.  In  an  agricultural  State,  if  we 
except  public  services,  the  rule  is  very  nearly  the  opposite. 

The  influence  of  manufactures  upon  the  development  of  the 
power  of  physical  labor,  is  not  less  than  upon  the  moral  power  of 
the  nation  ;  they  afford  to  workmen  enjoyments  and  stimulants, 
which  excite  them  to  the  display  of  their  faculties,  and  occasions 
for  their  full  employment.  It  is  an  indisputable  fact,  that  in  a 
prosperous  manufacturing  community,  laborers,  independently  of 
the  assistance  afforded  by  machinery  and  better  implements,  ac- 
complish daily  much  greater  tasks  than  laborers  are  ever  known 
to  achieve  in  agriculture.  .  .   . 

In  proportion  as  man  advances  in  civilization,  he  knows  better 
how  to  take  advantage  of  the  natural  forces  placed  within  his 
reach.   .  .  . 

In  an  imperfect  agriculture,  a  great  part  of  the  forces  of  nature 
remain  unemployed  ;  the  man  always  confines  his  intercourse  to 
his  immediate  neighborhood.  Water  and  wind  are  hardly  used  as 
motive  powers  ;  minerals  and  lands  of  various  kinds,  to  which 
manufacturers  know  how  to  give  so  great  a  value,  are  neglected  ; 
fuel  is  wasted,  or,  as  turf  for  instance,  is  regarded  as  an  obstacle 
to  culture  ;  stones,  .sand,  and  lime,  are  rarely  employed  in  building  ; 
in  place  of  bearing  burdens  confided  to  them  by  the  inhabitants,  or 
of  enriching  the  neighboring  fields,  rivers  and  streams  of  water 
waste  their  power  and  carry  off  the  soil.  The  inhabitants  of  such 
a  country  enjoy  but  seldom  the  products  of  the  sea  or  of  the 
torrid  zone. 


SOM]',   INI)I\'II)IFAT.  VIEWS 


549 


Even  the  princii)al  natural  power,  the  produetive  force  of  the 
earth,  is  made  available  to  a  very  small  extent,  so  long  as  agricul- 
ture is  not  sustained  l^y  manufacturing  industry.   .   .   . 

When  manufacturing  industry  takes  root  in  an  agricultural  coun- 
try, roads  are  made,  railroads  are  constructed,  canals  are  dug,  rivers 
made  navigable,  lines  of  steamboats  estiiblished.  Not  only  do  the 
surjjlus  jjroducts  of  the  cultixator  find  ready  access  to  market,  but 
become  a  sure  source  of  income;  not  only  is  the  labor  already 
employed  made  more  active  and  available,  but  the  rural  population 
is  enabled  to  draw  from  their  previously  neglected  resources  a  large 
income,  and  to  bring  into  immediate  and  profitable  use  all  the 
minerals  and  all  the  metals  buried  in  the  earth.  Materials  for- 
merly transi)ortab!e  only  a  few  miles,  such  as  salt,  coal,  marble, 
slates,  lime,  plaster,  wood,  bark,  -etc.,  can  then  be  distributed 
over  the  whole  surface  of  a  large  country.  Articles  hitherto  of 
no  value  take  far  higher  rank  in  the  statistics  of  the  produc- 
tion of  the  country,  than  the  whole  pre\ious  income  of  its  agri- 
culture. The  time  comes  when  not  a  cubic  inch  of  water-power 
is  permitted  to  go  unemployed  ;  and  e\'en  in  the  most  remote 
parts  of  the  country,  timber  and  various  fuels,  hitherto  inaccess- 
ible and  without  value,  are  brought  into  use  and  made  vendible 
commodities. 

Manufactures  create  a  demand  for  a  multitude  of  articles  besides 
raw  materials,  to  which  a  portion  of  the  soil  may  be  devoted  with 
greater  profit  than  in  the  production  of  grain,  usually  the  chief 
crop  of  purely  agricultural  countries.  The  demand  for  milk,  butter, 
and  meal,  to  which  such  a  change  gives  rise,  increases  the  value 
of  the  land  previously  used  for  pasture,  improves  the  methods  of 
culture,  and  promotes  the  practice  of  drainage  ;  and  the  demand 
for  vegetables  and  fruits  transforms  fields  into  gardens  or  orchards. 
The  loss  sustained  by  a  purely  agricultural  country  from  not  using 
its  natural  resources  is  greater,  in  proportion  as  nature  has  more 
largely  endowed  it  for  manufactures,  and  as  its  territory  is  richer 
in  raw  materials  and  natural  power,  specially  useful  to  manufactur- 
ing industry  ;  it  is  so,  especiall)'  for  hilly  or  mountainous  regions, 
less  suited  to  culture  on  a  large  scale,  but  which  offer  to  other 
branches  of  industiy,  water-power,  minerals,  wood,  and  stone  in 


550  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

abundance,  and  to  farmers  and  others,  facilities  for  importing  or 
producing  articles  which  manufacturers  require.   .  .  . 

^  It  is  now  proper  to  proceed  a  step  further,  and  to  enumerate 
the  principal  circumstances  from  .  which  it  may  be  inferred  that 
manufacturing  establishments  not  only  occasion  a  positive  aug- 
mentation of  the  produce  and  revenue  of  the  society,  but  that  they 
contribute  essentially  to  rendering  them  greater  than  they  could 
possibly  be  without  such  establishments.  These  circumstances 
are  :  — 

1.  The  division  of  labor. 

2.  An  extension  of  the  use  of  machinery. 

3.  Additional  employment  to  classes  of  the  community  not  ordi- 
narily engaged  in  the  business. 

4.  The  promoting  of  emigration  from  foreign  countries. 

5.  The  furnishing  greater  scope  for  the  diversity  of  talents  and 
dispositions  which  discriminate  men  from  each  other. 

6.  The  affording  a  more  ample  and  various  field  for  enterprise. 

7.  The  creating  in  some  instances  a  new,  and  securing  in  all  a 
more  certain  and  steady  demand  for  the  surplus  produce  of  the  soil. 

Each  of  these  circumstances  has  a  considerable  influence  upon 
the  total  mass  of  industrious  effort  in  a  community ;  together 
they  add  to  it  a  degree  of  energy  and  effect  which  are  not  easily 
conceived.  Some  comments  upon  each  of  them,  in  the  order  in 
which  they  have  been  stated,  may  serve  to  explain  their  impor- 
tance.  .   .   . 

3.  As  to  the  additional  employment  of  classes  of  the  community 
not  ordinarily  engaged  in  the  particular  business. 

This  is  not  among  the  least  valuable  of  the  means  by  which 
manufacturing  institutions  contribute  to  augment  the  general  stock 
of  industry  and  production.  In  places  where  those  institutions 
prevail,  besides  the  persons  regularly  engaged  in  them,  they  afford 
occasional  and  extra  employment  to  industrious  individuals  and 
families  who  are  willing  to  devote  the  leisure  resulting  from  the 
intermissions  of  their  ordinary  pursuits  to  collateral  labors,  as  a  re- 
source for  multiplying  their  acquisitions  or  their  enjoyments.    The 

1  Hamilton,  Report  on  Manufactures. 


SOME  INDIVIDrAI.  \IFAV.S  55  I 

husbandman  himself  experiences  a  new  source  of  profit  and  sup- 
port from  the  increased  industry  of  his  wife  and  daughters,  invited 
and  stimulated  by  the  demands  of  the  neighboring  manufactories. 

Besides  this  advantage  of  occasional  emjDloyment  to  classes  hav- 
ing different  occupations,  there  is  anotlier  of  a  nature  allied  to  it, 
and  of  a  similar  tendency.  This  is  the  employment  of  persons  who 
would  otherwise  be  idle  (and  in  many  cases  a  burden  on  the  com- 
munity), either  from  the  bias  of  temper,  habil,  infirmity  of  body, 
or  some  other  cause,  indisposing  or  disqualifying  them  for  the  toils 
of  the  countiy.  It  is  worthy  of  jjarticular  remark  that,  in  general, 
women  and  children  are  rendered  more  useful,  and  the  latter  more 
early  useful,  by  manufacturing  establishments  than  they  would  other- 
wise be.  Of  the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  cotton  manu- 
factories of  Great  Britain,  it  is  computed  that  four  sevenths  nearly 
arc  women  and  children,  —  of  whom  the  greatest  proportion  are 
children,  and  many  of  them  of  a  tender  age. 

And  thus  it  appears  to  be  one  of  the  attributes  of  manufactures, 
and  one  of  no  small  consequence,  to  give  occasion  to  the  exertion 
of  a  greater  quantity  of  industiy,  even  by  the  same  number  of  [per- 
sons, where  they  happen  to  prevail,  than  would  exist  if  tliere  were 
no  such  establishments.    .   .   . 

5.  As  to  the  furnishing  greater  scope  for  the  diversity  of  talents 
and  dispositions  which  discriminate  men  from  each  other. 

This  is  a  much  more  powerful  mean  of  augmenting  the  fund  of 
national  industry  than  may  at  first  sight  appear.  It  is  a  just  obser- 
vation that  minds  of  the  strongest  and  most  active  powers  for  tlieir 
proper  objects  fall  below  mediocrity,  and  labor  without  effect  if  con- 
fined to  uncongenial  pursuits.  And  it  is  thence  to  be  inferred  that 
the  results  of  human  exertion  may  be  immensely  increased  by  di- 
versifying its  objects.  When  all  the  different  kinds  of  industry 
obtain  in  a  community,  each  individual  can  find  his  proper  element, 
and  can  call  into  activity  the  whole  vigor  of  his  nature.  And  the 
community  is  benefited  by  the  services  of  its  respective  members 
in  the  manner  in  which  each  can  serve  it  with  most  effect. 

If  there  be  anything  in  a  remark  often  to  be  met  with,  namely, 
that  there  is  in  the  genius  of  the  people  of  this  countr)^  a  peculiar 
aptitude  for  mechanic  improvements,  it  would  operate  as  a  forcible 


552 


VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 


reason  for  giving  opportunities  to  the  exercise  of  that  species  of 
talent  by  the  propagation  of  manufactures.   .   .   } 

B.    Concentration  of  Population  and  Increase  of 
Economic  Efficiency  —  Carey 

^ .  ,  .  Without  difference  there  can  be  no  association,  no  com- 
merce ;  and  without  diversity  of  employments  there  can  be  no  other 
differences  than  those  we  see  to  have  existed  in  the  early  and  bar- 
barous ages  of  society.  Let  there  be  differences,  and  let  commerce 
grow,  and  the  value  of  commodities  will  be  found  steadily  to  de- 
cline, with  correspondent  growth  in  the  utility  of  the  materials  of 
which  they  are  composed,  and  in  the  value  and  freedom  of  man.  ,  .  . 

With  exevy  stage  of  progress  in  this  direction,  the  various  utili- 
ties of  the  raw  materials  of  the  neighborhood  become  more  and 
more  developed ;  and  with  each  he  finds  an  increase  of  wealth. 
The  new  mill  requires  granite,  and  the  houses  for  the  workmen 
require  bricks  and  lumber  ;  and  now  the  rock  of  the  mountain  side, 
the  clay  of  the  river  bottom,  and  the  timber  with  which  they  have 
so  long  been  covered,  acquire  value  in  the  eyes  of  all  around  him. 
The  granite  dust  of  the  quarry  is  found  useful  in  his  garden — en- 
abling him  to  furnish  the  cabbages,  the  beans,  the  peas,  and  the 
smaller  fruits  for  the  supply  of  the  neighboring  workmen.  The 
glass-works  need  sand,  and  the  glass-makers  require  peaches 
and  apples  ;  and  the  more  numerous  the  men  who  make  the  glass, 
the  greater  is  the  facility  for  returning  the  manure  to  the  land, 
and  increasing  the  crops  of  corn.  On  one  hand  he  has  a  demand 
for  potash,  and  on  the  other  for  madder.  The  woollen  manufac- 
turer asks  for  teazles,  and  the  maker  of  brooms  urges  him  to  extend 
the  cultivation  of  the  corn  of  which  the  brooms  are  made.  The 
basket-makers,  and  the  gunpowder  manufacturers,  are  claimants  for 
the  produce  of  his  willows  ;  and  thus  does  he  find,  that  diversity  of 
employment  among  those  around  him  produces  diversity  in  the  de- 
mands for  his  physical  and  intellectual  powers,  and  for  the  use  of 
the  soil  at  the  various  seasons  of  the  year  —  with  constant  increase 

1  It  is  clear  from  this  extract  from  the  report  on  manufactures  that  Hamilton 
understood  List's  famous  doctrine  fifty  years  before  List  developed  it. 

2  Carey,  Principles  of  Social  Science,  II,  28,  29-31,  209-211. 


SOME  INDIVIDUAL  VIEWS  553 

in  the  present  reward  of  labor,  and  constant  augmentation  in  the 
powers,  and  in  the  value,  of  his  land.  Nothing,  we  may  be  well 
assured,  grows  in  vain  ;  but  in  order  tiiat  the  utility  of  the  various 
products  of  the  earth  may  be  develojDed  tliere  must  be  association  ; 
and  that  there  cannot  be  when  employments  are  not  diversified. 
When  they  are,  every  thing  is  from  day  to  day  more  and  more 
utilized.  The  straw  that  would  otherwise  be  wasted  becomes  paper, 
and  the  shavings  of  the  tree  counteract  the  deficiency  in  the  supply 
of  rags  —  with  constant  increase  in  the  value  of  land,  and  in  the 
rewards  of  those  empkned  in  tlie  development  of  its  ]wwers. 

Directly  the  reverse  of  all  this  becomes  obvious  as  the  consumer 
is  more  and  more  removed  from  the  producer,  and  as  the  power 
of  association  declines.  The  madder,  the  teazle,  the  broom  corn, 
and  the  osier  cease  to  be  required  ;  and  the  granite,  the  clay,  and 
the  sand,  continue  to  remain  where  nature  had  placed  them.  The 
motion  of  society  —  commerce  —  declines,  and  witli  that  decline 
we  witness  a  stoppage  in  the  motion  of  the  matter,  with  constantly 
increasing  waste  of  the  powers  of  man  and  of  the  great  machine 
given  by  the  Creator  for  his  use.  His  time  is  wasted,  because  he 
has  no  choice  in  the  employment  of  his  land.  He  must  raise  wheat, 
or  cotton,  or  sugar,  or  some  other  commodit}'  of  which  the  yield  is 
small,  and  which  will,  therefore,  bear  carriage  to  the  distant  market. 
He  neglects  his  fruit-trees,  and  his  potatoes  are  given  to  the  hogs. 
He  wastes  his  rags  and  his  straw,  because  there  is  no  paper-mill 
at  hand.  His  forest-trees  he  destroys,  that  he  may  obtain  a  trifle 
in  exchange  for  the  ashes  they  thus  are  made  to  yield.  His  cotton- 
seed wastes  upon  the  ground  ;  or  he  destroys  the  fibre  of  the  flax 
that  he  may  sell  the  seed.  Not  only  does  he  sell  his  wheat  in  a 
distant  market,  and  thus  impoverish  his  land,  but  so  does  he  also, 
with  the  very  bones  of  the  animals  that  have  been  fattened  with 
his  corn.  The  yield,  therefore,  regularly  decreases  in  quantity,  with 
constant  increase  in  the  risk  of  danger  from  changes  of  the  weather, 
because  of  the  necessity  for  dependence  on  a  single  crop  ;  and  with 
equally  constant  diminution  in  the  powers  of  the  man  who  culti- 
vates it  —  until  at  length  he  finds  himself  a  slave  not  only  to  na- 
ture, but  to  those  of  his  fellow-men  whose  physical  powers  are 
greater  than  his  own.    That  it  is  population  which  makes  the  food 


554  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

come  from  the  rich  soils,  and  enables  men  to  obtain  wealth  —  or 
power  to  command  the  various  forces  of  nature  —  is  a  truth  the 
evidence  of  which  may  be  found  in  every  page  of  history  ;  and 
equally  true  is  it,  that  in  order  to  the  cultivation  of  those  soils, 
there  must  be  that  development  of  the  latent  powers  of  man 
which  can  be  found  in  those  communities  only,  in  which  employ- 
ments are  diversified.   .   .   . 

The  treasures  of  nature  are  boundless  in  extent,  the  earth  being 
a  great  reservoir  of  wealth  and  power  —  requiring  for  their  full 
development  only  the  canying  into  full  effect  the  idea  expressed 
by  the  magic  word,  ASSOCIATION.  That  such  is  the  fact,  is 
seen  in  every  case  in  which,  because  of  local  circumstances,  the 
American  people  find  themselves  enabled  to  combine  their  efforts 
for  the  accomplishment  of  some  common  object.  Copibination  of 
action  furnishes  to  every  resident  of  New  York,  PhnaSElpTTia,  or 
Boston,  a  slave  employed  in  supplying  him  with  water,  or  with 
light,  at  a  cost  so  trivial  as  to  be  utterly  insignificant  when  com- 
pared with  what  it  would  be  were  he  obliged  to  live  and  labor  alone, 
as  did  the  emigrants  of  the  days  of  William  Penn.  Comhined,  ef- 
fort enables  us  to  pass  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  in  fewer  hours,  and  at  less  expense,  than,  but 
a  few  years  since,  were  required  for  going  from  New  York  to 
Washington.  To  such  effort  it  is  due  that  every  child  is  supplied 
with  instruction  such  as  would  be  wholly  unattainable  by  the  soli- 
tary settler  to  whom  we  have  so  frequently  referred.   .  .  . 

Look  where  we  may,  we  see  evidence  of  the  advantage  to  be 
derived  from  association  ;  and  yet  men  are  everywhere  seen  [in 
the  United  States]  flying  from  their  homes,  and  leaving  behind 
them  wives  and  children,  parents  and  relatives  —  each  one  seem- 
ing desirous,  as  far  as  possible,  to  be  compelled  to  roll  his  own  log, 
build  his  own  house,  and  cultivate  his  lonely  field  ;  and  thus  deprive 
himself  of  all  the  benefit  necessarily  resulting  from  combination 
with  his  fellow-men.  In  the  passage  to  his  solitude,  he  traverses 
immense  plains  abounding  in  the  fuel  by  whose  consumption  he 
would  so  much  increase  his  wealth  and  power  —  preferring,  appar- 
ently, to  continue  to  confine  himself  to  the  use  of  his  arm,  when, 
by  calling  nature  to  his  aid,  he  might  be  enabled  to  substitute  the 


SOME  I\I)I\I1)UAL  VIEWS 


555 


qualities  of  his  head  for  ihosc  of  his  body,  and  pass  from  the  laljors 
of  the  ox  to  those  of  the  MAN. 

In  no  country  of  the  world  is  there  so  great  a  voluntary  waste 
of  power  as  in  these  United  States.  .  .  .  Mere  it  is  that  men  are 
most  disposed  to  separate  themselves,  each  and  every  one  from 
each  and  every  other,  and  thus  to  forfeit  all  the  advantages  that 
are  elsewhere  seen  to  result  from  the  substitution  of  the  natural 
forces  for  those  of  the  human  arm.  The  waters  of  Niagara,  capable 
of  doing  the  work  of  millions  of  men,  are  allowed  to  run  to  waste  ; 
and  the  coal-fields  of  Illinois,  that,  with  the  slightest  effort,  might 
be  made  to  perform  a  hundred  times  more  labor  than  is  now  per- 
formed by  all  the  people  of  the  Union,  are  held  in  almost  as  light 
esteem  as  would  be  a  similar  quantity  of  gravel,  or  of  sand. 

Commerce  tends  to  the  development  of  the  treasures  of  the 
earth  —  to  the  utilization  of  every  particle  of  the  matter  of  which 
our  planet  is  composed —  to  the  development  of  human  power —  to 
diminution  in  the  value  of  the  commodities  required  for  the  support 
of  man  —  and  to  augmentation  in  his  own  value,  and  in  that  of  tlie 
land  upon  which  he  is  placed.  At  every  stage  of  its  progress,  local 
centres  acquire  a  larger  attractive  power  —  the  mill,  the  mine,  the 
furnace,  the  rolling  mill,  and  the  grist  and  cotton  mills  becoming 
the  places  of  exchange,  and  thus  diminishing  the  necessity  for  re- 
sorting to  the  trading  cities  of  the  world.  The  man  whose  labors 
have  been  given  to  the  production  of  wheat,  is  thus  enabled  to 
exchange  directly  with  one  neighbor  who  converts  wheat  into  flour, 
and  another  who  has  changed  coal  and  ore  into  iron  ;  with  one  who 
has  converted  wool  into  cloth,  and  another  who  has  made  rags  into 
paper  —  at  once  economizing  the  cost  of  transportation,  and  obtain- 
ing that  intellectual  commerce  which  is  needed  for  enabling  him  to 
pass  from  the  cultivation  of  the  poor  to  that  of  the  richer  soils. 

Trade  tends  in  an  opposite  direction  —  seeking  everywhere  to 
prevent  the  creation  of  local  centres,  and  thus  to  increase  the  ne- 
cessity for  resorting  to  the  great  central  cities  of  the  world.  Every 
stage  of  its  progress  towards  power  is,  therefore,  attended  by  an 
increase  in  the  tax  of  transportation,^  and  a  diminution   of  the 

1  "  No  truth  in  science  is  more  readily  susceptible  of  demonstration  than  that 
of  the  liability  of  the  man  who  must  go  to  market,  for  the  payment  of  the  cost  of 


556  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

power  of  man,  with  constantly  increasing  exhaustion  of  the  soil, 
requiring  resort  to  new  lands,  to  be  in  their  turn  exhausted.  ,  .  . 
Man  is  placed  on  this  earth  to  subject  the  forces  of  nature  to  his 
service  —  compelling  her  to  yield  the  commodities  required  for  his 
use,  and  in  exchange  for  the  smallest  possible  amount  of  human 
effort.  That  that  object  may  be  accomplished,  he  is  required  to 
combine  his  efforts  with  those  of  his  fellow-men  —  the  farmer,  the 
miller,  and  the  baker  uniting  for  the  production  of  bread  ;  the  shep- 
herd, the  spinner,  and  the  weaver  uniting  for  the  production  of 
cloth.  The  more  perfect  that  union,  the  less  is  the  waste  of  labor 
in  transportation  and  in  effecting  exchanges,  and  the  greater  the 
power  to  improve  the  land  already  occupied,  while  extending  the 
work  of  cultivation  over  the  richer  soils  —  as  is  now  being  done  in 
France,  Denmark,  Germany,  and  other  of  the  advancing  countries 
of  Europe.  The  less  the  power  of  combination,  the  greater  is  the 
tendency  to  exhaustion  of  the  soil,  as  is  seen  to  be  the  case  in 
Poland  and  Ireland,  Turkey  and  Portugal,  Jamaica  and  India,  and 
every  other  country  that  is,  like  the  United  States,  almost  entirely 
devoted  to  the  work  of  scratching  the  earth.  Of  all  the  raw  mate- 
rial required  for  the  purposes  of  man,  manure  is  the  most  impor- 
tant, and  the  least  susceptible  of  transportation  to  a  distance  ;  and 
therefore  it  is  that  poverty,  depopulation,  and  slavery,  are  the  nec- 
essary consequences  of  the  reduction  of  a  community  to  depend- 
ence on  the  single  species  of  effort  required  for  compelling  the 
earth  to  yield  the  raw  material  of  clothing,  or  of  food.  Through- 
out the  larger  portion  of  the  United  States,  the  market  is  distant 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles.   .   .   . 

Such  being  -the  facts,  we  need  no  longer  be  surprised  that  every 
intelligent  foreigner  finds  himself  forced  to  remark  on  the  low 
condition  of  American  agriculture  generally,  and  upon  the  gradual 
diminution  in  the  powers  of  the  land.  In  New  York,  where,  eighty 
years  since,  25  to  30  bushels  of  wheat  were  an  ordinary  crop,  the 

getting  there.  It  is  one  which  sad  experience  teaches  every  farmer;  and  one,  too, 
that  the  student  may  find  demonstrated  by  Adam  Smith.  The  corn  that  is  twenty 
or  thirty  miles  distant  from  market,  sells  for  as  many  cents  less  per  bushel  than 
that  which  is  at  market;  and  the  potatoes  that  are  a  hundred  miles  from  market 
are  almost  worthless,  while  those  raised  close  to  it  sell  for  thirty  or  forty  cents  a 
bushel  —  the  difference  between  the  two  being  the  tax  of  transportation."  —  Carey. 


SOME   IXDIXIDl'AL  VIFAVS  557 

average  is  now  onl\-  14;  while  that  of  Indian  corn  is  only  25. 
In  Ohio,  a  State  that  but  half  a  century  since  was  a  wilderness, 
the  average  of  wheat  is  less  than  1 2  ;  and  it  diminishes,  when  it 
should  increase.  Throughout  the  West,  the  process  of  exhaustion 
is  everywhere  going  on  —  the  large  crops  of  the  early  period  of  a 
settlement  being  followed,  invariably,  by  small  ones  in  later  years. 
In  Virginia,  throughout  a  large  district  of  country  once  considered 
the  richest  in  the  State,  the  average  of  wheat  is  less  than  7  bush- 
els ;'  while  in  North  Carolina,  men  cultivate  land  yielding  little  more 
than  that  quantity  of  Indian  corn.  Tobacco  has  been  raised  in  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  until  the  land  has  been  utterly  exhausted  and 
abandoned  ;  while  throughout  the  whole  cotton-growing  country  we 
meet  with  a  sense  of  exhaustion  unparalleled  in  the  world,  to  have 
been  accomplished  in  so  brief  a  period.  The  people  who  raise  cot- 
ton and  tobacco  are  living  upon  capital  —  selling  their  soil  at  prices 
so  low  that  they  do  not  obtain  one  dollar  for  every  five  destroyed ; 
and  as  man  is  always  a  progressive  animal,  whether  his  course  be 
upward  or  downward,  we  may  now  readily  understand  the  cause  of 
the  steady  and  regular  growth  of  that  feeling  which  leads  to  regard- 
ing bondage  as  being  the  natural  condition  of  those  who  need  to 
sell  their  labor.  Trade  leads  necessarily  to  such  results,  and  as  the 
whole  energies  of  the  country  are  given  to  the  enlargement  of 
the  trader's  power,  it  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  its  people  are 
everywhere  seen  employed  in  "  robbing  the  earth  of  its  capital 
stock."   ,  .  . 

With  the  growth  of  commerce,  and  the  increase  in  the  power  of 
association,  the  farmer  is  enabled  to  vary  the  objects  of  cultivation 
—  substituting  potatoes,  turnips,  and  other  products,  of  which  the 
earth  yields  by  tons,  for  wheat,  of  which  it  yields  by  bushels,  and 
for  cotton,  the  yield  of  which  is  pounds.  With  the  decline  of  com- 
merce and  growth  of  the  power  of  trade,  the  market  becomes  more 
distant,  and  he  is  compelled  to  limit  himself  to  the  few  commodi- 
ties of  which  the  earth  yields  but  little,  and  that  will,  therefore, 
bear  transportation.  Each  and  every  plant  requires  for  its  nour- 
ishment ceitain  elements,  by  the  continual  extraction  of  which 
the  earth  is  impoverished  ;  and  thus  do  the  exhaustion  of  the 
land,  and  the  dispersion  of  men,  in  one  year,  prepare  for  further 


558  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

exhaustion  and  dispersion  in  another  one.  Such  having  been  the 
case  with  cotton  and  sugar  cultivation  in  the  Southern  States,  and 
that  of  wheat  and  tobacco  in  the  more  Northern  ones,  the  conse- 
quences are  seen  in  the  fact,  that  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil 
and  the  dispersion  of  population  proceed  from  year  to  year  at  a 
constantly  accelerated  pace.  .   .   . 

The  more  perfect  the  power  of  association  and  combination,  the 
more  rapid  is  the  progress  of  agricultural  knowledge,  the  larger  is 
the  quantity  of  commodities  obtained  from  the  earth,  and  the 
smaller  is  the  proportion  required  for  paying  the  tax  of  transporta- 
tion and  exchange  —  and  the  larger  is  the  power  of  the  planter 
and  farmer  to  determine  for  themselves  the  application  of  their  labor 
and  their  land.  The  less  that  power,  the  more  does  agriculture  cease 
to  be  a  science,  the  smaller  is  the  quantity  of  things  obtained,  the 
larger  is  the  proportion  required  by  the  trader  and  transporter,  and 
the  more  rapidly  does  the  cultivator  sink  to  the  condition  of  a  mere 
slave,  to  be  controlled  in  all  his  operations  by  those  who  stand 
between  himself  and  the  consumer  of  his  products.  .  .  . 

C.  Cheap  Land  a  Bounty  to  Agriculture  —  Rush 

^  There  is  an  inducement  to  increase  legislative  protection  to 
manufactures,  in  the  actual  internal  condition  of  the  United  States, 
which  is  viewed  with  an  anxiousness  belonging  to  its  peculiar  char- 
acter and  intrinsic  weight.  It  is  that  which  arises  from  the  great 
extent  of  their  unsold  lands.  The  magnitude  of  the  interests  at 
stake  in  this  part  of  our  public  affairs,  ought  not  to  appall  us  from 
approaching  it.  It  should  rather  impel  us  to  look  at  it  with  the 
more  earnest  desire  to  arrive  at  correct  opinions  on  any  course  of 
legislation  that  may  affect,  primarily  or  remotely,  an  interest  so  full 
of  importance.  The  maxim  is  held  to  be  a  sound  one,  that  the  ratio 
of  capital  to  population  should,  if  possible,  be  kept  on  the  increase. 
When  this  takes  place,  the  demand  and  compensation  for  labor 
will  be  proportionably  increased,  and  the  condition  of  the  most  nu- 
merous classes  of  the  community  become  improved.  If  the  ratio 
of  capital  to  population  be  diminished,  a  contrary  state  of  things 

1  Rush,  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  1827. 


SOME  TXDIVTDUAT.  VIFAVS  559 

will  be  the  result.  The  manner  in  which  the  remote  lands  of  the 
United  States  are  selling  and  settling,  whilst  it  may  possibly  tend 
to  increase  more  quickly  the  aggregate  population  of  the  country 
and  the  mere  means  of  subsistence,  does  not  increase  capital  in  the 
same  proportion.  It  is  a  proposition  too  plain  to  require  elucidation, 
that  the  creation  of  capital  is  retarded,  rather  than  accelerated,  by 
the  diffusion  of  a  thin  j^ojuilation  over  a  great  surface  of  soil.  Any 
thing  that  may  serve  to  hold  back  this  tendency  to  diffusion  from 
running  too  far,  and  too  long,  into  an  extreme,  can  scarcely  prove 
otherwise  than  salufciry.  Moreover,  the  further  encouragement  of 
manufactures  by  legislative  means,  would  be  but  a  counterbalance, 
and  at  most  a  partial  one,  to  the  encouragement  to  agriculture  by 
legislative  means,  standing  out  in  the  very  terms  upon  which  the 
public  lands  are  sold.  It  is  not  here  intended  to  make  the  system 
of  selling  off  the  territorial  domain  of  the  Union,  a  subject  of  any 
commentary,  and  still  less  of  any  complaint.  The  system  is  inter- 
woven beneficially  with  the  highest  interests  and  destiny  of  the  na- 
tion. It  rests  upon  foundations,  both  of  principles  and  practice, 
deep  and  immovable  ;  foundations  not  to  be  up-rooted  or  shaken. 
But  our  gravest  attention  may,  on  this  account,  be  but  the  more 
wisely  summoned  to  the  consideration  of  correlative  duties,  w-hich 
the  existence  of  such  a  system  in  the  heart  of  the  state  imposes. 
It  cannot  be  overlooked,  that  the  jjriccs  at  which  fertile  bodies  of 
land  may  be  bought  of  the  government  under  this  s)-stem,  operate 
as  a  perpetual  allurement  to  their  purcliasc.  It  must,  therefore,  be 
taken  in  the  light  of  a  bounty,  indelibly  written  in  the  text  of  the 
laws  themselves,  in  favor  of  agricultural  pursuits.  Such  it  is,  in 
effect,  though  not  in  form. 

Perhaps  no  enactment  of  legislative  bounties,  has  ever  before 
operated  upon  a  scale  so  vast,  throughout  a  series  of  years,  and  over 
the  face  of  an  entire  nation,  to  turn  population  and  labor  into  one 
particular  channel,  preferably  to  all  others.  The  utmost  extent  of 
protection  granted  to  manufactures  or  commerce,  by  our  statutes, 
collectively,  since  the  first  foundation  of  the  government,  has  been, 
in  its  mere  effect  of  drawing  the  people  of  the  United  States  into 
those  pursuits,  as  nothing  to  it.  No  scale  of  imposts,  no  prohibi- 
tions or  penalties,  no  bounties,  no  premiums,  enforced  or  dispensed 


560  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

at  the  custom-house,  has  equalled  it.  It  has  served,  and  still  serves, 
to  draw,  in  an  annual  stream,  the  inhabitants  of  a  majority  of  the 
States,  including  amongst  them  at  this  day  a  portion,  not  small,  of 
the  western  States,  into  the  settlement  of  fresh  lands,  lying  still 
farther  and  farther  off.  If  the  population  of  these  States,  not  yet 
redundant  in  fact,  though  appearing  to  be  so,  under  this  legislative 
incitement  to  emigrate,  remained  fixed  in  more  instances,  as  it 
probably  would  by  extending  the  motives  to  manufacturing  labor,  it 
is  believed  that  the  nation  at  large  would  gain,  in  two  ways  :  —  first, 
by  the  more  rapid  accumulation  of  capital ;  and,  next,  by  the  grad- 
ual reduction  of  the  excess  of  its  agricultural  population  over  that 
engaged  in  other  vocations.  It  is  not  imagined  that  it  would  ever 
be  practicable,  even  if  it  were  desirable,  to  turn  this  stream  of  emi- 
gration aside  ;  but  resources  opened,  through  the  influence  of  the 
laws,  in  new  fields  of  industry,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  States 
already  sufficiently  peopled  to  enter  upon  them,  might  operate  to 
lessen,  in  some  degree,  and  usefully  lessen,  its  absorbing  force. 
The  eye  of  legislation,  intent  upon  the  whole  good  of  the  nation, 
will  look  to  each  part,  not  separately  as  a  part,  but  in  conjunction 
with  the  whole.  The  rapidity  with  which,  after  all,  a  civilized  pop- 
ulation, founding  new  and  sovereign  communities,  will  grow  up  in 
those  exuberant  portions  of  territory,  presents  considerations  favor- 
able to  the  main  policy  inculcated.  This  population,  carrying  with 
it  the  wants  and  habits  of  society,  will  create  a  demand  for  manu- 
factures, which  must,  at  least  for  some  time,  be  supplied  from  other 
sources.  It  will  hence  form  the  natural  market  of  purchase  and 
consumption  for  those  produced  in  other  parts  of  the  Union,  rather 
than  in  foreign  countries.  By  this  intercourse  we  may  hope  to  see 
multiplied  the  commercial  and  pecuniary  ties,  which  it  is  fit  should 
grow  up  and  be  cherished  throughout  the  whole  federal  family, 
superadding  themselves  to  all  other  ties,  and  harmonizing  and 
compacting  the  elements  of  a  great  empire.  Should  it  still  be 
apprehended  by  any,  that  evils  will  be  generated  in  a  state  of 
society  where  large  manufacturing  classes  co-exist  with  a  full  popu- 
lation ;  to  such  minds,  the  reflection  must  prove  consolatory  and 
re-assuring,  that  in  the  public  lands  a  check  to  these  evils  will  be  at 
hand  for  ages  to  come.    This  immense  domain,  besides  embodying 


SOMK  INDIVIDUAL  VIEWS  56 1 

all  the  ingredients,  material  and  moral,  of  riches  and  power, 
throughout  a  long  vista  of  the  future,  ma)-,  therefore,  also  be  clung 
to,  under  the  various  springs  and  conjoint  movements  of  our  happy 
political  s3-stem,  as  a  safeguard  against  contingent  dangers.  Its 
very  possession  is  conceived  to  furnish  paramount  inducements, 
under  all  views,  for  quickening  by  fresh  legislative  countenance, 
manufacturing  labor  throughout  other  parts  of  the  Union.  It  is  a 
power  to  be  turned  to  the  account  of  manifold  and  transcendent 
blessings,  rather  than  reposed  upon  for  aggrandizing  too  exclusively 
the  interest  of  agriculture,  fundamental  as  that  must  ever  be  in  the 
state.  Agriculture  itself  would  be  essentially  benefited  ;  the  price 
of  lands  in  all  the  existing  States  would  soon  become  enhanced,  as 
well  as  the  produce  from  them,  by  a  policy  that  would  in  any  wise 
tend  to  render  portions  of  their  present  ])opulation  more  stationary, 
by  supplying  new  and  adequate  motives  to  their  becoming  so.  And, 
as  it  is,  the  laws  that  have  largely,  in  effect,  throughout  a  long 
course  of  time,  superinduced  disinclinations  to  manufacturing  labor, 
by  tJicir  overpowering  calls  to  rural  labor,  in  the  mode  of  selling 
off  the  public  domain,  the  claim  of  further  legal  protection  to  the 
former  kind  of  labor,  at  this  day,  seems  to  wear  an  aspect  of  justice 
no  less  than  of  expediency.  .  .  . 

^  The  last  advantage  which  your  memorialists  propose  to  mention, 
as  resulting  from  the  establishment  of  domestic  manufactures,  is 
their  effect  in  restraining  emigration  from  the  settled  to  the  unset- 
tled parts  of  the  countr)\  It  is  true,  as  a  general  prinpiple,  that 
manufactures  add  to  the  wealth  and  population  of  a  country,  the 
whole  amount  of  the  capital  and  labor  to  which  tlu-y  give  employ- 
ment ;  but,  in  the  particular  case  of  the  United  States,  where  large 
tracts  of  good  unoccupied  land  are  continually  for  sale  at  low  prices, 
it  is  probable,  as  your  memorialists  have  already  remarked,  that 
some  of  the  persons  who,  under  the  influence  of  the  protecting 
policy,  invest  their  capital  and  labor  in  manufactures,  would,  if  this 
field  of  employment  had  not  been  opened  to  them  at  home,  have 
emigrated  to  some  of  the  unsettled  parts  of  the  countr\-,  and  been 

^  Memorial  of  the  New  York  Convention  of  the  Friends  of  Domestic  Industry 
to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  presented  March  26,  1832. 


562  VIEWS  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF 

occupied  in  clearing  land.  But  when  an  individual  can  obtain  a 
profitable  market  for  his  labor  at  his  own  door,  in  the  midst  of  his 
friends  and  kindred,  and  of  objects  that  are  connected  with  the 
agreeable  associations  of  his  early  years,  he  will  hardly  be  tempted 
to  go  in  search  of  it  to  a  distant  unexplored  wilderness.  The  in- 
crease of  population  which  thus  takes  place  in  the  manufacturing 
states,  by  creating  an  increased  demand  for  provisions  and  materi- 
als, renders  it  in  turn  more  advantageous  for  the  agricultural  states 
to  extend  their  industry  at  home,  than  to  send  off  continually  new 
colonies.  In  this  way,  the  tide  of  emigration,  without  being  wholly 
dammed  up,  is  considerably  checked  throughout  all  the  settled  parts 
of  the  union,  and  the  population  of  all  begins  to  put  on  a  more 
consolidated  shape.  This  result,  although  it  amounts  in  fact,  as  has 
been  intimated,  to  a  change  in  the  direction  of  a  part  of  the  agri- 
cultural labor  of  the  country,  and  a  transfer  of  some  of  it  to  manu- 
factures, not  only  furnishes  no  objection  to  the  encouragement  of 
this  branch  of  industry,  but  is  itself  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of 
such  a  policy.  These  remarks  are  not  made  under  impressions  in 
any  way  unfavorable  to  the  character  and  interests  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  union.  Your  memorialists,  in  common  with  all 
their  fellow-citizens,  feel  a  just  pride  in  the  flourishing  condition  of 
the  new  states.  They  consider  the  rapid  progress  of  these  states 
in  wealth,  population,  and  general  prosperity,  as  a  spectacle  unpar- 
alleled in  moral  magnificence  by  any  thing  to  be  met  with  in  the 
annals  of  the  world.  Your  memorialists  are  fully  of  opinion,  that 
the  sudden  expansion  of  our  population  over  the  unsettled  terri- 
tories of  the  union,  has  been  thus  far  productive  of  good.  It  has 
thrown  open  a  broad  and  ample  field  for  the  national  industry, 
and  has  brought  into  action  a  new  political  element,  which  serves 
as  a  sort  of  mediator  between  sectional  interests,  which  might  other- 
wise have  proved  to  be  irreconcilably  hostile.  But,  admitting  the 
reality  of  these  great  benefits,  it  is  also  certain  that  if,  in  a  region 
like  the  interior  of  the  United  States,  which  cannot  be  supplied  with 
manufactures  from  abroad,  the  whole  population  devote  themselves 
exclusively  to  agriculture,  and  as  fast  as  they  increase,  continue  to 
spread  themselves  more  and  more  widely  over  the  unlimited  regions 
that  are  accessible  to  them,  they  must  live,  in  a  considerable  degree, 


SOMI':   INDIVIDUAI.   VIKWS  563 

without  the  knowlcd^i;c  or  enjoyment  of  the  arts  of  life,  and  be  in 
continual  danger  of  sinking  to  a  lower  degree  of  civilization.  The 
singularly  excellent  character  of  the  settlers,  their  industrious  habits, 
and  the  high  tone  of  patriotic  sentiment  which  has  always  pervaded 
the  whole  population  of  the  new  states,  have  hitherto  maintained 
them  at  a  point  of  cixilization  which,  considering  their  circum- 
stances, is  hardly  less  wonderful  than  the  raj^idity  of  their  progress 
in  wealth  and  greatness.  lUit  the  only  way  in  which  the  advances 
they  have  made  can  be  secured,  and  a  solid  foundation  laid  for  the 
fabric  of  social  improvement,  is  by  naturalizing,  on  the  spot,  the 
cultivation  of  the  useful  arts.  As  far  as  the  protecting  policy  may 
have  the  effect  of  diverting,  into  this  channel,  a  portion  of  the  labor 
and  capital  of  the  country,  which  would  otherwise  be  employed  in 
clearing  land  on  the  borders  of  the  union,  it  will  work,  undoubtedly, 
a  material  change  for  the  better.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  add, 
that  no  one  section  of  the  more  anciently  settled  parts  of  the  union 
is  more  particularly  interested  in  this  result  than  the  others.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  emigration  from  the  southern  Atlantic  states 
has  been  of  late  even  more  considerable  than  from  any  other  quar- 
ter. In  this  respect,  there  is  a  complete  identity  of  interest  among 
all  the  different  sections  of  the  union.  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE   CURRENCY 

INTRODUCTION 

The  currency  provisions  of  the  federal  constitution  were  intended  to  "  shut 
and  bar  the  door  "  against  the  evils  of  a  legal-tender  paper  money  issued  by 
state  or  national  governments.  For  more  than  two  generations  it  succeeded  in 
accomplishing  that  end.  But  it  did  not  thereby  free  the  nation  during  that 
time  from  a  serious  and  difficult  currency  problem.  Contemporaneous  with  the 
establishment  of  the  new  government,  banks  were  introduced  into  the  United 
States  and  spread  everywhere  with  astonishing  rapidity.  As  a  result  the  Amer- 
ican people  continued  as  in  former  times  to  use  for  the  most  part  a  paper  cur- 
rency, consisting  of  the  notes  of  these  banks.  They  were  not  legal  tender,  as 
the  old  bills  of  credit  had  been,  and  could  not  be  made  so ;  and  no  one  sup- 
posed that  they  could  give  rise  to  the  evils  of  a  depreciated  paper  currency. 

Nevertheless,  this  was  exactly  what  happened.  When  these  notes  had 
become  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country,  and  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  specie 
had  been  driven  out  of  circulation,  and  indeed  out  of  the  country,  it  was  found 
that  they  would  continue  to  circulate  as  money,  even  when  greatly  depreciated 
in  value,  though  they  were  not  legal  tender.  The  reason  for  this  was  soon 
apparent.  When  there  was  a  general  suspension  of  specie  payment  by  the  banks 
over  the  whole  country,  or  in  any  large  section  of  it,  there  was  no  other  medium  of 
exchange  which  the  people  could  use  to  transact  their  business.  They  had  to  use 
bank  notes  or  suspend  business  operations  altogether.  The  result  was  a  circulation 
of  depreciated  bank  notes  quite  as  great  as  ever  took  place  with  the  legal-tender 
bills  of  credit  of  colonial  and  revolutionary  times.  A  minor  evil  of  the  bank-note 
currency  was  the  fact  that  it  was  not  of  uniform  value  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  even  where  the  notes  were  promptly  redeemed  by  the  banks  that  issued 
them.    At  a  distance  from  the  banks  of  issue  the  notes  circulated  at  a  discount. 

Now  the  currency  problem  of  this  period  was,  how  to  remedy  these  evils : 
how  to  make  the  bank-note  currency  uniform  in  value  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places  in  the  country.  It  was  a  problem  that  both  the  state  and  federal  gov- 
ernments endeavored  to  solve.  But  for  obvious  reasons  it  was  only  the  latter 
that  could  deal  with  it  effectively,  though  the  states  could,  and  many  of  them 
did,  do  much  to  improve  the  situation ;  as  witness  the  Suffolk  System  in  New 
England,  the  Safety-Fund  System  in  New  York,  and  such  state  banks  as  were 
established  by  Indiana  and  Ohio.  It  was  the  federal  government,  however,  that 
had  to  be  chiefly  relied  upon  for  relief. 

564 


BANKING  SYSTEM  AND  'II  IK  XA'ilONAL   1!A\K    565 

Its  currency  policy  during  the  period  naturally  falls  into  two  parts.  In  the 
earlier  years  it  established  and  maintained  a  national  bank  —  a  large  central 
institution  with  branches  in  all  parts  of  the  country  —  which  was  expected,  first, 
to  provide  through  its  notes  a  paper  currency  that  should  be  uniform  in  value 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  second,  to  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon  the 
state  banks  to  prevent  that  overissue  of  notes  which  led  inevitably  to  suspen- 
sion of  specie  payment.  Apart  from  these  functions  the  bank  was  to  serve  as 
an  agent  of  the  government  for  the  collection  and  disbursement  of  its  revenues. 
None  of  these  objects,  except  perhaps  the  first,  were  the  reasons  for  establish- 
ing the  first  national  bank,  liut  once  established  it  did,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
perform  these  functions,  and  it  was  to  secure  their  continued  performance  that 
the  second  bank  was  established  in  1816. 

This  policy  came  to  an  end  in  1836,  and  in  its  place  a  very  different  one 
was  substituted.  The  government  was  to  be  separated  completely  from  the 
banks,  and  was  to  have  absolutely  nothing  of  any  kind  to  do  with  them.  It  was 
not  to  establish  and  maintain  a  national  bank,  and  was  to  have  no  dealings 
with  state  banks.  It  would  not  use  them  as  agents  or  depositories  for  its  funds; 
nor  would  it  receive  their  notes  in  jwyment  of  revenue.  It  proposed  to  collect  all 
of  its  revenue  in  specie,  and  to  hold  and  disburse  it  through  its  own  officials. 
This  was  known  as  the  independent  treasury  and  hard  money  policy.  In  form 
it  seems  to  be  an  abandonment  of  the  whole  currency  problem  of  the  time.  It 
was  not,  however,  in  reality  so  intended,  but  was  rather  to  he  a  partial  solution 
of  it.  The  removal  of  government  deposits  from  the  banks  was  expected  to 
take  away  one  great  influence  leading  to  undue  expansion  of  bank  credit,  which 
in  those  days  always  took  the  form  of  note  issue.  The  exclusive  use  of  specie 
by  the  government  was  also  expected  to  have  some  influence  in  checking  that 
evil,  and  by  keeping  a  considerable  amount  of  specie  in  circulation  at  all  times, 
prevent  those  conditions  which  made  the  circulation  of  depreciated  bank  notes 
necessary  in  times  of  suspension  of  specie  payments. 

In  the  following  extracts  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  present  the  chief 
arguments  for  each  of  these  policies,  and  to  bring  out  some  of  the  conditions 
affecting  banks  in  this  country  which  were  in  part  responsible  for  the  currency 
difiiculties  of  the  time. 

I.    THE    BANKING    SYSTEM   AND   THE    NATIONAL   BANK 

^  The  framers  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  were 
deeply  impressed  with  the  still  fresh  recollection  of  the  baneful 
effects  of  a  paper  money  currency  on  the  property  and  on  the 
moral  feeling  of  the  community.  It  was  according!}-  ^jroxided  b\' 
our  National  Charter  that  no  State  should  coin  monc\-,  emit  bills 

1  Gallatin,  Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Banking  System  of  the  United 
States  [1S31],  Writings,  III,  235-236,  282,  285,  287-291,  319,  327-334.  345- 


566  THE  CURRENCY 

of  credit,  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender,  in  pay- 
ment of  debts,  or  pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  con- 
tracts ;  and  the  power  to  coin  money  and  to  regulate  the  value 
thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin,  was,  by  the  same  instrument,  vested 
exclusively  in  Congress.  As  this  body  has  no  authority  to  make 
anything  whatever  a  tender  in  payment  of  private  debts,  it  neces- 
sarily follows  that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  coin  can  be  made  a 
legal  tender  for  that  purpose,  and  that  Congress  cannot  authorize 
the  payment  in  any  species  of  paper  currency  of  any  other  debts 
but  those  due  to  the  United  States,  or  such  debts  of  the  United 
States  as  may,  by  special  contract,  be  made  payable  in  such 
paper.  .  .  . 

The  provisions  of  the  Constitution  were  universally  considered 
as  affording  a  complete  security  against  the  danger  of  paper  money. 
The  introduction  of  the  banking  system  met  with  a  strenuous  op- 
position on  various  grounds  ;  but  it  was  not  apprehended  that  bank- 
notes, convertible  at  will  into  specie,  and  which  no  person  could  be 
legally  compelled  to  take  in  payment,  would  degenerate  into  pure 
paper  money,  no  longer  paid  at  sight  in  specie.  At  a  later  date, 
although  occasional  bankruptcies  had  taken  place,  and  might  again 
be  anticipated,  there  was  no  apprehension  of  a  general  failure  of 
the  banks  in  three-fourths  of  the  States.  Still  less  was  it  expected  ; 
and  it  was  the  catastrophe  of  the  year  1814  which  first  disclosed 
not  only  the  insecurity  of  the  American  banking  system,  as  then 
existing,  but  also  that  when  a  paper  currency,  driving  away  and 
superseding  the  use  of  gold  and  silver,  has  insinuated  itself  through 
every  channel  of  circulation  and  become  the  only  medium  of  ex- 
change, every  individual  finds  himself,  in  fact,  compelled  to  receive 
such  currency,  even  when  depreciated  more  than  twenty  per  cent., 
in  the  same  manner  as  if  it  had  been  made  a  legal  tender.  The  es- 
tablishment of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  recommended 
by  the  Treasury,  and  that  institution  was  incorporated  by  Congress, 
for  the  express  and  avowed  purpose  of  removing  an  evil  which  the 
difference  in  the  rate  of  depreciation  between  the  paper  currencies 
of  the  several  States,  and  even  those  of  different  places  in  the  same 
State,  had  rendered  altogether  intolerable.  The  object  in  view  has 
been  obtained.   The  resumption  of  specie  payments,  which  the  State 


BANKIXC;   SVS'l'RM  AND  THE  NATIONAL   liAXK    567 

banks  had  been  unwilling  or  unable  to  effect,  took  jilace  immedi- 
ately after  that  of  the  United  Stiites  had  commenced  its  operations. 
And  it  has  for  a  number  of  years  supplied  the  country  with  a  cur- 
rency safer  and,  it  must  at  least  be  allowed,  more  uniform  than  that 
which  the  State  banks  could  furnish.   .  .   . 

The  capital  of  the  State  banks  existing  in  the  year  1 790  amounted 
to  about  2,000,000  of  dollars.  The  former  l^ank  of  the  United 
States  was  chartered,  in  1791,  with  a  capital  of  10,000,000.  The 
charter  was  not  renewed  ;  but  in  January,  i<Si  i,  immediately  before 
its  expiration,  there  were  in  the  United  States  eighty-eight  State 
banks,  with  a  capital  of  42,610,000  dollars,  making  then,  together 
with  that  of  the  national  bank,  a  banking  capital  of  near  53,000,000. 
In  June,  181 2,  war  was  declared  against  luigland  ;  and  in  August 
and  September,  1814,  all  the  banks  south  and  west  of  New  Eng- 
land suspended  their  specie  payments.   .   .   . 

The  creation  of  new  Stiite  banks  in  order  to  fill  the  chasm  was 
a  natural  consequence  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  And,  as  is  usual  under  such  circumstances,  the  expectation 
of  great  profits  gave  birth  to  a  much  greater  number  than  was 
wanted.  They  were  extended  through  the  interior  parts  of  the 
country,  created  no  new  capital,  and  withdrew  that  which  might 
have  been  otherwise  lent  to  government,  or  as  profitably  employed. 
From  the  ist  of  January,  181 1  to  the  ist  of  Januar)',  181 5,  not 
less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  new  banks  were  chartered  and 
went  into  operation,  with  a  capital  of  about  forty,  and  making  an 
addition  of  near  thirty  millions  of  dollars  to  the  banking  capital  of 
the  countr)^  That  increase  took  place  on  the  eve  of  and  during 
a  war  which  did  nearly  annihilate  the  exports  and  both  the  foreign 
and  coasting  trade.  And,  as  the  salutary  regulating  power  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  no  longer  existed,  the  issues  were  ac- 
cordingly increased  much  beyond  what  the  other  circumstimces 
already  mentioned  rendered  necessary.   .   .   . 

We  have  stilted  all  the  immediate  and  remote  causes  within  our 
knowledge  which  concurred  in  producing  that  event  [the  suspen- 
sion of  specie  payments  by  the  banks  in  1814] ;  and  although  the 
effects  of  a  longer  continuance  of  the  war  cannot  be  conjectured, 
it  is  our  deliberate  opinion  that  the  suspension  might  have  been 


568  THE  CURRENCY 

prevented  at  the  time  when  it  took  place  had  the  former  Bank  of 
the  United  States  been  still  in  existence.  The  exaggerated  increase 
of  State  banks,  occasioned  by  the  dissolution  of  that  institution, 
would  not  have  occurred.  That  bank  would,  as  before,  have  re- 
strained within  proper  bounds  and  checked  their  issues ;  and, 
through  the  means  of  its  offices,  it  would  have  been  in  possession 
of  the  earliest  symptoms  of  the  approaching  danger.  It  would  have 
put  the  Treasury  Department  on  its  guard  ;  both  acting  in  concert 
would  certainly  have  been  able  at  least  to  retard  the  event,  and, 
as  the  treaty  of  peace  was  ratified  within  less  than  six  months 
after  the  suspension  took  place,  that  catastrophe  would  have  been 
altogether  avoided.   .   .   . 

It  will  not  be  asserted  that  any  reasonable  expectation  could 
have  been  entertained  of  a  voluntary  return  on  the  part  of  the 
State  banks  to  a  sound  currency,  unless  the  depreciation  had  be- 
come so  great  as  to  induce  the  community  at  large  to  reject  their 
notes.  Whether  this  arose  from  inability  or  unwillingness,  a  remedy 
was  equally  necessary.  Congress  does  not  appear  to  have  inquired 
whether  they  had  the  right  to  fexercise  any  immediate  control  over 
the  issues  of  those  banks  ;  and  the  question  seems  to  have  lain  be- 
tween the  establishment  of  a  national  bank  and  an  attempt  to  force 
the  State  banks  to  pay  in  specie,  by  the  refusal  of  their  notes  in 
payment  of  debts  and  duties  due  to  the  United  States  so  long  as 
those  notes  were  not  on  demand  discharged  in  specie.  It  is  clear 
that  such  an  attempt  must  have  failed  altogether  during  the  year 
that  followed  the  peace,  and  so  long  as  the  expenses  of  government 
greatly  exceeded  its  receipts.  The  bank  was  chartered  in  April, 
1816,  and  it  must  forever  remain  conjectural  whether,  if  that 
measure  had  not  been  adopted,  and  after  the  floating  debt  and  all 
the  arrearages  of  the  war  had  been  paid  or  funded,  and  the  receipts 
of  the  Treasury  had  become  greater  than  its  disbursements,  an  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  the  government  to  collect  the  revenue  and  to 
discharge  the  public  expenses  in  specie  would  have  compelled  the 
State  banks  to  resume  generally  specie  payments.  It  cannot,  at  all 
events,  be  doubted  that  the  result  was  quite  uncertain,  and  that  the 
attempt  might  have  failed  at  the  very  outset  from  the  want  of  any 
other  currency  than  bank-notes.    It  is  indeed  quite  probable  that  in 


/ 


BANKING  SYSTEM  AND  Till';  NATIONAL   I'.AXK    569 

that  case  the  impossibilit)-  to  collect  the  revenue  nii^ht  ha\e  induced 
government  merely  to  substitute  an  issue  of  its  own  pape^r  to  that 
of  the  banks. 

It  will  be  found  by  rt'ference  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  of  December,  1 8 1  5,  that  his  recommendation  t(j  estab- 
lish a  national  bank  was  in  express  terms  called  "  a  proposition 
relating  to  the  national  circulating  medium,"  and  was  exclusively 
founded  on  the  necessity  of  restoring  specie  payments  and  the 
national  currency.  He  states  it  as  a  fact,  incontestably  proved,  that 
the  State  banks  could  not  at  that  time  be  successfully  employed  to 
furnish  an  uniform  national  currency.  He  mentions  the  failure  of 
one  attempt  to  associate  them  with  that  view  ;  that  another  attempt, 
by  their  agency  in  circulating  Treasury  notes,  to  overcome  the  in- 
equalities of  the  exchange  has  only  been  partially  successful  ;  that 
a  plan  recently  proposed,  with  the  design  to  curtail  the  issues  of 
bank-notes,  to  fix  the  public  confidence  in  the  administration  of  the 
affairs  of  the  banks,  and  to  give  to  each  bank  a  legitimate  share 
in  the  circulation,  is  not  likely  to  receive  the  general  sanction  of 
the  banks  ;  and  that  a  recurrence  to  the  national  authority  is  indis- 
pensable for  the  restoration  of  a  national  currency.  Such  was  the 
contemporaneous  and  deliberate  opinion  of  the  officer  of  the  gov- 
ernment who  had  to  struggle  against  the  difficulties  of  a  paper  cur- 
rency not  only  depreciated,  but  \ar\ing  in  value  from  day  to  day 
and  from  place  to  place. 

It  was  not  till  after  the  organization  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  in  the  latter  part  of  January,  18 17,  that  delegates  from  the 
banks  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Virginia  assem- 
bled in  Philadelphia  for  the  purpose  of  agreeing  to  a  general  and 
simultaneous  resumption  of  specie  payments.  A  compact  proposed 
by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  acceded  to  by  the  State  banks, 
and  ratified  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  the  result  of  that 
convention.  The  State  banks  engaged  to  commence  and  continue 
specie  payments  on  various  conditions  relative  to  the  transfer  and 
payment  of  the  public  balances  on  their  books  to  the  I^ank  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  the  sum  which  it  engaged  previously  to  dis- 
count for  individuals,  or  under  certain  contingencies  for  the  said 
banks,  and  also  with  the  express  stipulation  that  the  Bank  of  the 


570  THE  CURRENCY 

United  States,  upon  any  emergency  which  might  menace  the  credit 
of  any  of  the  said  banks,  would  contribute  its  resources  to  any  rea- 
sonable extent  in  support  thereof,  confiding  in  the  justice  and  dis- 
cretion of  the  banks  respectively  to  circumscribe  their  affairs  within 
the  just  limits  indicated  by  their  respective  capitals,  as  soon  as  the 
interest  and  convenience  of  the  community  would  admit.  To  that 
compact,  which  was  carried  into  complete  effect,  and  to  the  impor- 
tation of  more  than  seven  millions  of  dollars  in  specie  from  abroad 
by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  the  community  is  indebted  for 
the  universal  restoration  of  specie  payments,  and  for  their  having 
been  sustained  during  the  period  of  great  difficulty  and  of  unex- 
ampled exportation  of  specie  to  China  which  immediately  ensued. 
Among  the  difficulties  which  the  bank  had  to  encounter  must 
be  reckoned  the  effort  made  to  alleviate  the  distress  which  always 
attends  the  return  from  a  depreciated  to  a  sound  currency.  The 
Western  States  having  less  capital  are  in  the  course  of  trade  gen- 
erally indebted  to  the  Atlantic  seaports.  Whether  owing  to  larger 
purchases  of  public  land  than  usual,  to  an  excited  spirit  of  enter- 
prise, or  to  any  other  cause,  it  appears  that  at  that  time  the  amount 
of  debts  due  by  the  West,  either  to  the  East  or  to  government,  was 
unusually  large.  The  several  Western  offices  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  discounted  largely,  probably  to  too  great  an  extent. 
The  Eastern  creditors  were  generally  paid,  the  Western  State  banks 
relieved,  and  the  debt  transferred  to  the  bank.  Thus  we  find  that 
the  issues  of  the  Bank  of  Kentucky,  which  in  i8i6  exceeded  one 
million  nine  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  were  in  1819  re- 
duced to  six  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  dollars.  This  could  not 
be  done  without  large  issues  of  branch  notes  or  of  drafts  on  the 
parent  bank  and  the  Northern  offices,  which  drained  these  of  their 
capital.  Although  great  curtailments  had  taken  place,  near  six  mil- 
lions and  a  half  of  dollars  of  the  capital  of  the  bank  were,  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  18 19,  distributed  amongst  the  interior  Western 
offices,  whilst  the  whole  amount  allotted  to  the  ofiices  north  and 
east  of  Philadelphia  was  less  than  one  million.  The  proper  equilib- 
rium could  not  be  reinstated  without  a  revulsion  and  an  uncommon 
pressure  on  the  West,  in  order  to  lessen  the  amount  of  its  debt. 
The  attempts  to  counteract  that  effect  by  the  creation  of  a  great 


BANKING  SYSTEM   AND  TlIK  NAI'IONAI,   liANK    571 

numlK-r  of  local  banks  could  not  but  fail,  and  nnisL  have  aggravated 
instead  of  relieving  the  evil.  The  unpopularity  which  attached  to 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  when  it  found  itself  compelled  to 
enforce  the  payment  of  such  a  large  debt,  and  the  attemjDt  to  alle- 
viate the  distress  by  relief  laws,  which,  though  injudicious,  ought 
not  in  that  state  of  things  to  be  too  severely  judged,  are  well 
known,  and  were  the  natural  consecjuences  of  the  course  which 
had  been  originally  pursued.   .   .   . 

The  constitutional  powers  of  Congress  on  the  subject  are  the 
next  and  principal  object  of  incjuiry.   ... 

Whenever  it  becomes  the  duty  of  Congress  to  carry  into  effect 
any  of  the  powers  expressly  defined  by  the  Constitution,  it  will 
generally  be  found  that  there  are  several  means  to  effect  the  object. 
In  that  case,  and  whenever  there  is  an  option,  each  of  the  means 
proposed  ought  not  to  be  successively  objected  to  as  not  being 
strictly  necessary  because  other  means  might  be  resorted  to,  since 
this  mode  of  arguing  would  defeat  the  object  intended,  and  pre\-ent 
the  passage  of  any  law  for  carrying  into  effect  the  power  which  it 
was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  execute.  If  every  provision  of  a  rev- 
enue law  was  successively  opposed  on  that  ground,  no  efficient 
revenue  law  could  be  passed.  In  the  present  case  it  is  proposed  to 
resort  either  to  a  stamp  duty  or  to  a  bank  of  the  United  States  in 
order  to  regulate  the  currency.  Unless  some  other  equally  effi- 
cient mode  can  be  suggested,  this  important  object  will  be  defeated, 
if  both  means  are  successively  rejected  as  not  strictly  necessaiy. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  means  proposed  for  carrying  into  effect 
any  special  or  expressed  power  vested  in  Congress  should  be  highly 
useful  and  important,  having  clearly  and  bona  fide  that  object  in 
view  which  is  the  avowed  purpose,  and  not  be  intended,  under 
color  of  executing  a  certain  special  power,  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  another  object. 

It  was  on  this  ground  that  the  former  Bank  of  the  United  States 
was  at  first  opposed.  That  bank  had  not  been  proposed  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  regulating  the  currency,  but  as  incident  to  the  pow- 
ers of  regulating  commerce,  of  collecting  the  revenue,  of  the 
safe-keeping  of  public  moneys,  and,  generally,  of  carrying  on  the 
operations  of  the  Treasury.    There  had  been  at  that  time  but  three 


572 


THE  CURRENCY 


banks  established  in  the  United  States  ;  their  operations  were  con- 
fined within  a  very  narrow  sphere  ;  there  had  been  no  experience 
in  the  United  States  of  the  utihty  of  a  bank  in  assisting  the  opera- 
tions of  government,  but  that  wliich,  during  a  sliort  time,  had  been 
afforded  by  the  Bank  of  North  America,  incorporated,  in  the  first 
instance,  by  Congress,  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  The 
Bank  of  the  United  States  was  considered  by  its  opponents  as  not 
being  intended  for  the  purpose  alleged,  but  as  having  for  its  object 
the  consolidation  of  a  moneyed  aristocracy,  and  to  further  the  views 
at  that  time  ascribed  to  a  certain  party  and  to  its  presumed  leader. 
And  the  fears  then  excited  respecting  that  object,  and  the  supposed 
influence  of  the  bank  in  promoting  it,  though  long  since  dissipated, 
have  left  recollections  and  impressions  which  may  still  have  some 
effect  on  public  opinion  in  relation  to  the  constitutional  question. 

Experience,  however,  has  since  confirmed  the  great  utility  and 
importance  of  a  bank  of  the  United  States  in  its  connection  with 
the  Treasury.  The  first  great  advantage  derived  from  it  consists 
in  the  safe-keeping  of  the  public  moneys,  securing,  in  the  first 
instance,  the  immediate  payment  of  those  received  by  the  principal 
collectors  and  affording  a  constant  check  on  all  their  transactions, 
and  afterwards  rendering  a  defalcation  in  the  moneys  once  paid, 
and  whilst  nominally  in  the  Treasury,  absolutely  impossible.  The 
next  and  not  less  important  benefit  is  to  be  found  in  the  perfect 
facility  with  which  all  the  public  payments  are  made  by  checks  or 
Treasury  drafts,  payable  at  any  place  where  the  bank  has  an  office  ; 
all  those  who  have  demands  against  government  are  paid  in  the 
place  most  convenient  to  them,  and  the  public  moneys  are  trans- 
ferred through  our  extensive  territory,  at  a  moment's  warning,  with- 
out any  risk  or  expense,  to  the  places  most  remote  from  those  of 
collection,  and  wherever  public  exigencies  may  require.  From  the 
year  1791  to  this  day  the  operations  of  the  Treasury  have,  without 
interruption,  been  carried  on  through  the  medium  of  banks  ;  during 
the  years  181 1  to  18 16,  through  the  State  banks  ;  before  and  since, 
through  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Every  individual  who  has 
been  at  the  head  of  that  department,  and,  as  we  believe,  every 
of^cer  connected  with  it,  has  been  made  sensible  of  the  great  diffi- 
culties that  must  be  encountered  without  the  assistance  of  those 


BANKING  SYSTEM  AND  THE  NATIONAL  BANK   573 

institutions,  and  of  the  comparative  ease  and  great  additional  secur- 
ity to  the  i)ubhc  with  which  their  pubhc  duties  are  jDcrformed 
through  the  means  of  the  banks.  To  insist  that  tlie  ()|)erations  of 
the  Treasury  may  be  carried  on  with  ecjual  facility  and  safety 
through  the  aid  of  the  State  banks  without  the  interposition  of  a 
bank  of  the  United  States,  would  be  contrary  to  fact  and  experience. 
That  great  assistance  was  recei\ed  from  the  State  banks,  while 
there  was  no  other,  has  alwa}'s  been  freely  and  cheerfully  acknowl- 
edged. But  it  is  impossible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  the  neces- 
sary concert  could  be  made  to  exist  between  thirty  different  institu- 
tions ;  and  in  some  instances  hea\-}-  pecuniary  losses,  well  known 
at  the  seat  of  government,  have  been  experienced.  To  admit,  how- 
ever, that  State  banks  are  necessary  for  tliat  purpose,  is  to  give  up 
the  question.  To  admit  that  banks  are  indispensable  for  carr)'ing 
into  effect  the  legitimate  operations  of  government,  is  to  admit 
that  Congress  has  the  power  to  establish  a  bank.  The  general  gov- 
ernment is  not  made  by  the  Constitution  to  depend  for  carrying 
into  effect  powers  vested  in  it  on  the  uncertain  aid  of  institutions 
created  by  other  authorities  and  which  are  not  at  all  under  its  con- 
trol. It  is  expressly  authorized  to  carry  those  powers  into  effect  by 
its  own  means,  by  passing  the  laws  necessary  and  proper  for  that 
purpose,  and  in  this  instance  by  establishing  its  own  bank,  instead 
of  being  obliged  to  resort  to  those  which  derive  their  existence 
from  another  source  and  are  under  the  exclusive  control  of  the  dif- 
ferent States  by  which  they  have  been  established. 

It  must  at  the  same  time  be  acknowledged  that,  inasmuch  as 
the  revenue  may  be  collected  and  the  public  moneys  may  be  kept 
in  public  chests  and  transferred  to  distant  places  without  the  assist- 
ance of  banks,  and  as  all  this  was  once  done  in  the  United  States, 
and  continues  to  be  done  in  several  countries,  without  any  public 
bank,  it  cannot  be  asserted  that  those  institutions  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  those  purposes,  if  we  take  the  word  "  necessary  "  in 
that  strict  sense  which  has  been  alluded  to.  All  this  may  be  done, 
though  with  a  greater  risk  and  in  a  more  inconvenient  and  expen- 
sive manner.  Public  chests  might  be  established,  and  public  re- 
ceivers, or  sub-treasurers,  might  be  appointed,  in  the  same  places 
where  there  are  now  officers  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 


574  THE  CURRENCY 

specie  might  be  transported  from  place  to  place,  as  the  public  service 
required  it,  or  inland  bills  of  exchange  purchased  from  individuals. 
The  superior  security  and  convenience  afforded  by  the  bank  in  the 
fiscal  operations  of  government  may  not  be  considered  as  sufficient 
to  make  its  establishment  constitutional,  in  the  opinion  of  those 
who  construe  the  word  "necessary"  in  that  strict  sense. 

l-^ut  it  is  far  from  being  on  that  ground  alone  that  the  question 
of  constitutionality  is  now  placed.  It  was  not  at  all  anticipated,  at  the 
time  when  the  former  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  first  proposed, 
and  when  constitutional  objections  were  raised  against  it,  that  bank- 
notes issued  by  multiplied  State  banks,  gradually  superseding  the 
use  of  gold  and  silver,  would  become  the  general  currency  of  the 
country.  The  effect  of  the  few  banks  then  existing  had  not  been 
felt  beyond  the  three  cities  where  they  had  been  established.  The 
States  were  forbidden  by  the  Constitution  to  issue  bills  of  credit ; 
bank-notes  are  bills  of  credit  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  and  the 
State  could  not  do  through  others  what  it  was  not  authorized  to  do 
itself ;  but  the  bank-notes,  not  being  issued  on  the  credit  of  the 
States,  nor  guaranteed  by  them,  were  not  considered  as  being, 
under  the  Constitution,  bills  of  credit  emitted  by  the  States.  Sub- 
sequent events  have  shown  that  the  notes  of  State  banks,  pervading 
the  whole  country,  might  produce  the  very  effect  which  the  Consti- 
tution had  intended  to  prevent  by  prohibiting  the  emissions  of  bills 
of  credit  by  any  State.  The  injustice  to  individuals,  the  embarrass- 
ments of  government,  the  depreciation  of  the  currency,  its  want  of 
uniformity,  the  moral  necessity  imposed  on  the  community  either 
to  receive  that  unsound  currency  or  to  suspend  every  payment,  pur- 
chase, sale,  or  other  transaction  incident  to  the  wants  of  society, 
all  the  evils  which  followed  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  have 
been  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than  those  which  might  have  been  in- 
flicted by  a  paper  currency  issued  under  the  authority  of  any  State. 
We  have  already  adverted  to  the  several  provisions  of  the  Consti- 
tution which  gave  to  Congress  the  right  and  imposed  on  it  the 
duty  to  provide  a  remedy ;  but  there  is  one  which  deserves  special 
consideration. 

Whatever  consequences  may  have  attended  the  suspension  of 
specie  payments  in  Great  Britain,  there  still  remained  one  currency 


BANKING  SYSTEM  AND  1"IIK  NATIONAL   I!ANK    575 

wliicli  ivi^ulated  all  the  others.  All  the  country  bankers  were  com- 
pelled to  pa\'  their  own  notes,  if  not  in  specie  at  least  in  notes  of 
the  Hank  of  England.  'I'hese  notes  were,  as  a  standard  of  value, 
substituted  for  gold  ;  and  if  the  currency  of  the  country  was  depre- 
ciated and  fluctuating  in  value  from  time  to  time,  it  was  at  the  same 
time  uniform  throughout  the  country.  There  was  but  one  currency 
for  the  whole,  and  e\'ery  variation  in  its  value  was  uniform  as  to 
places,  and  at  the  same  moment  operated  in  the  same  manner 
everywhere.  But  the  currency  of  the  United  States,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  of  the  several  States,  varied,  during  the  suspension 
of  specie  payments,  not  only  from  time  to  time,  but  at  the  same 
time  from  State  to  State,  and  in  the  same  State  from  place  to  place. 
In  New  England,  where  those  payments  were  not  discontinued, 
the  currency  was  equal  in  value  to  specie ;  it  was  at  the  same  time 
at  a  discount  of  seven  per  cent,  in  New  York  and  Charleston,  of 
fifteen  in  Philadelphia,  of  twenty  and  twenty-five  in  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  with  every  other  possible  variation  in  other  places 
and  States. 

The  currency  of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  jxiblic  and 
private  debts  were  paid  and  the  public  revenue  collected,  not  only 
was  generally  depreciated,  but  was  also  defective  in  respect  to  uni- 
formity. Independent  of  all  the  other  clauses  in  the  Constitution 
which  relate  to  that  subject,  it  is  specially  provided,  1st,  that  all 
duties,  imposts,  and  excises  shall  be  uniform  throughout  the  United 
States ;  2d,  that  representative  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  appor- 
tioned among  the  several  States  according  to  their  respective  num- 
bers, to  be  determined  by  the  rule  therein  specified  ;  and  that  no 
capitation  or  other  direct  tax  shall  be  laid,  unless  in  proportion  to 
the  enumeration.  Both  these  provisions  were  violated  whilst  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments  continued.  It  is  clear  that  after  the 
quota  of  the  direct  tax  of  each  State  had  been  determined  accord- 
ing to  the  rule  prescribed  by  the  Constitution,  it  w'as  substantially 
changed  by  being  collected  in  currencies  differing  in  value  in  the 
several  States.  It  is  not  less  clear  that  the  clause  which  prescribes 
a  uniformity  of  duties,  imposts,  and  excises  was  equally  violated  by 
collecting  every  description  of  indirect  duties  and  taxes  in  curren- 
cies of  different  value.     The  only  remedy  existing  at  that  time  was 


576  THE  CURRENCY 

the  permission  to  pay  direct  and  indirect  taxes  in  Treasury  notes. 
But  those  notes  did  not  pervade  every  part  of  the  country  in  the 
same  manner  as  bank-notes  ;  they  were  of  too  high  denomination 
to  be  used  in  the  payment  of  almost  any  internal  tax  ;  they  were 
liable  also  to  vary  in  value  in  the  different  States  ;  and  they  could 
operate  as  a  remedy  only  as  long  as  their  depreciation  was  greater 
than  that  of  the  most  depreciated  notes  in  circulation. 

We  will  now  ask  whether,  independent  of  every  other  considera- 
tion, Congress  was  not  authorized  and  bound  to  pass  the  laws 
necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  effect  with  good  faith  those 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  ?  and  whether  that  could  or  can  be 
done  in  any  other  manner  than  either  by  reverting  to  a  purely 
metallic,  or  by  substituting  a  uniform  paper  currency  to  that  which 
had  proved  so  essentially  defective  in  that  respect,  and  which,  from 
its  not  being  subject  to  one  and  the  same  control,  is,  and  forever 
will  be,  liable  to  that  defect  ?  The  uniformity  of  duties  and  taxes 
of  every  description,  whether  internal  or  external,  direct  or  indirect, 
is  an  essential  and  fundamental  principle  of  the  Constitution.  It  is 
self-evident  that  that  uniformity  cannot  be  carried  into  effect  with- 
out a  corresponding  uniformity  of  currency.  Without  laws  to  this 
effect,  it  is  absolutely  impossible  that  the  taxes  and  duties  should 
be  uniform,  as  the  Constitution  prescribes ;  such  laws  are  therefore 
necessary  and  proper,  in  the  most  strict  sense  of  the  words.  There 
are  but  two  means  of  effecting  the  object,  a  metallic  or  a  uniform 
paper  currency.  Congress  has  the  option  of  either ;  and  either  of 
the  two  which  may  appear  the  most  eligible  will  be  strictly  consti- 
tutional, because  strictly  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into 
effect  the  object.  If  a  currency  exclusively  metallic  is  preferred, 
the  object  will  be  attained  by  laying  prohibitory  stamp  duties  on 
bank-notes  of  every  description  and  without  exception.  If  it  is 
deemed  more  eligible  under  existing  circumstances,  instead  of  sub- 
verting the  whole  banking  system  of  the  United  States,  and  depriv- 
ing the  community  of  the  accommodations  which  bank  loans  afford, 
to  resort  to  less  harsh  means  ;  recourse  must  be  had  to  such  as  will 
insure  a  currency  sound  and  uniform  itself,  and  at  the  same  time 
check  and  regulate  that  which  will  continue  to  constitute  the  greater 
part  of  the  currency  of  the  country. 


BANKINC;  SYSTEM  AND    I'lll':  XAIloNAL    HAXK    577 

]>()tb  tliosc  advantages  were  anticipated  in  the  establishment  of 
the  l^ank  of  the  United  States,  and  it  appears  to  us  that  the  bank 
fulfils  both  those  conditions.  As  respects  the  past,  it  is  a  matter  of 
fact  that  specie  payments  were  restored  and  have  been  maintiiined 
through  the  instrumentality  of  that  institution.  It  gives  a  complete 
guarantee  that  under  any  circumstances  its  notes  will  preserve  the 
same  uniformity  which  they  now  possess.  Placed  under  the  control 
of  the  general  government,  relying  for  its  existence  on  the  correct- 
ness, prudence,  and  skill  with  which  it  shall  be  administered,  per- 
petually watched  and  occasionally  checked  by  both  the  Treasury 
Department  and  rival  institutions,  and  without  a  monopoly,  yet  with 
a  capital  and  resources  adequate  to  the  object  for  which  it  was 
estabhshed,  the  bank  also  affords  the  strongest  security  which  can 
be  given  with  respect  to  paper  not  only  for  its  ultimate  solvency, 
but  also  for  the  uninterrupted  soundness  of  its  currency.  The 
statements  we  have  given  of  its  progressive  and  present  situation 
show  how  far  those  expectations  have  heretofore  been  realized. 

Those  statements  also  show  that  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
wherever  its  operations  have  been  extended,  has  effectually  checked 
excessive  issues  on  the  part  of  the  Sfcite  banks,  if  not  in  e\'ery 
instance,  certainly  in  the  aggregate.  They  had  been  reduced,  before 
the  year  1820,  from  sixty-six  to  less  than  forty  millions.  At  that 
time  those  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  .States  fell  short  of  four  mil- 
lions. The  increased  amount  required  by  the  increase  of  population 
and  wealth  during  the  ten  ensuing  years  has  been  supplied  in  a 
much  greater  proportion  by  that  bank  than  b\-  those  of  the  States. 
With  a  treble  capital,  they  have  added  little  more  than  eight  mil- 
lions to  their  issues.  Those  of  the  l^ank  of  the  United  States 
were  nominall\-  twelve,  in  reality  about  ele\en,  millions  greater  in 
November,  1829,  than  in  November,  1819.  The  whole  amount  of 
the  paper  currency  has  during  those  ten  years  increased  about 
forty-five,  and  that  portion  which  is  issued  by  the  .State  banks  only 
twenty-two  and  a  half  per  cent.  We  have,  indeed,  a  proof,  not 
very  acceptable,  perhaps,  to  the  bank,  but  conclusive  of  the  fact, 
that  it  has  performed  the  office  required  of  it  in  that  respect.  The 
general  complaints  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  Stiite  banks,  that 
they  are  checked  and  controlled  in  their  operations  by  the  Bank  of 


578  THE  CURRENCY 

the  United  States,  that,  to  use  a  common  expression,  it  operates 
as  a  screw,  is  the  best  evidence  that  its  general  operation  is  such 
as  had  been  intended.  It  was  for  that  very  purpose  that  the  bank 
was  estabhshed. .  We  are  not,  however,  aware  that  a  single  solvent 
bank  has  been  injured  by  that  of  the  United  States,  though  many 
have  undoubtedly  been  restrained  in  the  extent  of  their  operations 
much  more  than  was  desirable  to  them.  This  is  certainly  incon- 
venient to  some  of  the  banks,  but  in  its  general  effects  is  a  public 
benefit  to  the  community.  .   .   . 

The  principal  advantages  derived  from  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  which  no  State  bank  and,  as  it  appears  to  us,  no  bank 
established  on  different  principles  could  afford,  are,  therefore,  first 
and  principally,  securing  with  certainty  a  uniform  and,  as  far  as 
paper  can,  a  sound  currency  ;  secondly,  the  complete  security  and 
great  facility  it  affords  to  government  in  its  fiscal  operations  ; 
thirdly,  the  great  convenience  and  benefit  accruing  to  the  commu- 
nity from  its  extensive  transactions  in  domestic  bills  of  exchange 
and  inland  drafts.   .   .   , 

II.  THE  INDEPENDENT  TREASURY  AND  THE  HARD 
MONEY  POLICY 

Van  Bni'cii  s  Special  Session  Message,  Septe^nber /f.,  iSj"/ 

The  present  and  visible  effects  of  these  circumstances  [the  crisis 
of  May,  1837  and  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks]  on 
the  operations  of  the  Government  and  on  the  industry  of  the  people 
point  out  the  objects  which  call  for  your  immediate  attention. 

They  are,  to  regulate  by  law  the  safe-keeping,  transfer,  and 
disbursement  of  the  public  moneys  ;  to  designate  the  funds  to  be 
received  and  paid  by  the  Government ;  to  enable  the  Treasury 
to  meet  promptly  every  demand  upon  it ;  to  prescribe  the  terms 
of  indulgence  and  the  mode  of  settlement  to  be  adopted,  as  well 
in  collecting  from  individuals  the  revenue  that  has  accrued  as  in 
withdrawing  it  from  former  depositories  ;  and  to  devise  and  adopt 
such  further  measures,  within  the  constitutional  competency  of 
Congress,  as  will  be  best  calculated  to  revive  the  enterprise  and 
to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 


INDKPENDENT  TRKASIRV  AND    HARD   MoNFA' 


579 


For  tlu'  deposit,  transfer,  and  disbursement  of  the  reventic 
national  and  Stiitc  banks  ha\e  always,  with  tenii)orary  and  limited 
exceptions,  been  heretofore  employed  ;  but  althoui^di  advocates  of 
each  system  are  slill  to  be  found,  it  is  apparent  lliat  the  events  of 
the  last  few  months  have  greatly  augmented  the  desire,  long  ex- 
isting among  the  people  of  the  I'nited  Stiites,  to  separate  the 
fiscal  operations  of  the  (jovernment  from  those  of  individuals  or 
corporations.   .   .   . 

It  can  not  be  concealed  that  tliere  exists  in  our  conmiunity  opin- 
ions and  feelings  on  this  subject  in  direct  opposition  to  each  other. 
A  large  portion  of  them,  combining  great  intelligence,  activity,  and 
influence,  are  no  doubt  sincere  in  their  belief  that  the  operations 
of  trade  ought  to  be  assisted  b)-  such  a  connection  ;  they  regard  a 
national  bank  as  necessary  for  this  purpose,  and  they  are  disinclined 
to  every  measure  that  does  not  tend  sooner  or  later  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  an  institution.  On  the  other  hand,  a  majority  of 
the  people  are  believed  to  be  irreconcilably  opposed  to  that  meas- 
ure ;  they  consider  such  a  concentratif)n  of  power  dangerous  to  their 
liberties,  and  many  of  them  regard  it  as  a  violation  of  the  Consti- 
tution. This  collision  of  opinion  has  doubtless  caused  much  of  the 
embarrassment  to  which  the  commercial  transactions  of  the  country 
have  lately  been  exposed.  Banking  has  become  a  political  topic  of 
the  highest  interest,  and  trade  has  suffered  in  the  conflict  of  parties. 
A  speedy  termination  of  this  state  of  things,  however  desirable,  is 
scarcely  to  be  expected.  We  have  seen  for  nearly  half  a  century 
that  those  who  advocate  a  national  bank,  by  whatever  motive  they 
have  been  influenced,  constitute  a  portion  of  our  communitv  too 
numerous  to  allow  us  to  hope  for  an  earl)'  abandonment  of  their 
favorite  plan.  On  the  other  hand,  they  must  indeed  form  an  erro- 
neous estimate  of  the  intelligence  and  temper  of  the  American  peo- 
ple who  suppose  that  they  have  continued  on  slight  or  insuflicient 
grounds  their  persevering  opposition  to  such  an  institution,  or  that 
they  can  be  induced  by  pecuniary  pressure  or  b\-  an)-  other  combina- 
tion of  circumstances  to  surrender  principles  they  have  so  long  and 
so  inflexibly  maintained. 

My  own  views  of  the  subject  are  unchanged.  They  have  been 
repeatedly  and  unreservedly  announced  to  my  fellow-citizens,  who 


580  THE  CURRENCY 

with  full  knowledge  of  them  conferred  upon  me  the  two  highest 
offices  of  the  Government.  On  the  last  of  these  occasions  I  felt  it 
due  to  the  people  to  apprise  them  distinctly  that  in  the  event  of 
my  election  I  would  not  be  able  to  cociperate  in  the  reestablishment 
of  a  national  bank.  To  these  sentiments  I  have  now  only  to  add  the 
expression  of  an  increased  conviction  that  the  reestablishment  of 
such  a  bank  in  any  form,  whilst  it  would  not  accomplish  the  bene- 
ficial purpose  promised  by  its  advocates,  would  impair  the  rightful 
supremacy  of  the  popular  will,  injure  the  character  and  diminish 
the  influence  of  our  political  system,  and  bring  once  more  into  ex- 
istence a  concentrated  moneyed  power,  hostile  to  the  spirit  and 
threatening  the  permanency  of  our  republican  institutions. 

Local  banks  have  been  employed  for  the  deposit  and  distribution 
of  the  revenue  at  all  times  partially  and  on  three  dift'erent  occasions 
exclusively  :  First,  anterior  to  the  establishment  of  the  first  Bank 
(jf  the  United  States;  secondly,  in  the  interval  between  the  termina- 
tion of  that  institution  and  the  charter  of  its  successor;  and  thirdly, 
during  the  limited  period  which  has  now  so  abruptly  closed.  The 
connection  thus  repeatedly  attempted  proved  unsatisfactory  on  each 
successive  occasion,  notwithstanding  the  various  measures  which 
were  adopted  to  facilitate  or  insure  its  success.  .  .  . 

Under  these  circumstances  it  becomes  our  solemn  duty  to  in- 
quire whether  there  are  not  in  any  connection  between  the  Gov- 
ernment and  banks  of  issue  evils  of  great  magnitude,  inherent 
in  its  very  nature  and  against  which  no  precautions  can  effectually 
guard.  .  .   . 

A  danger  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  be  avoided  in  such  an  ar- 
rangement is  made  strikingly  evident  in  the  very  event  by  which  it 
has  now  been  defeated.  A  sudden  act  of  the  banks  intmsted  with 
the  funds  of  the  people  deprives  the  Treasury,  without  fault  or 
agency  of  the  Government,  of  the  ability  to  pay  its  creditors  in  the 
currency  they  have  by  law  a  right  to  demand.  This  circumstance 
no  fluctuation  of  commerce  could  have  produced  if  the  public  rev- 
enue had  been  collected  in  the  legal  currency  and  kept  in  that  form 
by  the  officers  of  the  Treasury.  The  citizen  whose  money  was  in 
bank  receives  it  back  since  the  suspension  at  a  sacrifice  in  its 
amount,  whilst  he  who  kept  it  in  the  legal  currency  of  the  country 


INDKPENDENT  TRKASIRN'    WD    llAKh    M()\KV     5X1 

and  in  his  own  possession  pursues  without  loss  the  cunvnt  of  his 
business.  The  (Tovcrnment,  placed  in  the  situation  of  the  former, 
is  involved  in  embarrassments  it  could  not  have  suffered  had  it 
pursued  the  course  of  the  latter.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  To  such  embarrassments  and  to  such  dangers  will  this 
Government  be  always  exposed  whilst  it  takes  the  moneys  raised 
for  and  necessaiy  to  the  public  service  out  of  the  hands  of  its  own 
officers  and  converts  them  into  a  mere  rif;ht  of  action  against 
corporations  intrusted  with  the  possession  of  them.  Nor  can  such 
results  be  effectually  guarded  against  in  such  a  s)'stem  without 
investing  the  Executive  with  a  control  over  the  banks  themselves, 
whether  State  or  national,  that  might  with  reason  be  objected 
to.  Ours  is  probably  the  only  (iovernment  in  llie  world  that  is 
liable  in  the  management  of  its  fiscal  concerns  to  occurrences 
like  these. 

But  this  imminent  risk  is  not  the  only  danger  attendant  on  the 
surrender  of  the  public  money  to  the  custody  and  control  of  local 
corporations.  Though  the  object  is  aid  to  the  Treasury,  its  effect 
may  be  to  introduce  into  the  operations  of  the  Government  in- 
fluences the  most  subtle,  founded  on  interests  the  most  selfish. 

The  use  by  the  banks,  for  their  own  benefit,  of  the  money  de- 
posited with  them  has  received  the  sanction  of  the  Government 
from  the  commencement  of  this  connection.  The  money  received 
from  the  people,  instead  of  being  kept  till  it  is  needed  for  their  use, 
is,  in  consequence  of  this  authority,  a  fund  on  which  discounts  arc 
made  for  the  profit  of  those  who  happen  to  be  owners  of  stock 
in  the  banks  selected  as  depositories.  The  sujjposed  and  often 
exaggerated  advantages  of  such  a  boon  will  always  cause  it  to  be 
sought  for  with  avidity.  I  will  not  stop  to  consider  on  whom  the 
patronage  incident  to  it  is  to  be  conferred.  Whether  the  selection 
and  control  be  trusted  to  Congress  or  to  the  Executive,  either  will 
be  subjected  to  appeals  made  in  e\-ery  form  wliich  the  sagacity  of 
interest  can  suggest.  The  banks  under  such  a  system  are  stimulated 
to  make  the  most  of  their  fortunate  acquisition  ;  the  deposits  are 
treated  as  an  increase  of  capital  ;  loans  and  circulation  are  rashly 
augmented,  and  when  the  public  exigencies  require  a  return  it  is 
attended  with  embarrassments  not  provided  for  nor  foreseen.   Tluis 


582  THE  CURRENCY 

banks  that  thought  themselves  most  fortunate  when  the  pubHc  funds 
were  received  find  themselves  most  embarrassed  when  the  season 
of  payment  suddenly  arrives. 

Unfortunately,  too,  the  evils  of  the  system  are  not  limited  to  the 
banks.  It  stimulates  a  general  rashness  of  enterprise  and  aggra- 
vates the  fluctuations  of  commerce  and  the  currency.  This  result 
was  strikingly  exhibited  during  the  operations  of  the  late  deposit 
system,  and  especially  in  the  purchases  of  public  lands.  The  order 
which  ultimately  directed  the  payment  of  gold  and  silver  in  such 
purchases  greatly  checked,  but  could  not  altogether  prevent,  the 
evil.  Specie  was  indeed  more  difficult  to  be  procured  than  the  notes 
which  the  banks  could  themselves  create  at  pleasure  ;  but  still,  being 
obtained  from  them  as  a  loan  and  returned  as  a  deposit,  which  they 
were  again  at  liberty  to  use,  it  only  passed  round  the  circle  with 
diminished  speed.  This  operation  could  not  have  been  performed 
had  the  funds  of  the  Government  gone  into  the  Treasury  to  be 
regularly  disbursed,  and  not  into  banks  to  be  loaned  out  for  their 
own  profit  while  they  were  permitted  to  substitute  for  it  a  credit 
in  account.  .  .  . 

Since,  therefore,  experience  has  shown  that  to  lend  the  public 
money  to  the  local  banks  is  hazardous  to  the  operations  of  the 
Government,  at  least  of  doubtful  benefit  to  the  institutions  them- 
selves, and  productive  of  disastrous  derangement  in  the  business 
and  currency  of  the  country,  is  it  the  part  of  wisdom  again  to  re- 
new the  connection  ?  .  .  .   . 

The  character  of  the  funds  to  be  received  and  disbursed  in  the 
transactions  of  the  Government  likewise  demand  your  most  care- 
ful consideration.   .   .  . 

Of  my  own  duties  under  the  existing  laws,  when  the  banks  sus- 
pended specie  payments,  I  could  not  doubt.  Directions  were  imme- 
diately given  to  prevent  the  reception  into  the  Treasury  of  anything 
but  gold  and  silver,  or  its  equivalent,  and  every  practicable  arrange- 
ment was  made  to  preserve  the  public  faith  by  similar  or  equivalent 
payments  to  the  public  creditors.  .  .  .  Congress  is  now  to  decide 
whether  the  revenue  shall  continue  to  be  so  collected  or  not. 

The  receipt  into  the  Treasury  of  bank  notes  not  redeemed  in 
specie  on  demand  will  not,  I  presume,  be  sanctioned.    It  would 


INDEPENDENT  TREASURY  AND   HARD   MoNFA'     583 

destroy  without  the  excuse  of  war  or  public  distress  that  equahty  of 
imposts  and  identity  of  commercial  regulation  which  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  our  Confederacy,  and  would  offer  to  each  State  a 
direct  temptation  to  increase  its  foreign  trade  by  depreciating  the 
currency  received  for  duties  in  its  ports.  Such  a  proceeding  would 
also  in  a  great  degree  fmstrate  the  policy  so  highly  cherished  of 
infusing  into  our  circulation  a  larger  proportion  of  ihc  ])rccious 
metals — a  policy  the  wisdom  of  which  none  can  doubt,  though 
there  may  be  different  opinions  as  to  the  extent  to  which  it  should 
be  carried.   ... 

.  .  .  Amidst  all  conflicting  theories,  one  position  is  undeniable 
—  the  precious  metals  will  invariably  disappear  when  there  ceases 
to  be  a  necessity  for  their  use  as  a  circulating  medium.  It  was  in 
strict  accordance  with  this  truth  that  whilst  in  the  month  of  May 
last  they  were  everywhere  seen  and  w'ere  current  for  all  ordinary 
purposes  they  disappeared  from  circulation  the  moment  the  payment 
of  specie  was  refused  by  the  banks  and  the  community  tacitly 
agreed  to  dispense  with  its  employment.  Their  place  was  supplied 
by  a  currency  exclusively  of  paper,  and  in  many  cases  of  the  worst 
description.  Already  are  the  bank  notes  now  in  circulation  greatly 
depreciated,  and  they  fluctuate  in  value  between  one  place  and 
another,  thus  diminishing  and  making  uncertain  the  w'orth  of  prop- 
erty and  the  price  of  labor,  and  failing  to  subserv'e,  except  at  a 
heavy  loss,  the  purposes  of  business.  With  each  succeeding  day 
the  metallic  currency  decreases  ;  by  some  it  is  hoarded  in  the 
natural  fear  that  once  parted  with  it  can  not  be  replaced,  while 
by  others  it  is  diverted  from  its  more  legitimate  uses  for  the  sake 
of  gain.   .   .   . 

It  may  indeed  be  questioned  whether  it  is  not  for  the  interest  of 
the  banks  themselves  that  the  Government  should  not  recei\-e  their 
paper.  They  would  be  conducted  with  more  caution  and  on  sounder 
principles.  By  using  specie  only  in  its  transactions  the  (iovernment 
would  create  a  demand  for  it,  which  would  toagi'cat  extent  prevent 
its  exportation,  and  by  keeping  it  in  circulation  maintain  a  broader 
and  safer  basis  for  the  paper  currency.  That  the  banks  would  thus 
be  rendered  more  sound  and  the  community  more  safe  can  not 
admit  of  a  doubt.   .   .   . 


584  THE  CURRENCY 

Vafi  Bnrcn  s  Annual  Message,  December  2,  iSjg 

I  have  heretofore  assigned  to  Congress  my  reasons  for  beheving 
that  the  estabhshment  of  an  independent  National  Treasury,  as  con- 
templated by  the  Constitution,  is  necessary  to  the  safe  action  of  the 
Federal  Government.  The  suspension  of  specie  payments  in  1837 
by  the  banks  having  the  custody  of  the  public  money  showed  in  so 
alarming  a  degree  our  dependence  on  those  institutions  for  the  per- 
formance of  duties  required  by  law  that  I  then  recommended  the 
entire  dissolution  of  that  connection.  This  recommendation  has 
been  subjected,  as  I  desired  it  should  be,  to  severe  scrutiny  and 
animated  discussion,  and  I  allow  myself  to  believe  that  notwith- 
standing the  natural  diversities  of  opinion  which  may  be  anticipated 
on  all  subjects  involving  such  important  considerations,  it  has 
secured  in  its  favor  as  general  a  concurrence  of  public  sentiment  as 
could  be  expected  on  one  of  such  magnitude.   .   .   . 

New  dangers  to  the  banks  are  also  daily  disclosed  from  the 
extension  of  that  system  of  extravagant  credit  of  which  they  are 
the  pillars.  L^ormerly  our  foreign  commerce  was  principally  founded 
on  an  exchange  of  commodities,  including  the  precious  metals,  and 
leaving  in  its  transactions  but  little  foreign  debt.  Such  is  not  now 
the  case.  Aided  by  the  facilities  afforded  by  the  banks,  mere  credit 
has  become  too  commonly  the  basis  of  trade.  Many  of  the  banks 
themselves,  not  content  with  largely  stimulating  this  system  among 
others,  have  usurped  the  business,  while  they  impair  the  stability, 
of  the  mercantile  community  ;  they  have  become  borrowers  instead 
of  lenders  ;  they  establish  their  agencies  abroad  ;  they  deal  largely 
in  stocks  and  merchandise  ;  they  encourage  the  issue  of  State 
securities  until  the  foreign  market  is  glutted  with  them  ;  and,  un- 
satisfied with  the  legitimate  use  of  their  own  capital  and  the  exercise 
of  their  lawful  privileges,  they  raise  by  large  loans  additional  means 
for  every  variety  of  speculation.  The  disasters  attendant  on  this 
deviation  from  the  former  course  of  business  in  this  country  are 
now  shared  alike  by  banks  and  individuals  to  an  extent  of  which 
there  is  perhaps  no  previous  example  in  the  annals  of  our  country. 
So  long  as  a  willingness  of  the  foreign  lender  and  a  sufficient  ex- 
port of  our  productions  to  meet  any  necessary  partial  payments 


INDKI'ENDENT  TREASURY  AND   IIAKD   MoMA'     5S5 

leave  the  flow  of  credit  undisturbed  all  a|)pcars  to  be  prosperous, 
but  as  soon  as  it  is  checked  by  any  hesitation  abroad  or  by  any 
inabihty  to  make  payment  there  in  our  productions  the  evils  of  the 
system  are  disclosed.  The  paper  currency,  which  might  serve  for 
domestic  purposes,  is  useless  to  pay  the  debt  due  in  Europe.  Gold 
and  silver  are  therefore  drawn  in  exchange  for  their  notes  from 
the  banks.  To  keep  up  their  supply  of  coin  these  institutions  are 
obliged  to  call  upon  their  own  debtors,  who  pay  them  principally  in 
their  own  notes,  which  are  as  unavailable  to  them  as  they  are  to  the 
merchants  to  meet  the  foreign  demand.  The  calls  of  the  banks, 
therefore,  in  such  emergencies  of  necessity  exceed  that  demand, 
and  produce  a  corresponding  curtailment  of  their  accommodations 
and  of  the  currency  at  the  very  moment  when  the  state  of  trade 
renders  it  most  inconvenient  to  be  borne.  The  intensity  of  this 
pressure  on  the  community  is  in  proj^ortion  to  the  previous  liberal- 
ity of  credit  and  consequent  expansion  of  the  currency.  Forced 
sales  of  property  are  made  at  the  time  when  the  means  of  purclias- 
ing  are  most  reduced,  and  the  worst  calamities  to  indixiduals  are 
only  at  last  arrested  by  an  open  violation  of  their  obligations  by  the 
banks  —  a  refusal  to  pay  specie  for  tlieir  notes  and  an  imposition 
upon  the  community  of  a  fluctuating  and  depreciated  currency. 

These  consequences  are  inherent  in  the  present  system.  They 
are  not  influenced  by  the  banks  being  large  or  small,  created  by 
National  or  States  Governments.  They  are  the  results  of  the  irre- 
sistible laws  of  trade  or  credit.  In  the  recent  events,  which  have 
so  strikingly  illustrated  the  certain  effects  of  these  laws,  we  have 
seen  the  bank  of  the  largest  capital  in  the  Union  [the  United  States 
Bank],  established  under  a  national  charter,  and  lately  strengthened, 
as  we  were  authoritatively  informed,  by  exchanging  that  for  a  State 
charter  with  new  and  unusual  privileges  —  in  a  condition,  too,  as 
it  was  said,  of  entire  soundness  and  great  prosperity  • —  not  merely 
unable  to  resist  these  effects,  but  the  first  to  yield  to  them. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  overlooked  that  th.ere  exists  a  chain  of  necessary 
dependence  among  these  institutions  which  obliges  them  to  a  great 
extent  to  folknv  the  course  of  olheis,  notwithstanding  its  injustice 
to  their  own  immediate  creditors  or  injury  to  the  particuku"  com- 
munity in  which  they  are   placed.    This  dependence  of  a  bank, 


586  THE  CURRENCY 

whicli  is  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  its  debts  for  circulation  and 
deposits,  is  not  merely  on  others  in  its  own  vicinity,  but  on  all 
those  which  connect  it  with  the  center  of  trade.  Distant  banks 
may  fail  without  seriously  affecting  those  in  our  principal  commer- 
cial cities,  but  the  failure  of  the  latter  is  felt  at  the  extremities  of 
the  Union.  The  suspension  at  New  York  in  1837  was  everywhere, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  followed  as  soon  as  it  was  known.  That 
recently  at  Philadelphia  immediately  affected  the  banks  of  the  South 
and  West  in  a  similar  manner.  This  dependence  of  our  whole  bank- 
ing system  on  the  institutions  in  a  few  large  cities  is  not  found  in 
the  laws  of  their  organization,  but  in  those  of  trade  and  exchange. 
The  banks  at  that  center,  to  which  currency  flows  and  where  it  is 
required  in  payments  for  merchandise,  hold  the  power  of  controlling 
those  in  regions  whence  it  comes,  while  the  latter  possess  no  means 
of  restraining  them  ;  so  that  the  value  of  individual  property  and 
the  prosperity  of  trade  through  the  whole  interior  of  the  country 
are  made  to  depend  on  the  good  or  bad  management  of  the  bank- 
ing institutions  of  the  great  seats  of  trade  on  the  seaboard. 

But  this  chain  of  dependence  does  not  stop  here.  It  does  not 
terminate  at  Philadelphia  or  New  York.  It  reaches  across  the 
ocean  and  ends  in  London,  the  center  of  the  credit  system.  The 
same  laws  of  trade  which  give  to  the  banks  in  our  principal  cities 
power  over  the  whole  banking  system  of  the  United  States  subject 
the  former,  in  their  turn,  to  the  money  power  in  Great  Britain.  It 
is  not  denied  that  the  suspension  of  the  New  York  banks  in  1837, 
which  was  followed  in  quick  succession  throughout  the  Union,  was 
produced  by  an  application  of  that  power,  and  it  is  now  alleged,  in 
extenuation  of  the  present  condition  of  so  large  a  portion  of  our 
banks,  that  their  embarrassments  have  arisen  from  the  same  cause. 

From  this  influence  they  can  not  now  entirely  escape,  for  it  has 
its  origin  in  the  credit  currencies  of  the  two  countries ;  it  is 
strengthened  by  the  current  of  trade  and  exchange  which  centers 
in  London,  and  is  rendered  almost  irresistible  by  the  large  debts 
contracted  there  by  our  merchants,  our  banks,  and  our  States.  It 
is  thus  that  an  introduction  of  a  new  bank  into  the  most  distant 
of  our  villages  places  the  business  of  that  village  within  the  in- 
fluence of  the  money  power  in  England  ;  it  is  thus  that  every  new 


INDEPENDENT  TREASURY  AND  HARD  MoNIA'  5.S7 

debt  which  wc  contract  in  that  country  seriously  affects  our  own 
currency  and  extends  over  the  pursuits  of  our  citizens  its  powerful 
influence.  We  can  not  escape  from  this  i^y  making  new  banks, 
great  or  small,  State  or  national.  The  same  chains  which  bind 
those  now  existing  to  the  center  of  this  system  of  paper  credit  must 
equally  fetter  every  similar  institution  we  create.  It  is  only  to  the 
extent  to  which  this  system  has  been  pushed  of  late  that  we  have 
been  made  fully  aware  of  its  irresistible  tendency  to  subject  our  own 
banks  and  currency  to  a  vast  controlling  power  in  a  foreign  land, 
and  it  adds  a  new  argiunent  to  those  which  illustrate  their  precari- 
ous situation.  Endangered  in  the  first  place  by  their  own  misman- 
agement and  again  by  the  conduct  of  every  institution  which 
connects  them  with  the  center  of  trade  in  our  own  country,  they 
are  yet  subjected  be\'ond  all  this  to  the  effect  of  whatever  measures 
policy,  necessity,  or  caprice  may  induce  those  who  control  the 
credits  of  England  to  resort  to.  I  mean  not  to  comment  upon 
these  measures,  present  or  past,  and  much  less  to  discourage  the 
prosecution  of  fair  commercial  dealing  between  the  two  countries, 
based  on  reciprocal  benefits ;  but  it  having  now  been  made  mani- 
fest that  the  power  of  inflicting  these  and  similar  injuries  is  by  the 
resistless  law  of  a  credit  currency  and  credit  trade  equally  capable  of 
extending  their  consequences  through  all  the  ramifications  of  our 
banking  system,  and  by  that  means  indirectly  obtaining,  particularly 
when  our  banks  are  used  as  depositories  of  the  public  moneys,  a 
dangerous  political  influence  in  the  United  States,  I  have  deemed 
it  my  duty  to  bring  the  subject  to  )'our  notice  and  ask  for  it  )-our 
serious  consideration. 

Is  an  argument  required  beyond  the  exposition  of  these  facts  to 
show  the  impropriety  of  using  our  banking  institutions  as  deposi- 
tories of  the  public  money }  Can  we  venture  not  only  to  encounter 
the  risk  of  their  individual  and  mutual  mismanagement,  but  at  the 
same  time  to  place  our  foreign  and  domestic  policy  entirely  under 
the  control  of  a  foreign  moneyed  interest  ?  To  do  so  is  to  impair 
the  independence  of  our  Government,  as  the  present  credit  s)stem 
has  already  impaired  the  independence  of  our  banks  ;  it  is  to  sub- 
mit all  its  important  operations,  whether  of  peace  or  war,  to  be  con- 
trolled or  thwarted,  at  first  by  our  own  banks  and  then  by  a  power 


588  THE  CURRENCY 

abroad  greater  than  themselves.  I  can  not  bring  myself  to  depict 
the  humiliation  to  which  this  Government  and  people  might  be 
sooner  or  later  reduced  if  the  means  for  defending  their  rights  are 
to  be  made  dependent  upon  those  who  may  have  the  most  powerful 
of  motives  to  impair  them. 

Nor  is  it  only  in  reference  to  the  effect  of  this  state  of  things  on 
the  independence  of  our  Government  or  of  our  banks  that  the  sub- 
ject presents  itself  for  consideration  ;  it  is  to  be  viewed  also  in  its 
relations  to  the  general  trade  of  our  country.  The  time  is  not  long 
passed  when  a  deficiency  of  foreign  crops  was  thought  to  afford  a 
profitable  market  for  the  surplus  of  our  industry,  but  now  we  await 
with  feverish  anxiety  the  news  of  the  English  harvest,  not  so  much 
from  motives  of  commendable  sympathy,  but  fearful  lest  its  antici- 
pated failure  should  narrow  the  field  of  credit  there.  Does  not  this 
speak  volumes  to  the  patriot  ?  Can  a  system  be  beneficent,  wise,  or 
just  which  creates  greater  anxiety  for  interests  dependent  on  foreign 
credit  than  for  the  general  prosperity  of  our  own  country  and  the 
profitable  exportation  of  the  surplus  produce  of  our  labor .?   .   .   . 

In  a  country  so  commercial  as  ours  banks  in  some  form  will 
probably  always  exist,  but  this  serves  only  to  render  it  the  more  in- 
cumbent on  us,  notwithstanding  the  discouragements  of  the  past, 
to  strive  in  our  respective  stations  to  mitigate  the  evils  they  pro- 
duce ;  to  take  from  them  as  rapidly  as  the  obligations  of  public 
faith  and  a  careful  consideration  of  the  immediate  interests  of  the 
community  will  permit  the  unjust  character  of  monopolies  ;  to 
check,  so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  by  prudent  legislation  those 
temptations  of  interest  and  those  opportunities  for  their  dangerous 
indulgence  which  beset  them  on  every  side,  and  to  confine  them 
strictly  to  the  performance  of  their  paramount  duty  —  that  of  aid- 
ing the  operations  of  commerce  rather  than  consulting  their  own 
exclusive  advantage.  These  and  other  salutary  reforms  may,  it  is 
believed,  be  accomplished  without  the  violation  of  any  of  the  great 
principles  of  the  social  compact,  the  observance  of  which  is  indis- 
pensable to  its  existence,  or  interfering  in  any  way  with  the  useful 
and  profitable  employment  of  real  capital. 

Institutions  so  framed  have  existed  and  still  exist  elsewhere,  giving 
to  commercial  intercourse  all  necessary  facilities  without  inflating 


CONDITIONS  AFFF.rTINCx  AMERICAN  BA\KIX(;     589 

or  depreciating  the  currency  or  stimulating  speculation.  Thus 
accomplishing  their  legitimate  ends,  they  have  gained  the  surest 
guaranty  for  their  protection  and  encouragement  in  the  good  will 
of  the  communit)-.  Among  a  people  so  just  as  ours  the  same  re- 
sults could  not  fail  to  attend  a  similar  course.  The  direct  super- 
vision of  the  banks  belongs,  from  the  nature  of  our  Government, 
to  the  States  wlio  authorize  them.  It  is  to  their  legislatures  that  the 
people  must  mainly  look  for  action  on  that  subject.  But  as  the 
conduct  of  the  P'ederal  Government  in  the  management  of  its  rev- 
enue has  also  a  powerful,  though  less  immediate,  influence  upon 
them,  it  becomes  our  duty  to  sec  that  a  proper  direction  is  given  to 
it.  While  the  keeping  of  the  public  revenue  in  a  separate  and  in- 
dependent treasury  and  of  collecting  it  in  gold  and  silver  will  have 
a  salutary  influence  on  the  system  of  paper  credit  with  which  all 
banks  are  connected,  and  thus  aid  those  that  are  sound  and  well 
managed,  it  will  at  the  same  time  sensibly  check  such  as  are  other- 
wise by  at  once  withholding  the  means  of  extravagance  afforded  by 
the  public  funds  and  restraining  them  from  excessive  issues  of 
notes  which  they  would  be  constantl}-  called  upon  to  redeem.  .  .  . 

III.    ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  AFFECTINC  AMERICAN 
BANKING 

^.  .  .  There  is  a  general  spirit  of  enterprise  in  the  United  States, 
to  which  they  are  greatly  indebted  for  their  rapid  growth,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  ascertain  in  all  cases  to  what  extent  it  should  be  encour- 
aged and  when  it  ought  to  be  checked.  The  remarks  apply  particu- 
larly to  the  newly-settled  parts  of  the  country,  which  present  a  state  of 
things  different  from  that  found  in  any  other  part  of  the  ci\ili/.ed 
world,  and  to  which,  therefore,  even  the  most  generally  admitted 
principles  of  political  economy  will  not  alwa)-s  apply. 

Amongst  the  first  emigrants  there  are  but  few  possessed  of  much 
capital,  and  these,  generally  employing  it  in  the  purchase  of  land, 
are  soon  left  without  any  active  resources.  The  great  mass  bring 
nothing  with  them  but  their  industr\-  and  a  small  stock  of  cattle  and 

1  Gallatin,  Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Hanking  System  of  the  United 
States  [1831],  Writings,  III,  314-317- 


590 


THE  CURRENCY 


horses.  A  considerable  portion  of  the  annual  labor  is  employed  in 
clearing,  enclosing,  and  preparing  the  land  for  cultivation.  Those 
difficulties  and  all  the  privations  incident  to  their  new  situation  are 
encountered  with  unparalleled  spirit  and  perseverance.  Within  a 
veiy  short  time  our  numerous  new  settlements,  which  in  a  few 
years  have  extended  from  the  Mohawk  to  the  great  Western  lakes, 
and  from  the  Alleghany  to  the  Mississippi  and  beyond  it,  afford  the 
spectacle  of  a  large  population  with  the  knowledge,  the  intelligence, 
and  the  habits  which  belong  to  civilized  life,  amply  supplied  with 
the  means  of  subsistence,  but  without  any  other  active  capital  but 
agricultural  products,  for  which,  in  many  instances,  they  have  no 
market.  It  is  in  this  last  respect  that  their  situation  essentially 
differs  from  that  of  any  other  country  as  far  advanced  in  civilization. 
We  might  even  add  that  there  is,  in  several  ancient  settlements  of 
the  United  States,  a  less  amount  of  active  capital  than  in  the  in- 
terior parts  of  many  European  countries.  The  national  industry, 
out  of  the  seaports,  has,  at  least  till  very  lately,  been  exclusively  ap- 
plied to  agriculture,  and  circulating  capital  will  rarely  be  created 
out  of  commercial  cities  without  the  assistance  of  *manufactures. 

With  the  greatest  abundance  of  provisions,  it  is  impossible  for  a 
new  country  to  purchase  what  it  does  not  produce  unless  it  has  a 
market  for  its  own  products.  Specie  is  a  foreign  product,  and, 
though  one  of  the  most  necessary,  is  not  yet  always  that  which  is 
most  imperatively  required.  We  may  aver  from  our  own  knowledge 
that  the  western  counties  of  Pennsylvania  had  not,  during  more 
than  twenty  years  after  their  first  settlement,  the  specie  necessary 
for  their  own  internal  trade  and  usual  transactions.  The  want  of 
communications  and  the  great  bulk  of  their  usual  products  reduced 
their  exports  to  a  most  inconsiderable  amount.  The  two  indispensa- 
ble articles  of  iron  and  salt,  and  a  few  others  almost  equally  neces- 
sary, consumed  all  their  resources.  The  principle,  almost  universally 
true,  that  each  country  will  be  naturally  supplied  with  the  precious 
metals  according  to  its  wants,  did  not  apply  to  their  situation. 
Household  manufactures  supplied  the  inhabitants  with  their  ordi- 
nary clothing,  and  the  internal  trade  and  exchanges  were  almost  ex- 
clusively carried  on  by  barter.  This  effectually  checked  any  advance 
even  in  the  most  necessary  manufactures.    Every  species  of  business 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  AMERICAN  BANKING     591 

required  the  utmost  eaution,  as  any  failure  in  the  performanee  of 
engagements  in  the  way  of  biirter  became,  under  the  general  law 
of  the  land,  an  obligation  to  pay  money,  and  might  involve  the 
party  in  complete  ruin.  Under  those  circumstances  even  a  paper 
currency,  kept  within  proper  bounds,  might  have  proved  useful. 
We  know  the  great  difficulties  which  were  encountered  by  those 
who  first  attempted  to  establish  the  most  necessary  manufactures, 
and  that  they  would  have  been  essentially  relieved  and  some  of 
them  saved  from  ruin  by  moderate  bank  loans.  Yet  there  were 
instances  where  those  difficulties  were  overcome,  and  the  most 
successful  manufactures  of  iron  and  glass  were  established  and 
prospered  prior  to  the  establishment  of  any  bank  ;  but  the  general 
progress  of  the  country  was  extremely  slow,  and  might  have  been 
hastened  by  such  institutions  soberly  administered.  It  is  obvious 
that  in  this  and  other  similar  cases  where  there  is  an  actual  want 
of  capital,  this  should,  in  order  to  insure  success,  be  obtained  from 
the  more  wealthy  parts  of  the  country,  either  by  subscriptions  to 
local  banks  or  by  the  establishment  of  branches  of  the  city  banks. 
Some  of  the  first  settlements  in  other  parts  of  the  country  were, 
for  a  length  of  time,  in  a  similar  situation.  The  progress  of  others, 
under  more  favorable  circumstances,  has  been  much  more  rapid. 
The  western  parts  of  the  State  of  New  York  have  always  enjoyed 
a  nearer  and  more  accessible  market.  The  acquisition  of  Louisiana, 
the  invention  of  steamboats,  and  the  improved  communications  by 
land  and  water,  have  entirely  changed  the  state  of  things  west  of 
the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Still,  and  notwithstanding  the  unparal- 
leled increase  of  population  and  the  rapid  progress  in  every  respect 
of  the  new  States  or  settlements,  their  wealth  does  not,  in  any  de- 
gree, correspond  either  with  that  population  or  with  their  advances 
in  agriculture.  All  new  colonies,  either  from  Europe  to  America 
or  from  the  ancient  settlements,  to  the  more  interior  part  of  Amer- 
ica, have,  under  different  modifications,  been  ever  placed  in  a  simi- 
lar situation.  To  this  must  be  ascribed  the  issues  of  paper  money 
by  the  several  States  whilst  under  the  colonial  government.  This 
currency,  in  many  instances  useful,  was,  as  usual,  often  carried  to 
excess,  and  depreciated  accordingly.  The  same  causes  continue 
to  produce  similar  effects.    The  eagerness   for  country  banks  is 


592  THE  CURRENCY 

natural,  but  often  mistakes  its  object.  They  may  be  safely  estab- 
lished in  flourishing  towns  or  villages,  either  commercial  or  manu- 
facturing, provided  their  issues  are  restrained  within  proper  bounds. 
It  is  to  the  abuse,  and  not  to  the  use,  that  we  object.  The  profits 
of  agriculture  are  so  moderate,  at  least  in  the  Middle  States,  and 
the  returns  so  slow,  that  even  loans  on  mortgages  are  rarely  useful. 
But  when  made  by  banks  on  notes  at  sixty  days,  without  any  other 
substantial  security  than  real  estate,  they  never  can  be  relied  on  as 
an  immediate  resource,  and,  when  payment  is  urged,  they  almost 
always  prove  ruinous  to  the  borrowers,  and  are  often  attended 
with  heavy  losses  to  the  banks.  The  example  of  Pennsylvania  has 
clearly  shown  that  the  calamities  inflicted  by  the  failures  of  country 
banks,  established  in  unfit  places,  or  for  want  of  experience  improp- 
erly administered,  have  been  still  more  fatal  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  districts  in  which  they  were  situated  than  to  the  State  at  large. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  same  observation  applies  with  equal,  if 
not  greater,  force  to  other  States  than  Pennsylvania.   .   .  . 

^  All  active,  enterprising,  commercial  countries  are  necessarily 
subject  to  commercial  crises.  A  series  of  prosperous  years  almost 
necessarily  produces  overtrading.  Those  revolutions  will  be  more 
frecjuent  and  greater  in  proportion  to  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and 
to  the  extension  or  abuse  of  credit.  But  however  prices  may  be 
effected,  and  whatever  may  be  the  evils  growing  out  of  the  crisis, 
there  will  be  no  violation  of  contracts,  and  the  standard  of  value 
will  not  be  affected,  in  countries  where  there  is  no  paper  currency. 
The  danger  of  a  suspension  of  specie  payments,  which  immediately 
deranges  that  standard,  is  necessarily  increased  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  issues  of  paper  of  that  description,  and  that  amount 
depends,  in  a  great  degree,  on  the  denomination  of  the  bank-notes 
permitted  to  be  issued  as  currency,  on  the  number  of  the  banks  of 
issue,  and,  in  the  United  States,  on  the  capital  invested  in  bank  stock. 

All  these  dangerous  elements  are  found  united  in  a  greater  de- 
gree in  the  United  States  than  in  any  other  c6mmercial  country. 

1  Gallatin,  Suggestions  on  the  IJanks  and  Currency  of  the  Several  United  States 
in  Reference  Principally  to  the  Suspension  of  Specie  Payments  [1S41],  Writings, 
lil.  385-389.  369.  370- 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  AMERICAN  I5ANKI\(; 


593 


The  large  field  opened  for  enterprise,  the  free  institutions  of  the 
country,  and  the  indomitable  energy  of  the  people  have  produced 
results  astonishing  and  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  other  na- 
tions. A  wilderness  has  within  forty  years  been  converted  into  the 
abode  of  six  millions  of  civilized  and  industrious  people.  Expensive 
communications  have  been  opened,  superior  in  extent  and  impor- 
tance to  those  of  continental  Europe.  The  American  commerce 
and  navigation  extend  to  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  are  infe- 
rior to  those  of  no  other  country  but  England.  But  there  are  evils 
which,  to  a  certain  extent,  appear  to  be  the  necessary  consequence 
of  a  state  of  high  commercial  prosperity,  and  which  in  America  are 
much  increased  by  the  want  of  a  capital  proportionate  to  the  extent 
of  commercial  and  other  undertakings. 

Overtrading  has  been  the  primary  cause  of  the  present  crisis  in 
America.  Abundant  proofs  of  the  fact  are  found  in  the  immoderate 
use  of  foreign  credit,  as  well  as  in  the  excessive  importations,  and 
sales  of  public  lands,  in  the  years  1834-37. 

Of  Imports  : 

During  the  nine  years  1822-1S30  the  average  annual  amount  was  .     .  $59,000,000 

During  the  three  years  1831-1833  the  average  annual  amount  was  .     .     83,000,000 

During  the  four  years  1834-1837  the  average  annual  amount  was  .     .   130,000,000 

In  the  year  1S36  alone  the  amount  was 168,000,000 

The  average  annual  excess  of  imports  over  the  exports  amounted 
to  four  millions  during  the  first  nine  years  ;  to  eighteen  millions 
during  the  three  next  ensuing ;  to  thirty-four  millions  during  the 
four  last,  and  to  sixty-one  millions  in  the  year  1836  alone. 

The  average  annual  sales  of  public  lands,  which  during  the  first 
nine  years  did  not  exceed  1,300,000  dollars,  and  w'hich  during  the 
years  1831—35  had  reached  4,500,000  amounted  in  1835  to  seven- 
teen and  in  1836  to  twenty-five  millions.  Speculations  in  unim- 
proved town  lots,  mines,  and  eveiy  description  of  rash  undertakings 
increased  at  the  same  rate. 

The  fault,  or  error,  originated  with  the  people  themselves.  The 
traders  and  speculators  ha\"e  attempted  to  ascribe  their  disasters 
altogether  to  legislative  acts  ;  to  those  of  the  administration,  or 
to  other  collateral  causes,  which  have  indeed  aggravated  the  evils, 
but  the  effects  of  some  of  which  have  been  exaggerated.    Still, 


594 


THE  CURRENCY 


although  it  would  be  improper  to  abridge  the  freedom  of  action 
which  all  individuals  should  be  permitted  to  enjoy,  it  is  certain  that 
the  spirit  of  enterprise  did  not  require  any  artificial  stimulus. 

The  prodigious  increase  of  State  banks  was  the  result  of  State 
legislation.  From  the  ist  of  January,  1830,  to  the  istof  January, 
1837,  three  hundred  new  banks  were  created,  with  a  capital  of  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  millions  of  dollars.  This  increase  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  the  eagerness  for  capital  applicable  to  commercial 
accommodations  or  other  purposes.  It  may  be  ascribed  in  part  to 
the  expiration  of  thfe  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  the  anticipation  of  that  event.  It  was  thought  necessary  in  some 
places  to  fill  the  chasm  in  capital  and  commercial  accommodations 
that  must  follow  the  dissolution  of  that  institution.  The  same  effect 
had  been  produced  in  the  years  18 10-16  on  the  occurrence  of  the 
expiration  of  the  charter  of  the  former  national  bank  ;  and  in  both 
cases  the  increase  far  exceeded  the  apprehended'  loss  and  the  wants 
of  the  country. 

The  great  increase  of  banks  took  place,  accordingly,  in  the 
Western  States,  where  capital  was  most  wanted.  During  the  years 
above  mentioned  the  increase  in  the  banking  capital  of  the  North- 
western States  amounted  to  near  twenty,  and  that  of  the  South- 
western to  almost  fifty-five,  millions  of  dollars. 

But  that  increase  was  far  beyond  what  might  have  been  wanted 
for  useful  purposes.  Near  three-fifths  of  the  foreign  merchandise 
imported  into  the  United ,  States  are  imported  into  New  York. 
That  city  is  also  the  principal  place  of  deposit  for  the  sale  of  the 
domestic  manufactures  of  the  country ;  and  it  is  also  the  centre  of 
all  the  moneyed  transactions  of  the  United  States.  In  the  year 
1837  the  capital  of  all  the  banks  of  that  city  hardly  exceeded 
twenty  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  it  was  sufficient  for  all  the  legiti- 
mate operations  of  commerce.  When  an  unexpected  increase  of  the 
public  deposits  enabled  and  induced  those  banks  to  expand  their 
discounts  beyond  their  ordinary  rate,  that  excess  excited  overtrad- 
ing, and  was  applied  to  extraordinary  and  dangerous  speculations. 

In  order  to  obtain  or  to  assist  in  obtaining  the  capital  wanted  for 
the  new  banks,  for  internal  improvements,  and  for  some  other  miscel- 
laneous purposes,  debts  were  incurred  by  several  States  amounting, 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  AMERICAN    I!.\NKIN(}     595 

from  1S30  to  1838,  to  near  one  hundred  and  fill\-  millions  of 
dollars.  The  debt  contraeted  h)-  the  Atlantie  States  was  almost  en- 
tirely for  internal  improvements  ;  no  jxirt  of  it  for  banking  pur- 
poses ;  and  it  fell  little  short  of  sixty  millions.  That  eontracted  by 
the  Noith-Western  States  amounted  to  about  thirty-eight  millions, 
of  whieh  thirty-one  millions  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  were 
for  internal  imprcn'ements,  and  the  residue  for  banking  eapital. 
That  incurred  by  the  South- Western  States  was  about  fifty-two 
millions,  of  which  more  than  forty-four  millions  were  for  banking 
capital,  and  the  residue  for  internal  improvements. 

The  population  of  the  United  States  by  the  census  of  1840  ex- 
ceeds seventeen  millions,  of  whom  ten  millions  seven  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  are  in  the  Atlantic,  four  millions  one  hundred  and 
thirt}'  thousand  in  the  North-Western,  and  two  millions  two  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  in  the  South- Western  States. 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  reason  why  so  much  more  capital 
was  applied  in  the  South- Western  than  in  the  North-Western 
States  to  banking  purposes  is  to  be  found  in  the  difference  of  cap- 
ital wanted  for  the  employment  of  slave  and  free  labor  respectively. 
The  Northern  farmer  advances  no  more  than  twelve  months' 
wages  to  the  laborer  he  employs.  The  Southern  planter  who 
wishes  to  increase  the  product  of  his  land  must  advance  the  price 
of  the  slave  himself,  which  amounts  perhaps  to  five  or  six  times 
the  net  product  of  his  annual  labor.  The  application  of  banking 
accommodation  to  purely  agricultural  purposes  has  accordingly  been 
much  greater  and  has  been  attended  with  far  more  fatal  effects  in 
the  South-Western  States  than  in  any  other  section  of  the  Union. 
But  even  the  State  debts  created  for  internal  improvements  have 
co-operated  in  aggravating  the  evils  under  which  we  now  labor. 
Not  only  were  their  proceeds  applied  to  purposes  of  which  the  re- 
turns were  slow  and  uncertain,  but  they  also  supplied  the  means 
of  paying  balances  or  of  obtaining  credits  abroad.  Thus,  extrava- 
gant importations  were  encouraged,  whilst  at  the  same  time  some 
of  those  stocks  became  objects  of  speculation  at  home,  in  whieh 
individuals  and  banks  were  involved,  and  which  ])ro\ed  injurious 
to  all  the  parties  concerned,  —  to  the  States  as  well  as  to  the  pur- 
chasers.    Several  of   the  States  neglected  to  provide  a  revenue 


596  THE  CURRENCY 

sufficient  to  pay  the  annual  interest  accruing  on  their  debts.  Ad- 
ditional loans  were  resorted  to  for  that  purpose,  and  occasionally 
forced  loans  were  required  by  the  States  from  the  banks,  which 
lessened  their  resources  and  had  a  tendency  to  produce  or  to  pro- 
tract the  suspension  of  specie  payments. 

All  the  banks  of  the  United  States  are  joint  stock  companies, 
generally  incorporated  by  the  special  laws  of  the  several  States ;  in 
a  few  late  instances  established  in  conformity  with  the  provisions 
of  a  general  law.  In  neither  case  are  the  shareholders  responsible 
beyond  the  amount  of  the  capital  subscribed.  All  these  joint  stock 
companies  are  banks  of  deposit,  discount,  and  issue  ;  they  all  dis- 
count negotiable  paper,  purchase  and  sell  domestic  and  occasion- 
ally foreign  bills  of  exchange,  receive  deposits  or  open  cash  credits 
to  individuals,  and  issue  bank-notes,  always,  nominally  at  least, 
payable  on  demand  in  specie.  These  notes  have  become  the  local 
and  sole  currency  of  the  several  places  or  sections  of  country  where 
they  are  respectively  made  payable.  Banking  in  America  always 
implies  the  riglit  and  practice  of  issuing  paper  money  as  a  substi- 
tute for  a  specie  currency.   .   .  . 

Punctuality  in  fulfilling  engagements  should  be  practiced  by  all ; 
but  it  is  essentially  a  commercial  virtue.  Credit,  at  least  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  is  absolutely  necessary  to  commerce.  Every  merchant 
must,  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  own  engagements,  depend  princi- 
pally on  the  punctual  payment  of  the  debts  due  to  him.  This 
punctuality  is  so  necessary,  and  the  advantages  derived  from  it 
have  become  so  habitual,  that  the  memory  of  its  origin  may  be  lost. 
It  was  indubitably  due  to  the  establishment  of  banks.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  of  Independence,  Philadelphia  was  the  only  place  in  the 
United  States  where  commercial  punctuality  was  general,  and  that 
city  was  indebted  for  it  to  the  Bank  of  North  America.  I'he  same 
effect  was  successively  produced,  as  banks  were  established,  in 
New  York,  Boston,  Baltimore,  and  the  other  commercial  cities  ; 
and  finally  almost  universally,  or  wherever  country  banking  pene- 
trated,  .   .   , 


chapt]':r  XII 

SETTLEMENT  OI'^  THE  WEST 

INTRODUCTION 

The  settlement  of  the  West  ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  great  example  of  col- 
onization. From  what  may  be  called  the  sociological  point  of  view,  colonization 
consists  of  the  founding  and  developing  of  new  communities,  of  the  occupa- 
tion and  settlement  of  new  lands.  It  is  the  expansion  of  a  community  into  new 
territory.  The  political  relation  between  the  new  communities  and  the  old  ones 
from  which  they  sprang  may  be  important ;  this  is,  in  fact,  the  only  phase  of 
modern  colonization  which  has  received  much  attention  ;  but  it  is  by  no  means 
the  essential  feature  of  colonization.  It  may  vary  from  the  absolute  independ- 
ence of  the  new  community  to  its  complete  subjection  to  the  mother-coun- 
try without  changing  the  colonial  relation  between  them.  The  expansion  of 
Greece  in  ancient  times  with  but  little  political  subordination  of  the  new  settle- 
ments was  as  truly  a  colonial  movement  as  the  expansion  of  Europe  in  modern 
times.  It  is  immaterial,  also,  whether  the  new  communities  be  widely  separated 
from  the  old  ones.  Contiguous  territory  may  be  more  easily  settled  by  a  people 
and  the  colonial  movement  under  those  conditions  may  affect  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  the  population,  but  its  social  effects  are  not  essentially  different  from 
over-sea  colonization  at  a  great  distance. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  is  clear  that  the  American  people  should  be  re- 
garded as  the  great  colonizers  of  modern  times.  No  other  people  have  founded 
and  built  up  so  many  new  settlements,  or  subdued  for  civilized  life  such  vast 
stretches  of  wilderness.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  has  the  art  of  pioneering 
been  learned  and  practiced  by  so  many  people  and  played  so  large  a  part  in  the 
life  of  any  nation.  Contact  with  unsettled  territory  and  continual  expansion 
into  it  is  the  fundamental  peculiarity  of  American  society. 

There  are  three  aspects  of  this  great  movement  of  internal  colonization 
which  should  claim  the  attention  of  students  of  American  history.  The  first  is 
the  method  of  forming  new  settlements  together  with  the  conditions  which  de- 
termine their  progress  —  a  study  of  the  social  evolution  of  new  communities. 
The  second  is  the  influence  of  this  movement  upon  the  life  and  institutions 
of  the  country  as  a  whole.  The  third  is  the  governmental  activity  of  various 
kinds  to  which  it  has  given  rise  —  what  in  other  countries  would  be  called 
colonial  policy. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  peculiarity  of  American  expansion  when  com- 
pared with  the  similar  experience  of  other  countries  is  the  insignificance  of  the 

597 


598  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

third  feature  of  the  movement.  In  no  other  country  in  modern  times  has  ex- 
tensive colonization  called  for  so  little  intervention  of  government.  Our  people 
have  always  been  colonizing,  but  our  government  has  never  been  much  occu- 
pied with  colonial  questions  or  been  much  troubled  by  them.  This  explains 
why  our  colonial  experience  has  been  so  completely  ignored  by  writers  on  the 
subject,  whose  interest  has  in  almost  every  case  been  political  rather  than  eco- 
nomic and  social.^ 

Two  measures  are  chiefly  responsible  for  this  peculiarity  of  our  experience. 
One  is  our  happy  device  for  governing  new  settlements  known  as  the  territorial 
form  of  government.  The  other  is  the  adoption  of  complete  freedom  of  trade  be- 
tween the  new  settlements  and  the  rest  of  the  country.  These  two  policies  re- 
moved completely  from  our  politics  the  principal  colonial  problems  with  which 
other  governments  have  had  to  deal.  Of  colonial  questions  there  were  left  for 
our  government  only  the  settlement  of  boundary  disputes,  the  treatment  of  the 
natives,  and  the  disposition  of  the  public  lands.  The  first  two  of  these  have 
never  given  rise  to  any  serious  difficulties  and  have  been  easily  dealt  with  when 
occasion  demanded.  Neither  of  them  has  had  any  considerable  influence  in 
economic  and  social  affairs  and  do  not,  therefore,  require  any  further  consider- 
ation here.  Our  public  land  policy  is  a  matter  of  much  greater  importance,  and 
it  has  seemed  best  to  deal  with  it  in  a  separate  chapter. 

Regarding  the  influence  of  western  settlement  upon  the  nation  as  a  whole, 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  treat  that  topic  separately.  This  is  not  due  to  any 
lack  of  appreciation  of  its  importance.  The  fact  that  American  society  has  al- 
ways had  a  frontier,  has  always  been  in  contact  with  unsettled  land,  and  has 
always  possessed  a  multitude  of  rich,  undeveloped  natural  resources  is  probably 
the  most  important  influence  in  our  economic  and  social  history.  But  contem- 
porary observers  have  shown  no  great  insight  in  pointing  out  the  way  these 
conditions  were  influencing  American  society.  In  very  recent  times  the  frontier 
as  a  factor  in  American  history  has  come  into  great  prominence,  but  thus  far  it 
is  its  influence  on  politics  and  the  character  of  the  people,  rather  than  on  eco- 
nomic life  and  institutions,  which  has  received  the  principal  attention.  In  mak- 
ing the  selections  for  this  chapter,  therefore,  it  has  seemed  best  to  attempt  no 
separate  treatment  of  this  feature  of  the  subject,  but  to  confine  our  efforts 
mainly  to  an  explanation  of  the  methods  of  forming  new  settlements  in  differ- 
ent regions  and  at  different  times,  thus  making  clear  the  process  of  pioneering 
as  it  has  actually  been  carried  on  by  the  American  people. 

In  considering  the  way  in  which  new  settlements  have  been  made  and  the 
conditions  determining  their  economic  and  social  progress,  two  circumstances 
appear  to  be  of  prime  importance.  The  first  is  whether  or  no  they  possess  mar- 
kets for  thcjse  commodities  which  their  natural  resources  enable  the  settlers  to 
easily  produce.    The  importance  of  this  circumstance  to  the  progress  of  a  colony 

1  The  only  important  exception  is  the  little  group  of  English  economists  who 
gave  attention  to  colonisation  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Of 
these  Wakefield,  Torrens,  and  Merivale  were  the  leaders. 


INTRODUCTION  599 

has  already  been  sufficiently  explained  in  the  introduction  to  the  second  chapter. 
It  is  sufficient  to  repeat  here  that  without  markets  in  other  communities  newly 
settled  countries  can  possess  no  material  advantage  over  old  ones  in  the  produc- 
tion of  wealth.  They  may  be  easy  places  in  which  to  make  a  poor  living,  i.e. 
to  secure  the  bare  necessities  of  life  ;  but  very  difficult  ones  in  which  to  do  more 
than  that. 

The  second  circumstance  affecting  the  settlement  of  new  territory  is  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  settlers  arc  able  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  capital  from 
older  communities  to  assist  them.  This  has  played  nearly  as  important  a  part 
in  the  settlement  of  new  countries  in  recent  times  as  the  possession  of  markets. 
The  nature  of  this  influence  and  the  extent  to  which  it  has  changed  the  process 
of  pioneering  ought  to  be  pointed  out.  Capital  may  cooperate  in  the  settlement 
of  new  territory  in  several  ways.  First,  it  may  supply  stocks  of  commodities  of 
all  kinds  to  meet  the  immediate  wants  of  settlers  before  they  have  had  time  to 
produce  such  forms  of  wealth  as  they  require.  These  stocks  arc  accumulated 
in  the  new  country  to  some  extent  by  merchants  using  their  own  capital,  but 
much  more  through  the  agency  of  commercial  credit  extended  to  the  local  mer- 
chants by  commercial  houses  in  older  communities.  These  stocks  arc  sold  to 
the  settlers  largely  upon  credit.  Secondly,  capital  may  provide  transportation 
facilities  to  connect  the  settlers  with  the  outside  world  and  especially  with  those 
markets  which  are  so  necessary  to  their  prosperity.  This  usually  takes  the 
form  of  organizing  steamboat  companies,  improving  the  navigation  of  the 
streams,  building  important  roads,  and,  above  all,  the  construction  of  railroads. 
Finally,  capital  from  older  communities  may  provide  loans  of  cash  directly  to 
the  settlers  which  will  enable  them  to  procure  by  purchase  either  the  various 
concrete  forms  of  capital  needed  by  them  in  their  industries  or  that  surplus  of 
means  of  subsistence  for  the  population  which  is  the  first  step  which  every 
community  must  take  in  the  accumulation  of  capital.  The  community  must 
have  something  to  live  upon  while  it  devotes  its  labor  to  the  opening  of  roads, 
the  clearing  and  improvement  of  lands,  the  building  of  saw  and  grist  mills, 
and  the  creation  of  other  forms  of  capital  needed  to  carry  on  industry.  This 
means  of  subsistence  may  be  secured  through  the  agency  of  loans  negotiated 
by  individuals,  corporations,  or  governments  in  older  communities.  The  popula- 
tion may  live  upon  the  proceeds  of  such  loans  while  it  creates  capital  of  various 
kinds.    This  is  the  way  the  Australian  colonists  secured  their  railway  system. 

The  difference  in  the  social  and  economic  condition  of  a  community  of  pio- 
neers who  have  all  their  more  pressing,  immediate  wants  for  either  subsistence 
or  implements  of  industry  supplied  to  them  in  this  way,  and  of  one  in  which 
the  settlers  must  secure  these  by  the  slow  process  of  saving  and  accumulation, 
is  very  great.  In  the  latter  the  settlers  must  make  their  own  way  into  the  wil- 
derness, providing  their  own  means  of  transportation,  and  carrying  with  them 
such  supplies  of  subsistence  as  are  needed  until  they  have  had  time  to  produce 
others,  and  also  such  tools  and  utensils  as  are  required  to  begin  industries. 
They  must  then  create  by  their  own  labor,  while  they  provide  subsistence  for 


6oO  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

themselves  and  families,  all  the  forms  of  concrete  capital  which  a  civilized 
community  requires.  Even  when  they  possess  markets  for  one  or  two  staple 
commodities,  easily  produced  and  exchangeable  for  whatever  forms  of  wealth 
they  need,  their  progress  must  be  slow.  The  rude  life  of  the  frontier  must  con- 
tinue for  a  generation  or  more  at  least.  Without  this  advantage  of  markets 
it  may  continue  indefinitely,  as  it  has  done  among  the  mountain  population 
of  our  southern  states. 

The  experience  of  a  body  of  emigrants  to  a  new  country  who  have  the  co- 
operation of  capital  in  the  various  ways  explained  above  is  very  different  from 
all  this.  They  are  transported  quickly  and  easily  to  their  new  homes  with  little 
effort  on  their  part  beyond  what  is  necessary  to  provide  money  to  pay  a  small 
railway  and  steamer  fare.  There  they  find  stocks  of  goods  of  all  kinds  accumu- 
lated and  ready  to  be  advanced  to  them  on  credit,  while  they  produce  some 
valuable  crop  for  the  market.  Enterprising  men  with  capital  advanced  from 
older  communities  stand  ready  to  buy  these  products  for  cash  and  send  them 
to  the  market.  After  a  few  years,  when  they  have  made  improvements  upon 
their  land,  they  are  able  to  secure  loans  on  mortgage  and  thus  to  supply  them- 
selves with  the  means  of  developing  their  industries  and  rendering  them  as  ef- 
ficient as  those  of  older  communities.  The  typical  frontier  conditions,  both 
economic  and  social,  disappear  within  a  few  years  and  are  never  so  rude  as  in 
the  other  community.  It  is  clear  that  the  application  of  capital  to  the  settlement 
of  new  lands  transforms  completely  the  social  process  of  pioneering. 

The  different  types  of  frontier  society  which  have  appeared  in  the  course  of 
our  long  history  of  colonizing  new  territory  are  largely  the  result  of  the  pres- 
ence or  absence  of  the  two  circumstances  just  explained.  The  first  type  is  that 
which  appeared  in  the  back  country  in  colonial  times  and  spread  rapidly  over 
the  Middle  West  during  the  generation  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  It 
was  characterized  by  the  absence  of  both  a  market  for  its  staple  products  and 
the  assistance  of  capital  from  older  communities.  Industry  was  crude  on  the 
frontier  in  this  stage  and  life  was  primitive.  The  pioneer  took  with  him  into 
the  wilderness  his  ax  and  gun,  a  few  household  goods,  farm  utensils,  and 
domestic  animals.  With  these  he  was  able  to  provide  for  the  subsistence  of 
himself  and  family  and  slowly  to  produce  for  himself  a  few  simple  implements 
to  assist  him  in  his  industrial  life.  It  was  long  before  anything  but  the  crud- 
est and  most  necessary  of  these  could  be  produced.  Economic  progress  beyond 
mere  beginnings  was  small  indeed,  and  except  in  a  few  localities  social  condi- 
tions remained  comparatively  primitive  to  the  end  of  the  period. 

The  next  stage  was  characterized  by  the  rise  of  markets  for  western  produce. 
These  came  first  to  the  settlers  of  the  southwest  after  the  second  war  with 
England  as  a  result  of  the  demand  for  cotton,  which  they  could  easily  produce 
upon  their  new  lands  and  float  to  tide  water  on  their  numerous  navigable  streams. 
Markets  came  later  to  the  settlers  of  the  Middle  West  with  the  demand  for  vari- 
ous agricultural  supplies  from  the  cotton  plantations  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  the  southwest.    Still  later  they  came  to  the  settlers  of  the  northwest  about 


THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  WAYS  6oi 

the  Lakes  with  the  demand  for  food,  lumlier,  and  some  other  materials  from 
the  manufactures  of  the  northeastern  states  and  of  Europe.  The  Eric  Canal 
opened  the  way  to  tide  water  and  to  market  for  the  products  of  this  region. 
The  effect  of  all  these  changes  was  to  enable  the  people  of  the  West  to  produce 
wealth  easily,  and  rapid  economic  and  social  progress  was  the  result. 

Gradually  the  second  circumstance  began  to  affect  certain  regions  and  to 
usher  in  the  third  stage  of  frontier  society,  where  the  settlers  enjoyed  both  a 
market  for  their  produce  and  the  assistance  of  the  capital  of  older  communities 
in  their  work  of  setdement.  Like  the  advantage  of  markets  this  came  first  to 
the  southwest  and  was  in  the  form  of  loans  or  advances  to  the  planters  to  en- 
able them  to  use  their  slaves  more  effectively  in  the  clearing  of  new  lands  and 
the  opening  of  cotton  plantations.  The  planter  could  not  pioneer  successfully 
without  the  assistance  of  capital,  since  slaves  were  not  self-supporting  in  a  new 
country  to  the  same  extent  as  free  white  men.  The  pioneer  planter  must  have  the 
means  of  purchasing  more  or  less  subsistence  for  his  slaves  as  well  as  imple- 
ments of  husbandry.  The  possession  of  so  valuable  a  product  as  cotton  enabled 
him  to  secure  capital  on  credit.  The  cotton  factors  early  began  the  practice  of 
advancing  supplies  to  the  planters  to  enable  them  "  to  make  a  crop."  Numer- 
ous state  banks  were  organized  in  the  southwestern  states  to  make  such  loans. 
Their  capital  was  supplied  from  the  North  and  from  Europe  and  was  secured 
largely  by  the  sale  of  state  bonds.  In  the  northwest,  capital  came  principally 
in  the  shape  of  investments  in  transportation  enterprises,  canals,  and  railroads. 
Here  also  commercial  credit  played  a  considerable  part  in  making  advances  to 
the  settlers  of  all  kinds  of  supplies,  but  there  was  no  product  so  valuable  as  cot- 
ton which  could  serve  as  security  for  such  loans.  The  investment  of  eastern 
and  foreign  capital  in  canals  and  railways  was  not  important  until  after  1830. 
When  the  tide  of  settlement  reached  the  prairie  region  and  railroads  began  to 
be  built  into  it  ahead  of  settlement,  capital  began  to  play  a  large  part  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  northwest.  It  became  important  in  the  decade  which  preceded 
the  Civil  War.  From  that  time  onward  its  influence  upon  the  process  of  pio- 
neering in  this  country  has  steadily  increased  until  the  old  conditions  of  the 
frontier  can  now  no  longer  be  found  even  in  the  remote  regions  of  Alaska. 


I.    THE   PIONEER  AND   HIS  W^AYS 

^  In  a  country  where  man  may  place  himself  in  what  grade  of 
society  he  pleases,  those  will  always  be  found  who  prefer  the  wild 
freedom  of  nature,  with  all  its  inconveniences,  to  the  necessary  re- 
straints and  comforts  of  populous  society.  Possessed  of  perfect  inde- 
pendence, the  hunters  lead  a  life  of  alternate  idleness  and  violent 

^  Observations  on  the  North  American  Land  Company  Lately  instituted  in  Phil 
adelphia,  pp.  xv-xvii.    London,  1796. 


6o2  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

exertion,  and  are  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  aboriginal  inhab- 
itants. As  the  game  becomes  shy  or  scarce,  they  push  farther  into 
the  wilderness,  and  their  places  are  supplied  by  others,  who  quit 
society  for  the  pastoral  life.  They  build  log-houses  on  their  tracts, 
clear  a  few  acres,  and  cultivate  some  corn  and  flax  for  their  fami- 
lies ;  but  their  principal  object  is  the  rearing  of  stock,  consisting 
of  cattle  and  hogs,  which,  ranging  at  large,  may  be  taken  as  they  are 
wanted  :  but  finding,  at  length,  that  the  population  increases  around 
them,  and  limits  the  range  for  their  cattle,  they  push  another  step 
after  the  hunters.  Their  ensient  improvements  are  purchased  by 
men  of  more  sedate  dispositions  ;  who,  establishing  themselves 
permanently,  bend  their  unremitting  efforts  to  constant  cultivation 
and  entire  clearance.  Mills  begin  to  be  erected  :  roads,  or  rather 
the  best  paths,  are  traced  to  other  settlements,  or  to  places  where 
the  necessaries  of  civilized  life  are  to  be  had  ;  and  their  comforts 
increase  with  their  progress  in  cultivation,  and  the  neighborhood 
of  other  settlers. 

It  is  difficult  for  Europeans  to  form  a  proper  idea  of  this  state 
of  life  :  The  settlers  have  food  in  variety  and  plenty  ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  their  disadvantages  are  many  and  great.  They  are 
obliged  to  understand,  in  a  certain  degree,  many  of  the  mechanical 
and  useful  arts  ;  manufacture  their  own  clothing  ;  and  be  their  own 
smiths  and  carpenters,  &c.  for  it  commonly  happens  that  pro- 
fessors of  those  arts  could  not  profitably  establish  themselves  among 
them  on  account  of  the  distance  (perhaps  3  or  4  miles  asunder)  of 
their  inhabitants.  Salt  and  other  indispensable  articles  are  frequently 
to  be  brought  on  horseback  (for  no  carriage  roads  can  be  made  by 
the  exertions  of  individuals)  from  stores  at  great  distances.  This 
manner  of  living,  however  it  may  appear  to  others,  cannot,  it  should 
seem,  be  considered  as  disagreeable  by  those  who  lead  it ;  they  are 
most  generally  native-born  ;  the  children  of  parents  who  have 
trained  them  up  to  it.  Every  year  brings  into  a  state  of  manhood 
a  new  race,  who  go  forth  from  the  old  settlements,  spread  them- 
selves over  the  wilderness,  erect  habitations,  and  in  time  change 
the  face  of  nature  from  sombrous  woods  to  smiling  enclosures 
of  valuable  grain  :  plenty  follows  their  endeavors,  and  commerce 
receives  the  surplus  not  consumed  by  themselves.    Swarms  of  them 


THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  WAYS  603 

continually  arrive  in  all  llic  states  which  have  vacant  lands  ;  and, 
as  if  these  limits  were  not  sufliciently  extensive,  vast  numbers  of 
them  push  beyond,  and  retire  to  the  western  waters,  northwest  and 
south  of  the  Ohio.  Their  number  and  succession  are  so  great,  as 
to  astonish  any  one  who  from  time  to  time  visits  the  frontiers,  and 
observes  the  amazing"  progress  of  settlements.  As  for  instance  : 
Imlay  accounts  the  annual  number  of  emigrants  to  Kentucky 
at  10,000;  in  the  year  1794  that  state  received  an  accession  of 
20,000  and  upwards  :  The  inhabitants  in  the  territory  south  of 
Ohio  were  35,691  in  1791  ;  but  now,  in  1795,  it  is  supposed 
they  are  upwards  of  50,000 !   .   .  . 

'^  Letter  from  Robert  G.  Harper,  Esq.,  Member  of  Congress  for 
South  Carolina,  dated  Septendicr  16,  IJi^S 

The  bold  enterprising  spirit  of  the  Americans,  particularly  those 
who  inhabit  the  remote  frontiers,  and  their  fondness  for  emigration, 
have  often  been  remarked.  Nor  are  these  characteristics  anywhere 
more  strikingly  obvious  than  in  the  southern  states.  Most  of  the 
people  who  now  reside  there  have  already  emigrated  from  more 
northern  places  ;  they  are,  therefore,  accustomed  to  the  inconven- 
iences which  attend  new  settlements,  and  are  wholly  free  from  that 
local  attachment  which  arises  from  habit  and  long  residence.  Their 
mode  of  agriculture  too  favors  this  spirit.  Wholly  unskilled  in 
regular  husbandr)-,  they  clear  the  land,  and  plant  it,  as  long  as  it  pro- 
duces plentiful  crops  with  little  labour.  As  soon  as  its  first  youthful 
energy  is  somewhat  exhausted,  they  abandon  it  and  clear  more  ; 
and  when  new  land,  by  this  process,  has  become  scarce,  they  will- 
ingly relincjuish  their  possessions,  and  seek  new  countries  where  the 
same  system  may  again  be  pursued.  Their  place  is  then  occupied 
by  better  cultivators,  who  prefer  the  labour  of  restoring  exhausted 
land,  with  the  safety  and  comforts  of  an  advanced  population,  to  the 
danger  and  inconvenience  on  new  and  remote  settlements. 

The  upper  parts  of  Georgia  and  Soi/th  Carolina,  especially  the 
former,  are,  in  a  great  measure,  inhabited  by  people  of  this  descrip- 
tion ;  who  already  find  the  country  too  thickly  settled  for  them,  and 

1  Observations  on  the  North  American  Land  Company,  etc.,  pp.  11 2-1 13. 


6o4  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

are  eager  for  emigration  to  new  places  more  favorable  to  their  habits 
and  ideas  :  hence  that  anxiety  to  obtain  new  cessions  of  land  from 
the  Indians,  and  the  facility  with  which  they  are  induced  to  remove 
so  many  hundred  miles,  to  Kentucky  and  Cnvibcrland,  to  the 
Tennessee,  the  0]iio,  and  the  Mississippi.   .   .    . 

1  In  the  formation  of  Colonies,  those,  who  are  first  inclined  to 
emigrate,  are  usually  such,  as  have  met  with  difficulties  at  home. 
These  are  commonly  joined  by  persons,  who,  having  large  families, 
and  small  farms,  are  induced,  for  the  sake  of  settling  their  children 
comfortably,  to  seek  for  new  and  cheaper  lands.  To  both  are  always 
added  the  discontented,  the  enterprizing,  the  ambitious,  and  the 
covetous.  Many,  of  the  first,  and  some,  of  all  these  classes,  are 
found  in  every  new  American  country,  within  ten  years  after  its 
settlement  has  commenced.  From  this  period,  kindred,  friendship, 
and  former  neighbourhood,  prompt  others  to  follow  them.  Others, 
still,  are  allured  by  the  prospect  of  gain,  presented  in  every  new 
country  to  the  sagacious,  from  the  purchase  and  sale  of  lands  : 
while  not  a  small  number  are  influenced  by  the  brilliant  stories, 
which  eveiy  where  are  told  concerning  most  tracts  during  the  early 
progress  of  their  settlement.  A  considerable  part  of  all  those,  who 
de^in  the  cultivation  of  the  wilderness,  may  be  denominated  y<^?/- 
estcrs,  or  PioneeTs.  The  business  of  these  persons  is  no  other  than 
to  cut  down  trees,  build  log-houses,  lay  open  forested  grounds  to 
cultivation,  and  prepare  the  way  for  those  who  come  after  them. 
These  men  cannot  live  in  regular  society.  They  are  too  idle ;  too  talk- 
ative ;  too  passionate  ;  too  prodigal ;  and  too  shiftless  ;  to  acquire 
either  property  or  character.  They  are  impatient  of  the  restraints 
of  law,  religion,  and  morality  ;  grumble  about  the  taxes,  by  which 
Rulers,  Ministers,  and  School-masters,  are  supported  ;  and  com- 
plain incessantly,  as  well  as  bitterly,  of  the  extortions  of  mechanics, 
farmers,  merchants,  and  physicians  ;  to  whom  they  are  always  in- 
debted. At  the  same  time,  they  are  usually  possessed,  in  their  own 
view,  of  uncommon  wisdom  ;  understand  medical  science,  politics, 
and  religion,  better  than  those,  who  have  studied  them  through  life  ; 
and,   although  they  manage  their  own  concerns  worse  than  any 

^  Dvvight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [1796-1815],  II,  45S-463. 


THE  PIONEER  AND  1 1  IS  WAYS  605 

other  men,  feel  perfectly  satisfied,  that  they  coulci  manage  those  of 
the  nation  far  better  than  the  agents,  to  whom  they  are  committed 
by  the  public.  After  displa\ing  their  own  talents,  and  worth  ;  after 
censuring  the  weakness,  and  wickedness,  of  their  superiours  ;  after 
exposing  the  injustice  of  the  community  in  neglecting  to  invest 
persons  of  such  merit  with  public  offices  ;  in  many  an  eloquent 
harangue,  uttered  by  many  a  kitchen  fire,  in  every  blacksmith's 
shop,  and  in  every  corner  of  the  streets;  and  finding  all  their 
efforts  \ain  ;  they  become  at  length  discouraged  :  and  under  the 
pressure  of  poverty,  the  fear  of  a  gaol,  and  the  consciousness  of 
public  contempt,  leave  their  native  places,  and  betake  themselves 
to  the  wilderness. 

Here  they  are  obliged  either  to  work,  or  starve.  They  accord- 
ingly cut  down  some  trees,  and  girdle  others ;  they  furnish  them- 
selves with  an  ill-built  log-house,  and  a  worse  barn  ;  and  reduce  a 
part  of  the  forest  into  fields,  half-enclosed,  and  half-cultivated.  The 
forests  furnish  browse  ;  and  their  fields  yield  a  stinted  herbage. 
On  this  scanty  provision  they  feed  a  few  cattle  :  and  with  these, 
and  the  penurious  products  of  their  labour,  eked  out  by  hunting 
and  fishing,  they  keep  their  families  alive. 

A  farm,  thus  far  cleared,  promises  immediate  subsistence  to  a 
better  husbandman.  A  log-house,  thus  built,  presents,  wdien  re- 
paired with  moderate  exertions,  a  shelter  for  his  family.  Such  a 
husbandman  is  therefore  induced  by  these  little  advantages,  where 
the  soil  and  situation  please  him,  to  purchase  such  a  farm  ;  when  he 
would  not  plant  himself  in  an  absolute  wilderness.  The  proprietor 
is  always  ready  to  sell  :  for  he  loves  this  irregular,  adventurous,  half- 
working,  and  half-lounging  life  ;  and  hates  the  sober  industry,  and 
prudent  economv,  by  which  his  bush  pasture  might  be  changed  into 
a  farm,  and  himself  raised  to  thrift  and  independence.  The  bargain 
is  soon  made.  The  forester,  receiving  more  money  for  his  impro\-e- 
ments  than  he  ever  before  possessed,  and  a  price  for  the  soil, 
somewhat  enhanced  by  surrounding  settlements,  willingly  quits  his 
house,  to  build  another  like  it,  and  his  farm,  to  girdle  trees,  hunt, 
and  saunter,  in  another  place.  His  wife  accompanies  him  only  from 
a  sense  of  duty,  or  necessity  ;  and  secretly  pines  for  the  cjuiet, 
orderly,  friendly  society,  to  which  she  originally  bade  a  reluctant 


6o6  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

farewell.  Her  husband,  in  the  mean  time,  becomes  less  and  less 
a  civilized  man  :  and  almost  every  thing  in  the  family,  which  is 
amiable  and  meritorious,  is  usually  the  result  of  her  principles, 
care,  and  influence. 

The  second  proprietor  is  commonly  Tifannei-;  and  with  an  in- 
dustry and  spirit,  deserving  no  small  commendation,  changes  the 
desert  into  a  fruitful  field. 

This  change  is  accomplished  much  more  rapidly  in  some  places 
than  in  others  ;  as  various  causes,  often  accidental,  operate.  In 
some  instances  a  settlement  is  begun  by  farmers  ;  and  assumes  the 
aspect  of  regular  society  from  its  commencement.  This,  to  some 
extent,  is  always  the  fact :  and  the  greater  number  of  the  first 
planters  are,  probably,  of  this  description  :  but  some  of  them,  also, 
are  foresters  ;  and  sometimes  a  majority. 

You  must  have  remarked  a  veiy  sensible  difterence  in  the  char- 
acter of  different  towns,  through  which  I  have  passed.  This  diver- 
sity is  in  no  small  degree  derived  from  the  original  character  of 
the  planters,  in  the  different  cases. 

The  class  of  men,  who  have  been  the  principal  subject  of  these 
remarks,  have  already  straggled  onward  from  New- England,  as 
well  as  from  other  parts  of  the  Union  to  Louisiana.  In  a  political 
view,  their  emigration  is  of  very  serious  utility  to  the  ancient 
settlements.  All  countries  contain  restless  inhabitants  ;  men  im- 
patient of  labour ;  men,  who  will  contract  debts  without  intending 
to  pay  them  ;  who  had  rather  talk  than  work  ;  whose  vanity  per- 
suades them,  that  they  are  wise,  and  prevents  them  from  knowing, 
that  they  are  fools  ;  who  are  delighted  with  innovation  ;  who  think 
places  of  power  and  profit  due  to  their  peculiar  merits  ;  who  feel, 
that  every  change  from  good  order  and  established  society  will  be 
beneficial  to  themselves  ;  who  have  nothing  to  lose,  and  therefore 
expect  to  be  gainers  by  every  scramble  ;  and  who,  of  course,  spend 
life  in  disturbing  others,  with  the  hope  of  gaining  something  for 
themselves.  Under  despotic  governments  they  are  awed  into  quiet ; 
but  in  every  free  community  they  create,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
continual  turmoil ;  and  have  often  overturned  the  peace,  liberty,  and 
happiness,  of  their  fellow-citizens.  In  the  Roman  Commonwealth, 
as  before  in  the  Republics  of  Greece,  they  were  emptied  out,  as 


THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  WAYS  607 

soldiers,  upon  the  surround int;"  countries  ;  and  left  the  sober  inhab- 
itants in  comparative  quiet  at  home.  It  is  true,  they  often  threw 
these  States  into  confusion  ;  and  sometimes  overturned  the  govern- 
ment. But  if  they  had  not  been  thus  thrown  off,  from  the  Ixxly 
politic,  its  life  would  have  been  of  a  momentary  duration.  As 
things  actually  were,  they  finally  ruined  all  these  States.  For  some 
of  them  had,  as  some  of  them  alwa}S  will  have,  sufficient  talents  to 
do  mischief  ;  at  times,  very  extensive.  The  Gracchi,  Clodius, 
Marius,  and  Mark  Antony,  were  men  of  this  character.  Of  this 
character  is  every  demagogue  ;  whatever  may  be  his  circumstimces. 
Power  and  profit  are  the  only  ultimate  objects,  which  every  such 
man,  with  a  direction  as  stead)-,  as  that  of  the  needle  to  the  pole, 
pursues  with  a  greediness  unlimited  and  inextinguishable. 

Formerly  the  energetic  government,  established  in  NewT'2ngland, 
together  with  the  prevailing  high  sense  of  religion  and  morals,  and 
the  continually  pressing  danger  from  the  French,  and  the  savages, 
compelled  the  inhabitants  into  habits  of  regularity  and  good  order, 
not  surpassed  perhaps,  in  the  world.  But  since  the  American  Revo- 
lution, our  situation  has  become  less  favourable  to  the  existence,  as 
well  as  to  the  efficacy,  of  these  great  means,  of  internal  peace.  The 
former  exact,  and  decisive,  energy  of  the  government  has  been  ob- 
viously weakened.  From  our  ancient  dangers  we  have  been  deliv- 
ered ;  and  the  deliverance  was  a  distinguished  blessing :  but  the 
sense  of  danger  regularly  brings  with  it  a  strong  conviction,  that 
safety  cannot  be  preserved  without  exact  order,  and  a  ready 
submission  to  lawful  authority. 

The  institutions,  and  the  habits,  of  New-England,  more  I  sus- 
pect than  those  of  any  other  country,  have  prevented,  or  kept  down, 
this  noxious  disposition  ;  but  they  cannot  entirely  prevent  either  its 
existence,  or  its  effects.  In  mercy,  therefore,  to  the  sober,  indus- 
trious, and  well-disposed,  inhabitants.  Providence  has  opened  in  the 
vast  Western  wilderness  a  retreat,  sufficiently  alluring  to  draw  them 
away  from  the  land  of  their  nativity.  We  have  many  troubles  even 
now  :  but  we  should  have  many  more,  if  this  body  of  foresters  had 
remained  at  home. 

It  is  however  to  be  observ-ed,  that  a  considerable  number  even 
of  these  people  become  sober,  industrious  citizens,  merely  by  the 


6o8  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

acquisition  of  property.  The  love  of  property  to  a  certain  degree 
seems  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  sound  morals.  I  have  never 
had  a  servant,  in  whom  I  could  confide,  except  such  as  were  desirous 
to  earn,  and  preserve,  money.  The  conveniences,  and  the  charac- 
ter, attendant  on  the  possession  of  property,  fix  even  these  restless 
men  at  times,  when  they  find  themselves  really  able  to  accumulate 
it ;  and  persuade  them  to  a  course  of  regular  industry.  I  have 
mentioned,  that  they  sell  the  soil  of  their  first  farms  at  an  enhanced 
price  ;  and  that  they  gain  for  their  improvements  on  them  what,  to 
themselves  at  least,  is  a  considerable  sum.  The  possession  of  this 
money  removes,  perhaps  for  the  first  time,  the  despair  of  acquiring 
property  ;  and  awakens  the  hope,  and  the  wish,  to  acquire  more. 
The  secure  possession  of  property  demands,  every  moment,  the 
hedge  of  law  ;  and  reconciles  a  man,  originally  lawless,  to  the  re- 
straints of  government.  Thus  situated,  he  sees  that  reputation,  also, 
is  within  his  reach.  Ambition  forces  him  to  aim  at  it ;  and  com- 
pels him  to  a  life  of  sobriety,  and  decency.  That  his  children  may 
obtain  this  benefit,  he  is  obliged  to  send  them  to  school,  and  to 
unite  with  those  around  him  in  supporting  a  school-master.  His 
neighbours  are  disposed  to  build  a  church,  and  settle  a  Minister. 
A  regard  to  his  own  character,  to  the  character  and  feelings  of  his 
family,  and  very  often  to  the  solicitations  of  his  wife,  prompts  him 
to  contribute  to  both  these  objects  ;  to  attend,  when  they  are  com- 
passed, upon  the  worship  of  God  ;  and  perhaps  to  become  in  the 
end  a  religious  man. 

1  The  people  in  the  Atlantic  states  have  not  yet  recovered  from 
the  horror,  inspired  by  the  term  "  backwoodsman."  This  prejudice 
is  particularly  strong  in  New  England,  and  is  more  or  less  felt  from 
Maine  to  Georgia.  When  I  first  visited  this  countr}',  I  had  my  full 
share,  and  my  family  by  far  too  much  for  their  comfort.  In  ap- 
proaching the  country,  I  heard  a  thousand  stories  of  gougings,  and 
robberies,  and  shooting  down  with  the  rifle.  I  have  travelled  in 
these  regions  thousands  of  miles  under  all  circumstances  of  expo- 
sure and  danger.  I  have  travelled  alone,  or  in  company  only  with 
such  as  needed  protection,  instead  of  being  able  to  impart  it ;  and 
^  Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years  [1826],  etc.,  pp.  174-177. 


Tin-:  J'lOXKKR  AM)   Ills  WAYS  609 

this  too,  in  many  instances,  where  I  was  not  known  as  a  minister, 
or  where  such  knowledge  would  have  had  no  iniiuence  in  protect- 
ing me.  I  never  have  carried  the  slightest  weapon  of  defence.  I 
scarcely  remember  to  have  experienced  any  thing  that  resembled  in- 
sult, or  to  have  felt  myself  in  danger  from  the  people.  I  have  often 
seen  men  that  had  lost  an  eye.  Instances  of  murder,  numerous  and 
horrible  in  their  circumstances,  have  occurred  in  my  vicinity.  But 
they  were  such  lawless  rencounters,  as  terminate  in  murder  every 
where,  and  in  which  the  drunkenness,  brutality,  and  violence  were 
mutual.  They  were  catastrophes,  in  which  cjuiet  and  sober  men 
would  be  in  no  danger  of  being  in\'olvcd.  When  w'e  look  round 
these  immense  regions,  and  consider  that  I  have  been  in  settle- 
ments three  hundred  miles  from  any  court  of  justice,  when  we  look 
at  the  position  of  the  men,  and  the  state  of  things,  the  wonder  is, 
that  so  few  outrages  and  murders  occur.  The  gentlemen  of  the 
towns,  even  here,  speak  often  w'ith  a  certain  contempt  and  horror  of 
the  backwoodsmen.  I  hnvQ  read,  and  not  without  feelings  of  pain, 
the  bitter  representations  of  the  learned  and  virtuous  Dr.  Dwight, 
in  speaking  of  them.  He  represents  these  vast  regions,  as  a  grand 
reservoir  for  the  scum  of  the  Atlantic  states.  He  characterizes  in 
the  mass  the  emigrants  from  New  England,  as  discontented  coblers, 
too  proud,  too  much  in  debt,  too  unprincipled,  too  much  puffed  up 
with  self-conceit,  too  strongly  impressed  that  their  fancied  talents 
could  not  find  scope  in  their  own  country,  to  stay  there.  It  is  true 
there  are  worthless  people  here,  and  the  most  so,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, are  from  New  England.  It  is  true  there  are  gamblers,  and 
gougers,  and  outlaws  ;  but  there  are  fewer  of  them,  than  from  the 
nature  of  things,  and  the  character  of  the  age  and  the  world,  we 
ought  to  expect.  But  it  is  unworthy  of  the  excellent  man  in  cjues- 
tion  so  to  designate  this  people  in  the  mass.  The  backwoodsman 
of  the  west,  as  I  have  seen  him,  is  generally  an  amiable  and  virtu- 
ous man.  His  general  motive  for  coming  here  is  to  be  a  free- 
holder, to  have  plenty  of  rich  land,  and  to  be  able  to  settle  his 
children  about  him.  It  is  a  most  virtuous  motive.  And  notwithstand- 
ing all  that  Dr.  Dwight  and  Talleyrand  have  said  to  the  contrary, 
I  fully  believe,  that  nine  in  ten  of  the  emigrants  have  come  here 
with  no  other  motive.     You  find,  in  truth,  that  he  has  vices  and 


6io  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

barbarisms,  peculiar  to  his  situation.  His  manners  are  rough.  He 
wears,  it  may  be,  a  long  beard.  He  has  a  great  quantity  of  bear  or  deer 
skins  wrought  into  his  household  establishment,  his  furniture,  and 
dress.  He  carries  a  knife,  or  a  dirk  in  his  bosom,  and  when  in  the 
woods  has  a  rifle  on  his  back,  and  a  pack  of  dogs  at  his  heels.  An 
Atlantic  stranger,  transferred  directly  from  one  of  our  cities  to  his 
door,  would  recoil  from  a  rencounter  with  him.  But  remember,  that 
his  rifle  and  his  dogs  are  among  his  chief  means  of  support  and 
profit.  Remember,  that  all  his  first  days  here  were  passed  in  dread 
of  the  savages.  Remember,  that  he  still  encounters  them,  still 
meets  bears  and  panthers.  Enter  his  door,  and  tell  him  you  are 
benighted,  and  wish  the  shelter  of  his  cabin  for  the  night.  The 
welcome  is  indeed  seemingly  ungracious  :  "  I  reckon  you  can  stay," 
or  "  I  suppose  we  must  let  you  stay."  But  this  apparent  ungracious- 
ness is  the  harbinger  of  every  kindness  that  he  can  bestow,  and 
every  comfort  that  his  cabin  can  afford.  Good  coffee,  corn  bread 
and  butter,  venison,  pork,  wild  and  tame  fowls  are  set  before  you. 
His  wife,  timid,  silent,  reserved,  but  constantly  attentive  to  your 
comfort,  does  not  sit  at  the  table  with  you,  but  like  the  wives  of  the 
patriarchs,  stands  and  attends  on  you.  You  are  shown  to  the  best 
bed  which  the  house  can  offer.  When  this  kind  of  hospitality  has 
been  afforded  you  as  long  as  you  choose  to  stay,  and  when  you  depart, 
and  speak  about  your  bill,  you  are  most  commonly  told  with  some 
slight  mark  of  resentment,  that  they  do  not  keep  a  tavern.  Even 
the  flaxen-headed  urchins  will  turn  away  from  your  money.   .  .  . 

II.    THE    PROCESS   OF   PIONEERING   IN    NEW   ENCxLAND 

^  The  settlement  of  a  new  countiy  is  an  object  which  has  not 
been  hitherto  described,  I  believe  by  any  writer.  At  the  same 
time,  it  exhibits  the  character  of  man,  his  enterprise,  patience, 
perseverance,  and  power  over  this  world,  every  where  naturally 
a  wilderness,  in  a  light  which  cannot  be  uninteresting  to  a  philo- 
sophical mind.  As  I  have  been  not  a  little  conversant  with  this 
subject,   I  will  here  give  a  summary  account  of    the  efforts,  by 

1  Dwight,  Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  [i 796-1  Si 5],  II,  464-469, 
297-298,  308-309. 


PROCESS  OF  1'10NEERIN(}  IN  NEW   EN(]LANJ)     6ll 

which  every  part  of  this  c()untr\-  has  been  ehani^'ed  fioni  a  forest 
into  its  present  appearance. 

In  forming  new  settlements,  it  will  be  easil)-  beliexed,  the  plant- 
ers are  necessitated  to  struggle  with  man)'  difTiculties.  To  clear  a 
farm  covered  with  a  thick  growth  of  large  trees,  such  as  generally 
abound  in  this  counli'w  is  a  work  of  no  small  magnitude.  I'lspecially 
is  this  true,  when,  as  is  usuall}'  the  fact,  it  is  to  be  done  by  a  single 
man  ;  and  still  more  especially,  when  that  man  is  poor,  and  obliged 
to  struggle  with  many  other  discouragements.  Yet  this  is  the  real 
situation  of  multitudes,  who  undertake  enterprises  of  this  nature. 

When  a  planter  ccjmmences  this  undertaking,  he  sets  out  for  his 
farm  with  his  axe,  gun,  blanket,  proxision,  and  ammunition.  With 
these  he  enters  the  forest  ;  and  builds  himself  a  shed,  by  setting 
up  poles  at  four  angles,  crossing  them  with  other  poles,  and  co\'er- 
ing  the  whole  with  the  bark,  leaves,  and  twigs  of  trees,  except  the 
south  side,  purposely  left  opvn  to  the  sun  and  a  fire.  Under  this 
shelter  he  dresses  his  food  ;  and  makes  his  bed  of  straw,  on  which 
he  sleeps  soundly  beneath  his  blanket.  Here  he  usually  continues 
through  the  season  :  and  sometimes  without  the  sight  of  any  other 
human  being.  After  he  has  completed  this  shelter,  he  begins  to 
clear  a  spot  of  ground  :  i.e.  to  remove  the  forest,  by  which  it  is 
covered.  This  is  done  in  two  ways  :  gh-dling,  ?iXiAfclli7io-,  the  t/rrs. 
The  former  of  these  I  have  already  described.  The  latter  has  now 
become  almost  the  universal  practice  :  and  wherever  it  can  be 
adopted,  is  undoubtedly  to  be  preferred.  The  trees  are  cut  down, 
either  in  the  autumn,  or  as  early  as  it  can  be  done  in  the  spring; 
that  they  may  become  so  dry  as  to  be  easily  burnt  up  in  the  ensu- 
ing summer.  After  they  have  lain  a  sufiicient  length  of  time,  he 
sets  fire  to  them,  lying  as  they  fell.  If  he  is  successful,  the  greater 
part  of  them  are  consumed  in  the  confiagration.  l"he  remainder 
he  cuts  with  his  axe  into  pieces  of  a  convenient  length  ;  rolls  them 
into  ])iles  ;  and  sets  fire  to  them  again.  In  this  maimer  tiie\'  are  all 
consumed  ;  and  the  soil  is  left  light,  dry,  and  covered  with  ashes. 
These,  so  far  as  he  can,  he  collects,  and  conveys  to  a  manufactory 
of  potashes  if  there  be  any  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  if  not,  he  leaves 
them  to  enrich  the  soil.  In  many  instances  the  ashes,  thus  gathered, 
will  defray  the  expense  of  clearing  the  land. 


6l2  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

After  the  field  is  burned  over,  his  next  business  is  to  break  it 
up.  The  instrument,  employed  for  this  purpose,  is  a  large  and 
strong  harrow  ;  here  called  a  drag,  with  very  stout  iron  teeth  ; 
resembling  in  its  form  the  capital  letter  A.  It  is  drawn  over  the 
surface,  a  sufficient  number  of  times  to  make  it  mellow,  and  after- 
wards to  cover  the  seed,  A  plough  would  here  be  of  no  use;  as  it 
would  soon  be  broken  to  pieces  by  the  roots  of  the  trees.  In  the 
same  manner  the  planter  proceeds  to  another  field,  and  to  another  ; 
until  his  farm  is  sufficiently  cleared  to  satisfy  his  wishes. 

The  first  house  which  he  builds,  is  formed  of  logs  and  commonly 
contains  two  rooms,  with  a  stone  chimney  in  the  middle.  His  next 
labour  is  to  procure  a  barn  ;  generally  large,  well  framed,  covered, 
and  roofed.  Compared  with  his  house,  it  is  a  palace.  But  for  this 
a  saw-mill  is  necessary,  and  is  therefore  built  as  early  as  possible. 

It  will  be  easily  believed,  that  the  labours,  already  mentioned, 
must  be  attended  by  fatigue,  and  hardships,  sufficient  to  discourage 
any  man,  who  can  live  tolerably  on  his  native  soil.  But  the  prin- 
cipal sufferings  of  these  planters,  in  the  early  periods  of  their  busi- 
ness, spring  from  quite  other  sources.  The  want  of  neighbours  to 
assist  them  ;  the  want  of  convenient  implements  ;  and  universally 
the  want  of  those  means,  without  which  the  necessaiy  business  of 
life  cannot  be  carried  on,  even  comfortably  ;  is  among  their  great- 
est difficulties.  The  first  planters  at  Haverhill  and  Newbury,  on  the 
Connecticut  river,  were  obliged  to  go  to  Charlestown,  more  than 
seventy  miles,  to  get  their  corn  ground  ;  (there  being  no  mill  nearer 
to  them,)  and  to  obtain  assistance  to  raise  the  frame  of  every  build- 
ing. At  that  time  there  was  no  road  between  these  towns.  The 
travelling  was  of  course  all  done  on  the  river.  Mr.  Page,  the  first 
settler  of  Lancaster,  on  the  same  river,  seated  himself  in  that  town- 
ship in  1766.  For  several  years  there  was  no  family,  beside  his 
own,  within  many  miles.  He  also  was  necessitated  to  get  his  corn 
ground  at  Charlestown  ;  distimt  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  ;  but  at  length  he  relieved  himself  from  this  inconvenience 
by  building  a  horse-mill. 

In  sickness,  and  other  cases  of  suffering  and  danger,  these 
planters  are  often  without  the  aid  either  of  a  physician,  or  a  sur- 
geon.   To  accidents  they  are  peculiarly  exposed  by  the  nature  of 


PROCESS   ()1<'   I'lONEKRINO    IN   NEW   ENGLAND     613 

their  employments  :  while  to  remedies,  besides  such  as  are  sup- 
plied by  their  own  skill  and  patience,  they  can  scarcely  have  any 
access.  Even  to  procure  the  assistance,  necessar)-  in  the  criti- 
cal season  of  female  suffering,  must  be  attended  with  no  small 
difficulty. 

As  most  of  the  first  ])lantcrs  were  poor  ;  and  as  many  of  them 
had  numerous  families  of  small  children  ;  the  burden  of  providing 
food  for  them  was  heavy,  and  discouraging.  Some  relief  they 
found,  at  times,  in  the  game,  with  which  the  forests  were  formerly 
replenished.  But  supplies  from  that  source  were  always  precarious  ; 
and  could  never  be  relied  on  with  safety.  Fish,  in  the  wild  season, 
might  often  be  caught  in  the  streams,  and  in  the  lakes.  In  des- 
perate cases  the  old  settlements,  though  frequently  distant,  were 
always  in  possession  of  abundance  ;  and,  in  the  mode,  either  of 
commerce,  or  of  charitv,  would  certainly  prevent  them,  and  theirs, 
from  perishing  with  hunger. 

To  balance  these  evils,  principally  suffered  by  the  earliest  class 
of  planters,  they  had  some  important  advantages.  Their  land,  usu- 
ally covered  with  a  thick  stratum  of  vegetable  mould,  was  eminently 
productive.  Seldom  were  their  crops  injured  by  the  blast,  or  the 
mildew ;  and  seldom  were  they  devoured  by  insects.  \Vhen  the 
W'heat  was  taken  from  the  ground,  a  rich  covering  of  grass  was 
regularly  spread  over  the  surface  ;  and  furnished  them  with  an 
ample  supply  of  pasture,  and  hay,  for  their  cattle. 

Beside  the  abundance  of  their  crops,  they  had  the  continual  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  their  embarrassments  daily  decreasing,  and  their 
w^ealth,  and  their  comforts,  daily  increasing.  The  value  of  this  kind 
of  property  is  enhanced  by  two  causes  :  the  labour,  which  is  done 
upon  it ;  and  the  multiplication  of  settlers  in  its  neighbourhood. 
Every-  good  planter,  who  seats  himself  in  a  new  township,  increases 
the  value  of  every  acre,  which  it  contains  ;  because  he  induces  other 
men  to  settle  around  him.  Accordingly,  the  owners  of  large,  un- 
settled tracts  give  several  farms  to  indi\'iduals,  who  are  willing  first 
to  settle  on  them,  that  they  may  induce  others  to  purchase  the  re- 
mainder. At  the  same  time,  every  stroke  of  the  axe  leaves  behind 
it  more  than  the  value  of  the  labour  :  while  the  proprietor  gathers 
another  rich  compensation  in  certain,  and  abundant  crops.  A  farmer 


6 14  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WP:ST 

of  my  acquaintance  advanced  his  property  four  hundred  per  cent, 
in  twelve  years,  by  placing  himself  on  a  new  farm. 

During  this  period  also,  the  planter  is  cheered  by  the  continual 
sight  of  improvement  in  every  thing  about  him.  His  fields  increase 
in  number,  and  beauty.  His  means  of  living  are  enlarged.  The 
wearisome  part  of  his  labour  is  gradually  lessened.  His  neighbours 
multiply  ;  and  his  troubles  annually  recede.  Hope,  the  sweetener  of 
life,  holds  out  to  him  at  the  same  time,  brighter  and  brighter  pros- 
pects of  approaching  ease  and  abundance. 

Among  the  enjoyments  of  these  people,  health,  and  hardihood, 
ought  never  to  be  forgotten.  The  toils,  which  they  undergo ;  the 
difficulties,  which  they  surmount ;  and  the  hazards  which  they  escape ; 
all  increase  their  spirits,  and  their  firmness.  A  New-England  forest, 
formed  of  hills  and  vallies,  down  which  the  waters,  always  pure  and 
sweet,  flow  with  unceasing  rapidity  ;  or  of  plains,  dry,  and  destitute 
of  marshes,  is  healthy  almost  of  course.  The  minds  of  these  settlers, 
therefore  possess  the  energy,  which  results  from  health,  as  well  as 
that,  which  results  from  activity  :  and  few  persons  taste  the  pleas- 
ures, which  fall  to  their  lot,  with  a  keener  relish.  The  common 
troubles  of  life,  often  deeply  felt  by  persons  in  easy  circumstances, 
scarcely  awaken  in  them  the  slightest  emotion.  Cold  and  heat,  snow 
and  rain,  labour  and  fatigue,  are  regarded  by  them  as  trifles,  deserv- 
ing no  attention.  The  coarsest  food  is  pleasant  to  them  ;  and  the 
hardest  bed  refreshing.  Over  roads,  encumbered  with  rocks,  mire, 
and  the  stumps  and  roots  of  trees,  they  ride  upon  a  full  trot ;  and 
are  apprehensive  of  no  danger.  Even  their  horses  gain,  by  habit,  the 
same  resolution  ;  and  pass  rapidly,  and  safely,  over  the  worst  roads, 
where  both  horses  and  men,  accustomed  to  smoother  ways,  merely 
tremble,  and  creep,  h^ven  the  women  of  these  settlements,  and  those 
of  every  age  share  largely  in  this  spirit.  The  longest  journies,  in 
very  difficult  roads,  they  undertake  with  cheerfulness,  and  perform 
without  anxiety.  I  have  often  met  them  on  horseback  ;  and  been 
surprised  to  see  them  pass  fearlessly  over  those  dangers  of  the  way, 
which  my  companions  and  myself  watched  with  caution  and  solici- 
tude.   Frequently  I  have  seen  them  performing  these  journies  alone. 

Another  prime  enjoyment  of  these  settlers  is  found  in  the  kind- 
ness, which  r-eigns  among  them  universally.    A  general  spirit  of 


PROCESS  OF  PIONEERING  IN  NEW  ENGLAND     615 

good  neighbourhood  is  prevalent  throughout  New-P2ngland  ;  but 
here  it  prevails  in  a  peculiar  degree.  Among  these  people,  a  man 
rarely  tells  the  story  of  his  distresses  to  deaf  ears  ;  or  asks  any 
reasonable  assistance  in  vain.  The  relief  given  is  a  matter,  not  of 
kindness  merely,  but  of  course.  To  do  kind  offices  is  the  custom  ; 
a  part  of  the  established  manners.  This  is  seen  e\'cry\vhere  ;  and 
is  regularly  experienced  by  the  traveller ;  whom  they  receive  as  a 
friend,  rather  than  as  a  stranger ;  as  an  object  of  good  will,  and 
not  as  a  source  of  gain. 

These  things  grow  naturally  out  of  their  circumstances.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  humane  impressions,  acquired  by  their  early  education, 
such  offices  become  peculiarly  valuable,  and  necessary,  by  their 
situation.  Every  case  of  distress  is  easily  realized  by  all ;  because 
all  have  been  sufferers.  "  Miseris  succurrere  disco,"  may  every  new 
settler  say  with  emphasis,  as  well  as  truth.  Like  sailors,  these  people 
learn  from  the  evils  of  life  mutually  to  feel,  and  relieve.  This  vivid 
sympathy  mightily  contributes  to  lighten  the  evils,  and  soothe  the 
sufferings,  incident  to  a  new  settlement ;  and  spreads  cheerfulness, 
and  resolution,  where  a  traveller  would  look  for  little  else,  beside 
discouragement,  and  gloom. 

Among  the  pleasures,  furnished  by  the  amelioration  of  their  cir- 
cumstances, the  exchange  of  their  log-huts  for  decent  houses  must 
not  be  forgotten.  Building,  particularly  with  wood,  must  be  cheap, 
where  timber  abounds.  Within  a  few  years,  the  industrious  planter 
finds  his  circumstances  so  much  improved,  that  he  is  persuaded  to 
erect  a  permanent  habitation.  This  is  a  change,  always  bringing 
with  it  a  train  of  advantages.  The  comfort,  the  spirit,  the  manners, 
nay  even  the  morals,  of  his  family,  if  not  of  himself,  are  almost  of 
course  improved.  The  transition  from  a  good  house  is,  by  the  as- 
sociation of  ideas  natural  to  the  human  mind,  a  very  easy  one  to 
good  furniture ;  a  handsome  dress ;  a  handsome  mode  of  living ; 
better  manners ;  and  every  thing  else,  connected  with  a  higher 
reputation. 

That,  which  may  be  called  tJie  second  set  of  planters,  may  be 
considered  as  regularly  superiour  to  the  first :  and  tJie  third,  when 
there  is  a  third,  is  superiour  to  the  second.  By  this  time  the  countr)' 
has  chiefly  assumed  the  aspect  of  good  farming,  and  regular  society. 


6i6  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

You  will  not  understand,  that  I  here  intend  all  which  is  sometimes 
meant  by  those  terms.  A  great  difference  is  made,  with  respect  to 
the  state  of  society,  by  the  governments,  under  which  the  different 
settlers  live.  In  Massachusetts,  where  the  system  was  comparatively 
stable,  the  character  of  the  rulers  well  known,  the  laws  wise,  and 
good,  and  the  administration  such  as  compelled  respect ;  where,  in 
a  word,  the  recent  planters  were  under  exactly  the  same  govern- 
ment, as  the  inhabitants  of  the  older  towns  ;  a  regular  state  of  so- 
ciety was  introduced  at  a  very  early  period.  Here  it  was  a  thing  of 
course  ;  and  every  planter  went  upon  his  farm  with  a  full  conviction, 
that  no  change  was  to  be  expected  in  his  civil  concerns.  Every 
thing  here  grew  up,  as  a  child  in  a  well-educated  family  grows  up, 
to  habits  of  order,  and  happy  intercourse  :  and  no  real  chasm  ex- 
isted, unless  accidentally,  between  the  first  excursion  into  the  forest, 
and  the  complete  population.  .   .   . 

A  reflecting  traveller,  passing  over  these  roads,  [of  Northern  New 
Hampshire]  is  naturally  induced  to  recollect  the  situation  of  the  first 
Colonists  in  New-England  ;  and  to  realize  some  of  the  hardships, 
which  those  intrepid  people  endured  in  settling  this  country.  Among 
the  difficulties,  which  they  had  to  encounter,  bad  roads  were  no  con- 
temptible one.  Almost  all  the  roads  in  which  they  travelled,  passed 
through  deep  forests,  and  over  rough  hills  and  mountains,  often 
over  troublesome  and  dangerous  streams,  and  not  unfrequently 
through  swamps,  miry,  and  hazardous  ;  where  wolves,  bears,  and 
catamounts,  haunted  and  alarmed  their  passage.  The  forests  they 
could  not  cut  down  :  the  rocks  they  could  not  remove  :  the  swamps 
they  could  not  causey  ;  and  over  the  streams  they  could  not  erect 
bridges.  Men,  women,  and  children,  ventured  daily  through  this 
combination  of  evils  ;  penetrated  the  recesses  of  the  wilderness ; 
climbed  the  hills  ;  wound  their  way  among  the  rocks  ;  struggled 
through  the  mire ;  and  swam  on  horseback  through  deep  and 
rapid  rivers,  by  which  they  were  sometimes  carried  away.  To  all 
these  evils  was  added  one,  more  distressing  than  all.  In  the 
silence,  and  solitude  of  the  forest,  the  Indian  often  lurked  in  am- 
bush near  their  path  ;  and  from  behind  a  neighbouring  tree  took 
the  fatal  aim  ;  while  his  victim,  perhaps,  was  perfectly  unconscious 
of  danger.   .  .  . 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDI-E  W'llST  617 

A  person  who  has  extensively  seen  the  efforts  of  the  New-Eng- 
land people  in  colonizing  new  countries,  cannot  fail  of  being  forci- 
bly struck  by  their  enterprise,  industry,  and  perseverance.  In  Maine, 
in  New-Hampshire,  in  Vermont,  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  New- 
York,  I  have  passed  the  dwellings  of  several  hundred  thousands 
of  these  people,  erected  on  grounds,  which  in  1760  were  an 
absolute  wilderness.  A  large  part  of  these  tracts  they  have  already 
converted  into  fruitful  fields  ;  covered  it  with  productive  farms  ; 
surrounded  it  with  enclosures  ;  planted  on  it  orchards  ;  and  beauti- 
fied it  with  comfortable,  and  in  many  places  with  handsome,  houses. 
Considerable  tracts  I  have  traced  through  their  whole  progress 
from  a  desert  to  a  garden  ;  and  have  literally  beheld  the  wilderness 
blossom  as  the  rose.  .  .  . 


in.    EARLY    LIFE    IN   THE    MIDDLE   \VEST 

1  It  is  natural,  I  think,  that  you  should  expect  by  this  time  some 
account  of  the  inhabitants,  their  manner  of  living,  the  mode  of 
settling  the  country,  the  routes,  distance,  and  mode  of  travelling 
to  it,  with  some  information  respecting  religion  and  political  senti- 
ments, and  the  social  pleasures  of  the  people  ;  all  of  which,  1  am 
afraid,  will  require  too  much  time  for  a  letter,  and  therefore  I  beg 
that  you  will  be  content  to  receive  the  information  in  the  desultory 
manner  in  which  I  shall  be  enabled  to  send  it. 

In  some  of  my  first  letters  I  gave  you  an  account  of  tlie  first 
settlement  of  this  country.  The  perturbed  state  of  that  period,  and 
the  savage  state  of  the  country,  which  was  one  entire  wilderness, 
made  the  object  of  the  first  emigrants  that  of  security  and  suste- 
nance, which  produced  the  scheme  of  several  families  li\-ing  to- 
gether in  what  were  called  Stations.  .  .  . 

As  the  country  gained  strength,  the  stations  began  to  break  up 
in  that  part  of  the  countiy,  and  their  inhabitants  to  spread  them- 
selves, and  settle  upon  their  respective  estates.  But  the  embarrass- 
ment they  were  in  for  most  of  the  conveniences  of  life,  did  not  ad- 
mit of  their  building  any  other  houses  but  of  logs,  and  of  o])ening 

1  Imlay,  A  Topographical  Description  of  the  Western  Territory  of  North 
America  [1792],  pp.  132-133,  133-137.  I4i-i49- 


6i8  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

fields  in  the  most  expeditious  way  for  planting  the  Indian  corn  ; 
the  only  grain  which  was  cultivated  at  that  time. 

A  log-house  is  very  soon  erected,  and  in  consequence  of  the 
friendly  disposition  which  exists  among  those  hospitable  people, 
every  neighbour  flew  to  the  assistance  of  each  other  upon  occasions 
of  emergency.  Sometimes  they  were  built  of  round  logs  entirely, 
covered  with  rived  ash  shingles,  and  the  interstices  stopped  with 
clay,  or  lime  and  sand,  to  keep  out  the  weather.  The  next  object 
was  to  open  land  for  cultivation.  There  is  very  little  under- wood 
in  any  part  of  this  countiy,  so  that  by  cutting  up  the  cane,  and 
girdling  the  trees,  you  are  sure  of  a  crop  of  corn.  The  fertility  of 
the  soil  amply  repays  the  laborer  for  his  toil ;  for  if  the  large  trees 
are  not  very  numerous,  and  a  large  proportion  of  them  the  sugar 
maple,  it  is  ver)^  likely  from  this  imperfect  cultivation,  that  the 
ground  will  yield  from  50  to  60  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre.  The 
second  crop  will  be  more  ample  ;  and  as  the  shade  is  removed  by 
cutting  the  timber  away,  great  part  of  our  land  will  produce  from 
70  to  100  bushels  of  corn  from  an  acre.  This  extraordinary  fer- 
tility enables  the  farmer  who  has  but  a  small  capital  to  increase  his 
wealth  in  a  most  rapid  manner  (I  mean  by  wealth  the  comforts  of 
life).  His  cattle  and  hogs  will  find  sufficient  food  in  the  woods, 
not  only  for  them  to  subsist  upon,  but  to  fatten  them.  His  horses 
want  no  provender  the  greatest  part  of  the  year  except  cane  and 
wild  clover ;  but  he  may  afford  to  feed  them  with  corn  the  second 
year.  His  garden,  with  little  attention,  produces  him  all  the  culi- 
nary roots  and  vegetables  necessary  for  his  table ;  and  the  prolific 
increase  of  his  hogs  and  poultry,  will  furnish  him  the  second  year, 
without  fearing  to  injure  his  stock,  with  a  plenty  of  animal  food ; 
and  in  three  or  four  years  his  stock  of  cattle  and  sheep  will  prove 
sufficient  to  supply  him  with  both  beef  and  mutton  ;  and  he  may 
continue  his  plan  at  the  same  time  of  increasing  his  stock  of  those 
useful  animals.  By  the  fourth  year,  provided  he  is  industrious,  he 
may  have  his  plantation  in  sufficient  good  order  to  build  a  better 
house,  which  he  can  do  either  of  stone,  brick,  or  a  framed  wooden 
building,  the  principal  articles  of  which  will  cost  him  little  more 
than  the  labour  of  himself  and  domestics  ;  and  he  may  readily  bar- 
ter or  sell  some  part  of  the  superfluous  productions  of  his  farm, 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  TIIK  MIDDLK  WEST  619 

which  it  will  b\-  this  time  afford,  and  procure  such  thin<;s  as  he 
may  stand  in  need  of  for  the  completion  of  his  building.  Apples, 
peaches,  pears,  &c.  &c.  he  ought  to  plant  when  he  finds  a  soil  or 
eligible  situation  to  place  them  in,  as  that  will  not  hinder,  (^r  in 
any  degree  divert,  him  from  the  object  of  his  aggrandizement.  I 
have  taken  no  notice  of  the  game  he  might  kill,  as  it  is  more  a 
sacrifice  of  time  to  an  industrious  man  than  any  real  advantiige. 

Such  has  been  the  progress  of  the  settlement  of  this  country, 
from  dirty  stations  or  forts,  and  smoaky  huts,  that  it  has  expanded 
into  fertile  fields,  blushing  orchards,  pleasant  gardens,  luxuriant 
sugar  groves,  neat  and  commodious  houses,  rising  villages,  and 
trading  towns.  Ten  years  have  produced  a  difference  in  the  popu- 
lation and  comforts  of  this  country,  which  to  be  pourtrayed  in  just 
colours  would  appear  marvellous.  To  have  implicit  faith  or  belief 
that  such  things  have  happened,  it  is  first  necessaiy  to  be  (as  I 
have  been)  a  spectator  of  such  events. 

Emigrations  to  this  country  were  mostly  from  the  back  parts  of 
Virginia,  Mar)'land,  Pennsylvania,  and  North  Carolina,  until  1784  : 
in  which  year  many  ofificers  who  had  served  in  the  American  army 
during  the  late  war  came  out  with  their  families  ;  several  families 
came  also  from  England,  Philadelphia,  New  Jersey,  York,  and  the 
New  England  States.  The  country  soon  began  to  be  chequered 
after  that  asra  with  genteel  men,  which  operated  both  upon  the 
minds  and  actions  of  the  backwoods  people,  who  constituted  the 
first  emigrants.   .   .   . 

The  routes  of  the  different  Atlantic  States  to  this  countiy  are 
various,  as  may  be  supposed.  P'rom  the  northern  States  it  is  through 
the  upper  parts  of  Pennsylvania  to  Pittsburg,  and  then  down  the 
river  Ohio.  The  distance  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg  is  nearly 
three  hundred  miles.  P'rom  Lancaster  about  two  hundred  and 
thirty.  The  route  through  Redstone  and  by  Pittsburg,  both  from 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  is  the  most  eligible,  provided  you  have 
much  baggage  ;  except  you  go  from  the  southern  and  back  coun- 
ties of  Virginia  ;  then  your  best  and  most  expeditious  way  is  through 
the  Wilderness.  From  Baltimore  passing  Old  Town  upon  the  Po- 
towmac,  and  by  Cumberland  Fort,  Braddock's  road  to  Redstone  Old 
Fort  on  the  Monorigahala,  is  about  two  hundred  and  forty  miles  ; 


620  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

and  from  Alexandria  to  the  same  plaee  by  W'inehester  Old  Town, 
and  then  the  same  route  across  the  mountain  is  about  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty  miles.  This  last  must  be  the  most  eligible  for  all 
Europeans  who  may  wish  to  travel  to  this  country,  as  the  distance 
by  land  is  shorter,  the  roads  better,  and  the  accommodations  good  ; 
i.e.  they  are  very  good  to  Old  Town  which  is  one  hundred  and  forty 
miles  from  Alexandria,  and  from  thence  to  Redstone  comfortable, 
and  plentifully  supplied  with  provisions  of  all  sorts  :  the  road  over 
the  mountain  is  rather  rough,  but  no  where  in  the  least  dangerous. 
Travellers  or  emigrants  take  different  methods  of  transporting 
their  baggage,  goods,  or  furniture,  from  the  places  they  may  be  at 
to  the  Ohio,  according  to  circumstances,  or  their  object  in  com- 
ing to  the  country.  For  instance,  if  a  man  is  travelling  only  for 
curiosity,  or  has  no  family  or  goods  to  remove,  his  best  way  would 
be  to  purchase  horses,  and  take  his  route  through  the  Wilderness  ; 
but  provided  he  has  a  family  or  goods  of  any  sort  to  remove,  his 
best  way,  then,  would  be  to  purchase  a  waggon  and  team  of  horses 
to  carry  his  property  to  Redstone  Old  Fort,  or  to  Pittsburg,  accord- 
ing as  he  may  come  from  the  northern  or  southern  States.  A  good 
waggon  will  cost  at  Philadelphia  about  .;^io  (I  shall  reckon  every 
thing  in  sterling  money  for  your  greater  convenience)  and  the 
horses  about  J[,  1 2  each  ;  they  would  cost  something  more  both  at 
Baltimore  and  Alexandria.  The  waggon  may  be  covered  with  can- 
vass, and,  if  it  is  the  choice  of  the  people,  they  may  sleep  in  it  at 
nights  with  the  greatest  safety.  But  if  they  should  dislike  that, 
there  are  inns  of  accommodation  the  whole  distance  on  the  differ- 
ent roads.  To  allow  the  horses  a  plenty  of  hay  and  corn  would 
cost  about  I  s.  per  diem,  each  horse  ;  supposing  you  purchase  your 
forage  in  the  most  economical  manner,  i.e.  of  the  farmers,  as  you 
pass  along,  from  time  to  time  as  you  may  want  it,  and  carry  it  in 
your  waggon  ;  and  not  of  inn-keepers,  who  must  have  their  profits. 
The  provisions  for  the  family  I  would  purchase  in  the  same  man- 
ner ;  and  by  having  two  or  three  camp  kettles,  and  stopping  every 
evening  when  the  weather  is  fine  upon  the  brink  of  some  rivulet, 
and  by  kindling  a  fire  they  may  soon  dress  their  food.  There  is 
no  impediment  to  these  kind  of  things,  it  is  common  and  may  be 
done  with  the  greatest  security  ;  and  I  would  recommend  all  persons 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDT.l",  WEST  621 

who  wish  to  avoid  expense  as  much  as  possible  to  adopt  this  plan. 
True,  the  charges  at  inns  on  those  roads  are  remarkably  reasonable, 
but  1  have  mentioned  those  particulars  as  there  are  many  unf(M-- 
tunate  people  in  the  world,  to  whom  the  savin<j  of  every  shilling  is 
an  object,  and  as  this  manner  of  journeying  is  so  far  from  being 
disagreeable,  that  in  a  fine  season  it  is  extremely  pleasant. 

Provisions  in  those  countries  are  very  cheap,  beef,  mutton,  and 
pork,  are  something  less  than  2d.  per  lb.  ;  dunghill  fowls  are  from 
4d.  to  6d.  each;  duck,  8d. ;  geese  and  turkeys,  i  s.  3d. ;  butter,  5  d. ; 
cheese,  I  will  say  nothing  about,  as  there  is  very  little  good  imtil 
you  arrive  in  Kentucky.    Flour  is  about  12  s.  6d.  per  cwt. 

The  best  way  is  to  carry  their  tea  and  coffee  from  the  place  they 
may  set  out  at ;  good  green  tea  will  be  from  4s.  6d.  to  6s.  per  lb.; 
souchong  from  3  s.  to  5s.  ;  coffee  will  cost  from  i  s.  3d.  to  i  s.  6d. 
per  lb.  ;  loaf  sugar  from  7i  d.  to  10.]  d.  But  I  would  not  recom- 
mend their  carrying  much  sugar,  for  as  the  back  country  is  ap- 
proached, the  maple  sugar  is  in  abundance,  and  may  be  bought 
from  4d.  to  6d.  per  lb.  Such  are  the  expenses  to  be  incurred 
travelling  to  this  country  by  Redstone  and  Pittsburg. 

The  distance  which  one  of  those  waggons  may  travel  one  day 
with  another  is  little  short  of  twenty  miles.  So  that  it  will  be  a 
journey  from  Alexandria  to  Redstone  Old  Fort  of  eleven  or  twelve 
days,  from  Baltimore  a  day  or  two  longer,  and  from  Philadelphia 
to  Pittsburg  I  should  suppose  it  would  require  nearly  twenty  days  ; 
as  the  roads  are  not  so  good  as  from  the  two  former  places. 

From  these  prices  the  expence  of  removing  a  family,  from  either 
of  the  sea  ports  I  have  mentioned  to  the  Ohio,  may  be  computed 
with  tolerable  exactitude. 

The  best  time  for  setting  out  for  this  country  from  any  of  the 
Atlantic  ports,  is  the  latter  end  of  either  September  or  April. 
The  autumn  is  perhaps  the  most  eligible  of  the  two  ;  as  it  is  most 
likely  that  the  roads  across  the  mountain  will  be  drier,  and  pro- 
visions and  forage  are  then  both  more  plentiful  and  cheap  than  in 
the  spring. 

If  this  mode  should  not  suit  the  convenience  of  the  party,  by 
reason  of  their  not  wanting  a  waggon  or  horses  when  they  arrive 
in  this  country,  they  may  have  their  goods  brought  out  to  Redstone 


62  2  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

Old  Fort  from  Alexandria  for  1 5  s.  per  cwt.  and  in  like  proportion 
from  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia, 

At  Redstone  Old  Fort,  or  Pittsburg,  they  can  either  buy  a  boat, 
which  will  cost  them  about  5  s.  per  ton,  or  freight  their  goods  to 
Kentucky  for  about  i  s.  per  cwt.  There  is  no  regular  business  of 
this  sort ;  but  as  there  are  always  boats  coming  down  the  river,  i  s. 
per  cut.  is  the  common  charge  for  freight.  But  more  frequently 
when  there  is  boat  room  to  spare,  it  is  given  to  such  as  are  not 
able  to  purchase  a  boat,  or  have  not  a  knowledge  of  the  navigation. 
However,  that  is  a  business  which  requires  no  skill,  and  there  are 
always  numbers  of  people  coming  down,  who  will  readily  conduct 
a  boat  for  the  sake  of  a  passage. 

The  distance  from  Philadelphia  by  land  to  Kentucky  is  between 
seven  and  eight  hundred  miles  ;  from  Baltimore  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred ;  nearly  six  hundred  from  Alexandria ;  and  upwards  of  five 
hundred  from  Richmond.  The  roads  and  accommodations  are 
tolerably  good  to  the  borders  of  the  Wilderness  ;  through  which 
it  is  hardly  possible  for  a  carriage  to  pass,  great  part  of  the  way 
being  over  high  and  steep  hills,  upon  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and 
along  defiles,  which  in  some  places  seem  to  threaten  you  at  every 
step  with  danger.  This  is  the  only  route  the  people  coming  from 
the  upper  parts  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  can  take  at  present 
to  get  into  the  country  ;  the  gap  of  Cumberland  mountain  being 
the  only  place  it  can  be  passed  without  the  greatest  difficulty.  The 
opening  of  the  Tenasee  will  afford  a  convenient  communication 
with  the  Mississippi.  The  Wilderness,  which  was  formerly  two 
hundred  miles  through,  without  a  single  habitation,  is  reduced 
from  the  settlement  of  Bowel's  Valley,  to  nearly  one  half  of  that 
distance  ;  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  in  a  few  years  more  the 
remainder  of  the  distance  will  afford  settlements  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  people  travelling  that  route  ;  when  a  good  road  may  be 
made  quite  to  Kentucky.  The  canals  I  have  spoken  of  which  are 
cutting  on  the  Potowmac,  and  the  removal  of  the  obstioictions  in 
Cheat  river,  will  render  the  passage  from  Alexandria,  or  the  federal 
city  to  the  Ohio,  both  cheap  and  easy. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  emigrants  in  the  country  they  generally  take 
a  view  of  that  part  which  it  is  their  object  to  settle  in,  and  according 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDLI':  W'EST  623 

to  their  circumstances  or  callin<i^,  fix  upon  such  a  situation  as  may 
appear  eligible  for  their  business.  lUit  as  the  greater  jjroportion 
of  the  emigrants  who  come  to  this  country  are  husbandmen,  I 
shall  only  take  notice  of  their  manner  of  proceeding  and  settling 
a  farm.  Land  is  to  l^e  ]5urchased  in  every  part  of  the  country :  the 
prices  are  various  according  to  the  improvements  there  may  be 
upon  it,  its  quality,  and  local  situation  ;  the  general  price  of  land 
with  some  improvements  is  from  1 2  s,  to  15  s.  per  acre.  Plantations 
with  orchards  and  other  improvements,  may  be  purchased  from 
;^i.  to;^i.5  s.  per  acre;  good  land  without  improvements  may  be 
purchased  from  is.  to  8s.  per  ditto,  which  price  will  be  according 
to  its  rate  or  quality  and  situation. 

Remember,  I  take  notice  only  of  the  settled  countiy,  as  I  appre- 
hend no  European  would  be  hardy  enough  to  form  a  settlement  in 
a  wilderness,  which  will  be  left  for  the  Americans,  who,  no  doubt, 
from  habit,  are  best  qualified  for  that  sort  of  business.  Indeed 
there  is  a  number  of  people  who  have  so  long  been  in  the  custom 
of  removing,  farther  and  farther  back  as  the  country  becomes  set- 
tled, for  the  sake  of  hunting,  and  what  they  call  range  for  their 
cattle,  which  is  that  of  their  feeding  upon  the  natural  grass,  so  that 
they  seem  unqualified  for  any  other  kind  of  life.  This  is  favour- 
able to  the  settling  a  wild  and  infant  country  ;  and  no  doubt  this 
disposition  will  last  (with  some)  as  long  as  there  is  left  a  wilder- 
ness in  America.  It  is  however  certain,  that  [it]  is  advantageous  to 
society  which  will  be  bettered,  and  not  injured  by  these  peculiar 
habits,  so  long  as  they  have  new  countries  to  people  :  for,  this 
adventurous  spirit  tends  to  accelerate  the  propagation  of  domestic 
animals  of  every  sort, 

^  During  the  first  winter  and  all  the  second  and  third  years  of  my 
residence  here  [Missouri],  the  rage  for  speculating  in  their  lands 
was  at  the  highest.  No  Jews  were  ever  more  greedy  to  accumulate 
money.  I  have  often  been  at  collections,  where  lands  were  at  sale 
for  taxes  and  by  orders  of  court,  and  at  other  times,  where  there 
were  voluntary  sales  at  auction.  The  zeal  to  purchase  amounted  to 
a  fever.    There  were  no  arts,  to  which  resort  was  not  had  to  cr\-  up 

1  Plint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  ^■ears  [1S26J,  pp.  19S-207,  246,  247-251. 


624  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

and  cry  down.  Land  speculators  constituted  a  particular  party.  It 
required  prodigious  efforts  to  become  adroit.  The  speculators  had 
a  peculiar  kind  of  slang  dialect,  appropriate  to  their  profession,  and 
when  they  walked  about  it  was  with  an  air  of  solemn  thoughtful- 
ness  upon  their  countenances  as  though  they  were  the  people,  and 
wisdom  would  die  with  them.  The  surveyors  of  course  were  very 
important  instruments  in  this  business,  and  a  great  and  fortunate 
land-speculator  and  land-holder  was  looked  up  to  with  as  much  ven- 
eration by  the  people,  as  any  partner  in  the  house  of  Hope  in  Lon- 
don, or  Gray  in  America.  I  question,  if  the  people  of  Missouri 
generally  thought  there  existed  higher  objects  of  envy,  than  Chou- 
teau and  a  few  other  great  land-holders  of  that  class.  A  very  large 
tract  of  land  was  cried  by  the  sheriff  for  sale,  when  I  was  present, 
and  the  only  limits  and  bounds  given  were,  that  it  was  thirty  miles 
north  of  St.  Louis.  A  general  laugh  ran  through  the  crowd  assem- 
bled at  the  court-house  door.  But  a  purchaser  soon  appeared,  who 
bid  off  the  tract  thirty  miles  north  of  St.  Louis,  undoubtedly  with 
a  view  to  sell  it  to  some  more  greedy  speculator  than  himself. 

There  were  people  who  offered  immense  tracts  of  land,  the  titles 
to  which  were  contingent,  and  only  in  prospect.  Often  the  same 
tract  was  offered  for  sale  by  two  and  even  three  claimants.  The 
whole  county  of  St.  Charles,  containing  a  number  of  thousands  of 
inhabitants,  was  offered  for  sale,  by  what  was  called  the  Glamorgan 
claim,  and  thirteen  hundred  dollars  were  paid  on  the  spot  for 
the  claim.  But  it  is  not  my  intention  to  dip  into  the  gulph  of  land- 
claims,  settlement-rights,  preemption-rights,  Spanish  grants,  con- 
firmed claims,  unconfirmed  claims,  and  New  Madrid  claims.  The 
discussion,  the  investigation  of  these  claims,  the  comparative  value 
of  them,  the  vaunting  of  the  mill-streams  on  the  one,  the  range  and 
probable  advantages  of  another,  the  prospect  of  confirmation  of  the 
unconfirmed  titles,  the  expectations  of  one  from  the  eloquence  of 
the  members  of  congress  who  would  espouse  the  interest  of  his 
claim,  of  another  from  his  determined  and  declared  purpose  to 
carry  his  claims  by  bribery,  —  conversation  upon  these  points  made 
up  the  burden  of  the  song  in  all  social  meetings.  They  were  like 
the  weather  in  other  countries,  standing  and  perpetual  topics  of 
conversation.    Nor  let  the  inhabitant  of  tlie  Atlantic  cities  suppose 


EARLY  LIFE  TN  TTIK  MTDDTJC  WEST  625 

that  these  were  without  an  intense  interest,  h'amilies  were  constantly 
arriving,  many  of  them  polite  and  well-informed,  and  they  were  go- 
ing on  to  these  tracts,  which,  portrayed  by  the  interested  surveyors 
and  speculators,  and  as  yet  partially  explored  and  possessing  much 
of  the  interest  of  unknown  regions,  were  to  be  their  home. 

The  first  months  of  the  life  of  a  family,  that  seats  itself  in  these 
remote  solitudes,  have  a  charm  of  romance  thrown  over  them,  which, 
alas  !  more  intimate  acquaintance  is  but  too  sure  to  dispel.  Never 
have  I  seen  countenances  suffused  with  more  interest  or  eagerness, 
than  in  circles  of  this  description,  where  the  comparative  beauty 
and  advantages  of  different  sections  of  the  country,  or  the  best  sites 
for  location,  were  the  themes  of  conversation.  No  doubt  many  of 
these  speculations  were  dishonest.  No  subject  is  more  susceptible 
of  all  the  arts  of  cheating,  because  in  no  point  is  it  so  impossible 
to  disprove  advantages,  which  vary  with  the  imagination  of  him 
that  contemplates  them.  The  speculators  often  exercised  dishonest 
arts,  before  the  great  change  in  the  aspect  of  the  times,  which  was 
more  or  less  felt  every  where,  but  felt  with  a  mote  severe  pressure 
here  than  in  any  other  place,  and  they  grew  rich  with  unexampled 
rapidity.  But  they  had  not  rightly  discerned  the  signs  of  the  times. 
For  land  speculation  was  at  its  greediest  activity  about  the  time  that 
they  took  a  sudden,  I  might  call  it  figuratively,  a  perpendicular  fall. 
For  they  fell  from  an  estimation  above  their  real  value,  through  all 
the  stages  of  depreciation,  to  an  estimation  probably  far  below  their 
proper  value.  Hundreds  of  speculators,  who  had  embarked  all 
their  means,  and  a  still  greater  degree  of  credit  in  these  specula- 
tions, and  who  might  have  sold  these  lands  in  the  fortunate  moment 
and  been  independent,  retained  them,  through  greediness,  until 
they  sank  at  once  in  value  upon  their  hands,  and  many  were  ruined ; 
and,  as  always  happens  in  such  cases,  these  men  of  the  principal 
show  of  wealth,  of  credit  to  any  extent,  and  in  whose  stability  much 
of  the  means  of  the  country  was  involved,  could  not  fail  to  drag 
down  multitudes  with  them  in  their  fall.   .   .   . 

Between  the  second  and  third  years  of  my  residence  in  the  coun- 
try, the  immigration  from  the  western  and  southern  states  to  this 
country  poured  in  a  flood,  the  power  and  strength  of  which  could 
only  be  adequately  conceived  by  persons  on  the  spot.    We  have 


626  SETTLEMENT  OE  THE  WEST 

numbered  a  hundred  persons  passing  through  the  village  of  St. 
Charles  in  one  day.  The  number  was  said  to  have  equalled  that 
for  many  days  together.  From  the  Mamelles  I  have  looked  over 
the  subjacent  plain  quite  to  the  ferry,  where  the  immigrants  crossed 
the  upper  Mississippi.  I  have  seen  in  this  extent  nine  wagons  har- 
nessed with  from  four  to  six  horses.  We  may  allow  a  hundred  cat- 
tle, besides  hogs,  horses,  and  sheep,  to  each  wagon  ;  and  from 
three  or  four  to  twenty  slaves.  The  whole  appearance  of  the  train, 
the  cattle  with  their  hundred  bells  ;  the  negroes  with  delight  in 
their  countenances,  for  their  labours  are  suspended  and  their  imag- 
inations excited  ;  the  wagons,  often  carrying  two  or  three  tons,  so 
loaded  that  the  mistress  and  children  are  strolling  carelessly  along, 
in  a  gait  which  enables  them  to  keep  up  with  the  slow  travelling 
carriage  ;  —  the  whole  group  occupies  three  quarters  of  a  mile. 
The  slaves  generally  seem  fond  of  their  masters,  and  quite  as  much 
delighted  and  interested  in  the  immigration,  as  the  master.  It  is 
to  me  a  very  pleasing  and  patriarchal  scene.  It  carries  me  back  to 
the  days  of  other  years,  and  to  the  pastoral  pursuits  of  those  ancient 
races,  whose  home  was  in  a  tent,  wherever  their  flocks  found  range. 

I  question  if  the  rich  inhabitants  of  England,  taking  their  sum- 
mer excursion  to  Bath,  are  happier  in  their  journey,  than  these 
people.  Just  about  nightfall,  they  come  to  a  spring  or  a  branch, 
where  there  is  water  and  wood.  The  pack  of  dogs  sets  up  a  cheer- 
ful barking.  The  cattle  lie  down  and  nominate.  The  team  is 
unharnessed.  The  huge  wagons  are  covered,  so  that  the  roof  com- 
pletely excludes  the  rain.  The  cooking  utensils  are  brought  out. 
The  blacks  prepare  a  supper,  which  the  toils  of  the  day  render  de- 
licious ;  and  they  talk  over  the  adventures  of  the  past  day,  and  the 
prospects  of  the  next.  Meantime,  they  are  going  where  there  is 
nothing  but  buffaloes  and  deer  to  limit  their  range,  even  to  the 
western  sea.  Their  imaginations  are  highly  excited.  Said  some 
of  them  to  me,  as  they  passed  over  the  Mamelle  prairie,  the 
richest  spot  that  I  have  ever  seen  :  "If  this  is  so  rich,  what  must 
Boon's  Lick  be  .''  " 

From  some  cause,  it  happens  that  in  the  western  and  southern 
states,  a  tract  of  country  gets  a  name,  as  being  more  desirable  than 
any  other.    The  imaginations  of  the  multitudes  that  converse  upon 


EARLY  LIFE  LN   Till':  MIDDLE  WEST  627 

the  subject,  get  kindled,  and  the  plains  of  Mamre  in  old  time,  or 
the  hills  of  the  land  of  promise,  were  not  more  fertile  in  milk  and 
honey,  than  are  the  fashionable  points  of  immigration.  During  the 
first,  second,  and  third  years  of  my  residence  here,  the  whole  cur- 
rent of  immigration  set  towards  this  country,  Boon's  Lick,  so  called, 
from  Boon's  having  discovered  and  worked  the  salines  in  that  tract. 
Boon's  Lick  was  the  common  centre  of  hopes,  and  the  common 
point  of  union  for  the  people.  Ask  one  of  tliem  whither  he  was 
moving,  and  the  answer  was,  "  To  Boon's  Lick,  to  be  sure."  I 
conversed  with  great  numbers  of  these  people,  affording  just  sam- 
ples of  the  great  class  of  frontier  or  backwoods  people,  who  begin 
upon  the  retirement  of  the  Indians,  and  in  their  turn  yield  to  a 
more  industrious  and  permanent  race  who  succeed  them,  and  they 
in  turn  push  on  still  farther,  with  their  face  ever  toward  the  west- 
ern sea.  And  thus  wave  propels  wave.  Thus  the  frontier  still  broad- 
ens, and  there  are  many  white  settlers  fixed  in  their  homes  eight 
hundred  miles  above  St.  Charles.  The  surveyor  who  ran  the  base 
line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Osage  to  the  Arkansas,  found  a  white 
family  in  the  vast  intermediate  desert  between  the  settlements  of 
the  one  river  and  the  other,  a  hundred  miles  from  any  settled  hab- 
itation, even  of  the  Indians.  They  reported  that  they  saw  no  peo- 
ple oftener  than  once  in  a  year.  And  the  range  is  almost  beyond 
the  stretch  of  imagination.  For  the  gentlemen  of  Long's  Expedi- 
tion tell  us,  that  in  the  political  limits  of  the  United  States,  they 
found  tribes  of  Indians,  whose  ears  the  name  of  the  government 
that  claims  their  country,  had  never  reached.  Nothing  can  or  will 
limit  the  immigration  westward,  but  the  Western  Ocean.  Alas  !  for 
the  moving  generation  of  the  day,  when  the  tide  of  advancing  back- 
woodsmen shall  have  met  the  surge  of  the  Pacific.  They  may  then 
set  them  down  and  weep  for  other  worlds. 

After  a  while  the  Boon's  Lick  current  began  to  dispart,  and  a 
branch  of  it  to  sweep  off  towards  Salt  River.  In  a  little  while  Salt 
River  —  a  river  of  the  upper  Mississippi,  —  became  the  pole-stiU'  of 
attraction.  After  my  return  from  Arkansas,  as  we  were  journe)-ing 
through  the  state  of  Illinois,  in  the  year  1819,  the  current  set  in 
another  direction.  The  Kentuckians  and  Tennesseeans  were  mov- 
ing their  droves  of  cattle  to  a  point  on  the  Illinois.    I  could  not 


628  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

exactly  make  out  for  two  or  three  days,  the  name  of  their  destined 
country.  They  pronounced  it  as  though  it  were  Moovistar,  or  as 
my  children  phrased  it,  Moving-star.  On  being  better  informed, 
we  were  told  that  the  country  was  denominated  from  some  poor 
sand-banks  near  the  river,  "  Mauvaise  Terre,"  or  "  Poor  Land."  I 
have  heard  at  least  a  dozen  points  come  into  fashion,  and  go  out 
again,  as  places  of  immigration.  There  was  for  a  long  time  a  strong 
sensation  in  favour  of  the  plains  on  the  Pacific,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia.  There  was  some  effort  made  at  Washington  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  militaiy  post  there,  and  had  it  been  effected,  hun- 
dreds of  these  people  would  have  packed  up  all,  and  would  have 
whistled  over  the  vast  and  snowy  Chepywan  ridge  to  lay  their  bones 
on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  At  the  moment  I  lUii  writing,  over 
the  western  and  southern  country,  the  current  of  the  movable  part 
of  the  community  is  towards  Texas,  and  unfortunately  out  of  the 
limits  of  the  country. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  movable  part  of  the  communit}^,  and  unfor- 
tunately for  the  western  country,  it  constitutes  too  great  a  proportion 
of  the  whole  community.  The  general  inclination  here,  is  too  much 
like  that  of  the  Tartars.  Next  to  hunting,  Indian  wars,  and  the 
wonderful  exuberance  of  Kentucky,  the  favourite  topic  is  new  coun- 
tries. They  talk  of  them.  They  are  attached  to  the  associations 
connected  with  such  conversations.  They  have  a  fatal  effect  upon 
their  exertions.  They  have  no  motive,  in  consonance  with  these 
feelings,  to  build  with  old  Cato,  "for  posterity  and  the  immortal 
gods."  They  only  make  such  improvements  as  they  can  leave  with- 
out reluctance  and  without  loss.  I  have  every  where  noted  the 
operation  of  this  impediment  in  tlie  way  of  those  permanent  and 
noble  improvements  which  grow  out  of  a  love  for  that  appropriated 
spot  where  we  were  born,  and  where  we  expect  to  die.  There  are 
noble  and  most  tender  prejudices  of  this  kind,  which  in  the  best 
minds  are  the  strongest,  and  which  make  every  thing  dear  in  that 
cradle  of  our  affections.  There  is  a  fund  of  virtuous  habits,  arising 
out  of  these  permanent  establishments,  which  give  to  our  patriotism 
"'  a  local  habitation  and  a  name."  But  neither  do  I  at  all  believe  the 
eloquent  but  perverse  representation  that  Talleyrand  has  given  of 
these  same  moving  people,  who  have  no  affection  for  one  spot  more 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  THE  MlDDLi:  W  i;ST  629 

than  another,  and  whose  home  is  in  the  wild  woods,  or  the  bound- 
less prairies,  or  wherever  their  dogs,  their  cattle,  and  their  servants, 
are  about  them.  They  lose,  no  doubt,  some  of  the  noble  prejudices 
which  are  transmitted  with  durable  mansions  through  successive 
generations.  But  they  in  their  turn,  have  virtues,  that  are  called  into 
exercise  by  the  peculiarities  of  their  case  and  character,  which  are 
equally  unknown.  But  whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  the  stationary 
or  the  moving  life  upon  the  parties  respectively,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  about  the  result  of  this  spirit  upon  the  face  of  the  country. 
Durable  houses  of  brick  or  of  stone,  which  are  peculiarly  called  for, 
on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  timber,  —  fences  of  hedge  and  ditch, 

—  barns  and  granaries  of  the  more  durable  kind,  —  the  establish- 
ment of  the  coarser  manufactories,  so  necessary  in  a  country  like 
this,  —  the  planting  of  artificial  forests,  which  on  the  w^ide  prairies 
would  be  so  beautiful  and  useful,  —  all  that  accumulation  of  labour, 
industry,  fciste,  and  wealth,  that  unite  to  beautify  a  family  residence, 
to  be  transmitted  as  a  proud  and  useful  memento  of  the  famil)',  — 
these  improvements,  which  seem  to  be  so  naturally  called  for  on 
these  fertile  plains,  will  not  become  general  for  many  years.  Scarcely 
has  a  family  fixed  itself,  and  enclosed  a  plantation  willi  tlie  universal 
fence,  —  split  rails,  laid  in  the  worm-trail,  or  what  is  known  in  the 
north  by  the  name  of  Virginia  fence,  —  reared  a  suitable  number 
of  log  buildings,  in  short,  achieved  the  first  rough  improvements, 
that  appertain  to  the  most  absolute  necessity,  than  the  assembled 
family  about  the  winter  fire  begin  to  talk  about  the  prevailing  theme, 

—  some  country  that  has  become  the  rage,  as  a  point  o(  immigration. 
They  offer  their  farm  for  sale,  and  move  away. 

Some  go  a  step  farther  than  this,  and  plant  an  orch;u'd  ;  and  no 
where  do  the  trees  grow  so  thriftily  or  rapidlw  In  the  space  of  two 
or  three  years  from  the  time  of  planting,  they  become  loaded  with 
fruit.  But  even  this  delightful  appendage  to  a  permanent  establish- 
ment, an  orchard,  which,  with  its  trees,  so  thrifty,  and  ol  the  colour 
of  young  willows,  looks,  on  these  plains,  so  regular  and  beautiful, 

—  even  this  does  not  constitute  a  suflficiently  permanent  motive  of 
residence.  It  is  true  there  are  places  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Ten- 
nessee, that  are  substantial  and  beautiful,  and  on  the  noble  models 
of  the  German  establishments  in  the  center  of  Pennsylvania ;  and 


630  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

they  show  to  such  singular  advantage,  that  they  only  make  us  regret 
that  they  are  not  more  common.  In  the  generations  to  come,  when 
the  tide  of  immigration  shall  have  reached  the  western  sea,  and  the 
recoil  shall  begin  to  fix  the  people  of  these  open  plains  in  Illinois 
and  Missouri,  on  their  prairies,  then  they  will  plant  these  naked, 
but  level  and  rich  tracts  ;  then  they  will  rear  substantial  mansions 
of  brick  or  stone  ;  then  they  will  discover  the  strata  of  coal ;  then 
they  will  draw  the  hedge  and  ditch  for  leagues  together  in  a  right 
line,  and  beautiful  plantations  will  arise,  where  now  there  are  noth- 
ing but  naked  wastes  of  prairie,  far  from  wood  and  water.   .   .   . 

There  are  some  physical  disadvantages.  New  diseases,  and  the 
terror  annexed  to  evils,  that  are  coloured  by  the  imagination,  the 
exorbitance  of  the  charges  of  physicians,  these  are  the  most  prom- 
inent physical  difficulties.   .   .   . 

But  of  all  the  physical  inconveniences  of  the  countiy,  exposure  to 
the  ague  is  undoubtedly  the  worst.  This  is  not  an  universal  evil, 
and  will  undoubtedly  lessen  with  the  increase  of  improvement  and 
cultivation.  The  difficulty  of  finding  a  market  for  the  surplus  prod- 
uce, is  not  a  diminutive  evil.  There  is  not  that  ease  and  certainty  of 
raising  a  small  sum  of  money  by  sending  the  articles  of  the  farm  to 
a  sure  market.  The  plan  of  sending  in  flat  boats  to  New  Orleans  the 
surplus  of  the  farms,  will  not  answer  in  such  an  overstocked  market 
as  that,  except  when  the  Mississippi  boats  can  get  down  early,  and 
before  the  market  is  glutted.  All  articles  of  life  in  Illinois  and  Mis- 
souri have  been,  for  some  years,  below  what  the  planters  could  afford 
to  raise  them  for,  with  any  view  beyond  domestic  consumption. 

For  the  three  past  years  the  grain  boats  from  Missouri  have 
scarcely  paid  the  expense  of  their  building  and  transport  to 
New  Orleans.  The  difficulty  of  paying  taxes,  and  finding  money 
for  those  articles  which  were  originally  luxuries,  and  have  come 
by  use  to  be  necessaries,  is  great.  Hence  even  the  affluent  settlers 
in  these  states  are  obliged  in  a  great  measure  to  forego  wines  and 
brandies,  and  to  be  very  moderate  in  the  use  of  tea,  coffee,  and 
foreign  sugar.  Many  other  little  items  of  luxury  and  comfort  come 
too  high  and  too  hard  for  common  use.  There  is  a  great  abun- 
dance and  variety  of  wild  fowl,  and  turkeys,  prairie  hens,  and 
partridges,  and  in  their  season,  wild  geese  and  ducks.    And  on 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDTJ'.  WEST  63 r 

the  other  hand,  the  fish,  th()u<;h  near  the  Mississippi  in  sufficient 
abundance,  are  coarse  and  tasteless.  The  salted  shad  and  mackerel 
of  the  North  are  here  brou<^ht  to  the  table  as  luxuries.  Such  are 
some  of  the  obvious  inconveniences  of  the  country. 

We  may  justly  remark,  that  man  is  every  where  a  dissatisfied 
and  complaining  animal  ;  and  if  he  had  a  particle  of  unchanged 
humanity  in  him,  would  find  reasons  for  complaining  and  repining 
in  paradise.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  most  of  the  causes  of  dis- 
satisfaction and  disciuietude  are  in  the  mind  and  in  the  imagi- 
nation, are  unreal,  and  may  be  overcome  by  that  effort,  equally 
called  for  by  common  sense,  philosophy,  and  religion,  which  is 
made  to  vanquish  all  sorrow  but  that  which  is  unavoidable  and 
incurable.  In  mv  view,  after  all  the  evils  of  the  condition  of  an 
immigrant  are  considered,  there  is  a  great  balance  of  real  and 
actual  advantages  in  his  favour.  There  is  much  in  that  real  and 
genuine  American  independence,  which  is  possessed  by  an  indus- 
trious and  frugal  planter  in  a  great  degree.  A  Missouri  planter, 
with  a  moderate  force  and  a  good  plantation,  can  be  as  independent 
as  it  is  fit  that  we  should  be.  He  can  raise  the  materials  for  manu- 
facturing his  own  clothing.  He  has  the  greatest  abundance  of 
every  thing  within  himself  ;  an  abundance  in  all  articles,  except 
those  which  have  been  enumerated,  as  not  naturally  congenial  to 
the  climate,  of  which  a  northern  farmer  has  no  idea.  One  of  m\- 
immediate  neighbours,  on  the  prairie  below  St.  Charles,  had  a  hired 
white  man,  a  negro,  and  two  sons  large  enough  to  begin  to  help 
him.  He  had  an  hundred  acres  enclosed.  He  raised,  the  year  that 
I  came  away,  two  thousand  four  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  eight 
hundred  bushels  of  wheat,  and  other  articles  in  proportion,  and  the 
number  of  cattle  and  hogs  that  he  might  raise  was  indefinite  ;  for 
the  pasturage  and  hay  were  as  sufficient  for  a  thousand  cattle  as 
for  twenty.  If  the  summer  be  hot,  the  autumns  are  longer  and 
far  more  beautiful,  and  the  winters  much  milder  and  drier,  than 
at  the  North,  and  the  snow  seldom,  falls  more  than  six  inches. 
Owing  to  the  dr}'ness  and  levelness  of  the  country,  the  roads  arc 
good,  and  passing  is  always  easy  and  practicable.  Any  person, 
able  and  disposed  to  labour,  is  forever  freed  from  the  apprehension 
of  poverty  ;  and  let  philosophers  in  their  bitter  irony  pronounce 


632  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

as  many  eulogies  as  they  may  on  poverty,  it  is  a  bitter  evil,  and 
all  its  fruits  are  bitter.  We  need  not  travel  these  wilds  in  order 
to  understand  what  a  blessing  it  is  to  be  freed  forever  from  the 
apprehension  of  this  evil.  Even  here  there  are  sick,  and  there  is 
little  sympathy ;  no  poor  laws,  no  resource  but  in  the  charity  of  a 
people  not  remarkable  for  their  feeling. 

Thence  it  results,  that  there  are  the  more  inducements  to  form 
families,  and  those  ties,  which  are  the  cause,  that  while  one  is  sick 
the  rest  are  bound  for  his  nursing  and  sustenance,  A  father  can 
settle  his  children  about  him.  They  need  not  be  "  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water."  A  vigorous  and  active  young  man  needs 
but  two  years  of  personal  labour  to  have  a  farm  ready  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  small  family.  There  is  less  need  of  labour  for  actual 
support.  The  soil  is  free  from  stones,  loose  and  mellow,  and  needs 
no  manure,  and  it  is  very  abundant  in  the  productions  natural  to  it, 
the  principal  of  which  are  corn,  fruits,  and  wheat.  The  calculation 
is  commonly  made,  that  two  days  in  a  week  contribute  as  much  to 
support  here,  as  the  whole  week  at  the  North,  Plenty  of  hay  can 
be  cut  in  the  prairies  to  answer  for  working  cattle  and  horses  in 
the  periods  when  the  season  is  too  severe,  and  where  the  rushes 
and  peavines  are  eaten  out,  and,  in  the  more  southern  districts  the 
cane,  so  as  to  require  the  cattle  to  be  fed. 

The  objection  commonly  made  is,  that  this  ease  of  subsistence 
fosters  idleness.  But  it  is  equally  true,  that  this  depends  entirely 
on  the  person,  and  a  man  of  good  principles  and  habits  will  find 
useful  and  happy  employment  for  all  that  time,  which  the  wants  of 
actual  subsistence  do  not  require.  The  orchards,  if  the  fruit  be  not 
so  highly  flavoured,  are  much  easier  created  ;  the  fruits  are  fairer 
and  more  abundant.  The  smaller  fruits,  plums,  peaches,  quinces, 
and  the  fruit-bearing  shrubs,  are  indigenous,  and  are  raised  with 
great  facility.  If  the  garden  is  inferior  in  some  respects,  it  is 
superior  in  others,  as  in  the  size  of  the  tap-rooted  vegetables, 
especially  beets,  parsnips,  carrots,  and  radishes.  I  have  seen  one 
of  the  latter  perfectly  fair,  taper,  and  of  a  fine  colour,  as  large  as 
a  man's  leg,  and  weighing  seven  pounds.  The  fields  are  made  at 
once,  and  are  the  second  year  in  their  highest  state  of  productive- 
ness.   For  sickness,  more  can  be  done  in  this  country  by  way  of 


THE  SETTLEMENT  Ol'  'I'lIE  I'RAIRIl-:   RK(;i()N     633 

preventive,  than  by  way  of  remedy.  Ever)'  family  ou[;ht  to  have 
a  good  author  upon  domestic  medicine,  if  such  can  be  found,  and 
a  medicine  chest.  People  who  take  this  precaution  suffer,  perhaps, 
as  little  from  sickness  here,  as  elsewhere.  For,  as  I  remarked  in 
another  place,  the  disorders  are  more  manageable  than  at  the 
North.  With  respect  to  society,  all  that  the  emigrant  has  to  do 
is  to  bridle  his  tongue  and  his  temper,  cultivate  good  feelings  and 
kind  affections,  and  meet  every  advance  of  his  neighbours  with  an 
honest  disposition  to  reorganize  in  the  deserts,  —  where  they  have 
met  from  distant  regions  and  countries,  —  an  harmonious  and 
affectionate  interchange  of  mutual  kind  offices. 

IV.  THE   SETTLEMENT   OE  THE   PRAH^IE   REGION 

^I  have  now  travelled  about  1000  miles  over  prairie,  and  begin 
to  have  some  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  countr)'  and  the  course  of 
its  development.  For  practicable  purposes,  you  may  divide  the 
Northern  States  into  three  divisions  —  that  east  of  the  Alleghanies ; 
that  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Wabash  ;  and  that  west  of 
the  Wabash.  The  middle  division  consists  mainly  of  the  northern 
portion  of  Ohio  and  Indiana.  Now  the  first  and  second  divisions 
were  originally  all  under  forest.  The  first  division  has  been  in 
great  part  subjected  to  culture,  and  only  stumps  remind  you  of  its 
ancient  state.  In  the  highly-cultivated  parts,  such  as  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  stumps  are  rare ; 
but  in  New  York  State  they  are  yet  abundant,  and  in  many  parts 
of  New  England.  The  northern  part  of  Ohio  and  most  of  Indi- 
ana are  yet  in  great  part  under  forest.  The  cultivated  portions  are 
spaces  cleared  and  reclaimed  by  the  labour  of  the  backwoodsman. 
Finally,  the  prairies  are  open  land,  cleared  by  nature,  if  ever  they 
were  forest,  and  all  ready  for  the  plough  of  the  husbandman.  Here 
the  pioneer  is  not  the  backwoodsman  with  his  axe,  but  the  '  prairie- 
breaker  '  with  his  team  and  plough.  You  turn  up  the  soil,  and  at 
once  you  are  a  producer  of  corn  and  wheat. 

But  there  is  compensation  in  everything ;  and  these  teeming 
wildernesses,  especially  those  east  of  the  Mississip]:)i,  had  one  great 

1  Stirling,  Letters  from  the  Slave  States  [1S56J,  pp.  10-16. 


634  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

want,  they  had  no  natural  means  of  communication.  Illinois,  in  par- 
ticular, the  most  fertile  of  all,  had  few  rivers,  and  those  of  small 
account.  While  the  lands  to  the  east  of  her  had,  besides  the  Lakes, 
the  Hudson,  the  Ohio,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Delaware,  &c.,  with 
all  their  magnificent  tributaries,  the  prairie  lands  were  for  hundreds 
of  miles  inaccessible  by  internal  navigation.  Communication,  the 
great  means  of  exchange,  and  so  of  civilization,  was  wanting.  Man 
could  produce,  but  he  could  not  trade  ;  he  had  no  market,  and  so 
could  only  live  an  isolated,  and,  therefore,  unprogressive  life.  But 
civilization  gave  what  nature  denied  ;  thus  providing  for  her  own 
advance.  The  railway  supplied  a  cheap  and  easy  means  of  com- 
munication ;  it  gave  the  producer  a  market,  and  so  gave  value  to 
his  labour.  The  railway  is  the  soul  of  Western  civilization.  The 
result  is  seen  in  the  astonishing  tide  of  emigration  that  of  late  years 
has  set  westward,  and  in  the  rapid  settlement  which  is  taking  place 
all  over  this  region. 

There  seems  a  natural,  pre-ordained  fitness  between  the  railway 
and  the  prairie  ;  for  the  prairie  is  as  eminently  suited  to  the  forma- 
tion of  railways,  as  railways  are  essential  to  the  development  of 
prairies.  For  hundreds  of  miles  you  have  only  to  raise  the  turf, 
and  lay  your  sleepers  ;  for  hundreds  of  miles  you  need  neither 
grading  nor  bridging  ;  no  engineering  ;  hardly  any  surveying.  In 
one  long,  unwavering  line  your  iron  road  passes  over  the  level  plain. 
And  that  plain,  remember,  costs  nothing  ;  or  at  most  a  dollar  and 
a  quarter  per  acre.  The  artificial  hindrances  are  still  fewer  than 
the  natural  ones.  There  are  no  cities  to  be  circumvented,  or 
bridged  over,  at  enormous  cost ;  no  gentlemen's  seats  whose 
'  amenity  '  is  to  be  preserved  at  the  cost  of  the  plundered  proprie- 
tors ;  no  pig-headed  opponents  or  greedy  rivals  to  ruin  you  with 
parliamentary  expenses.  Absolutely,  the  rails  and  labour  are  your 
sole  expense.  And,  in  passing,  let  me  express  my  astonishment, 
and,  I  may  say,  disgust,  that,  under  such  circumstances,  a  people, 
boasting  itself  first  among  civilized  peoples,  should  ignorantly  and 
suicidally  cramp  their  enterprise  by  an  antediluvian  protective  duty. 
Such  a  duty  is  a  tax  on  progress.  Is  it  not  lamentable,  nay,  provok- 
ing to  see  a  young  nation,  while  putting  on  its  '  shoes  of  swiftness,' 
thus  recklessly  clog  itself  with  the  cast-off  absurdities  of  the  Old 


THE  SF/rj'LRMENT  OF  TIIK  PRAIRIE  RECHON     635 

World  ?  It  is  a  blunder  which,  I  believe,  can  only  be  explained  by 
supposing  a  want  of  thorough  education  in  the  American  people. 
The  very  notion  of  this  folly  stings  me  like  a  mosquito  every  time 
it  crosses  my  mind. 

But,  again  :  the  ]:)rairies  absolutely  make  their  own  railways  with- 
out cost  to  an\'  oni-.  The  development  of  the  country  b\'  means  of 
a  railway  is  such,  that  what  was  yesterday  waste  land  is  to-day  a 
valuable  district.  There  is  thus  action  and  reaction  :  the  railway 
improves  the  land  ;  the  improvement  pays  for  the  railway.  Latterl)- 
grants  of  land  have  been  made  to  railway  companies  for  the  purpose 
of  forming  new  lines,  the  Government  reserving  alternate  sections 
with  the  railway.  In  this  way  the  government  loses  nothing  :  for 
the  price  of  the  land  it  gives  away  is  more  than  made  up  by  the 
enhanced  price  of  what  they  retain.  The  Illinois  Central  expects 
to  have  the  line  clear,  and  some  million  acres  to  boot.  That  is  their 
story  ;  I  do  not  endorse  it ;  but  still  the  principle  remains  as  I  have 
stated.  Lands  have  been  granted  in  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  for  the 
same  purpose.  If  you  look  at  a  railway  map  of  America,  and  calculate 
the  immense  extent  of  land  which  their  roads,  completed  and 
projected,  must  bring  into  practical  operation  as  food-producing 
countries,  you  can  yourself  estimate  the  amount  of  social  and  politi- 
cal development  which  is  here  in  progress.  De  Tocqueville  cal- 
culated the  rate  of  Western  progress  at  nineteen  miles  per  annum. 
At  this  moment  it  must  be  reckoned  by  hundreds  of  miles.  Nebraska 
will  be  settled  immediately.  Cities  are  already  rising  on  the  Mis- 
souri. I  believe  there  is  nothing  in  histoiy  to  compare  with  this 
seven-league  progress  of  civilization.  For  the  first  time  in  the 
world  we  see  a  highly-civilized  people  quietly  spreading  itself  over 
a  vast  untenanted  solitude,  and  at  one  wave  of  its  wand  converting 
the  wilderness  into  a  cultivated  and  fruitful  region. 

It  is,  indeed,  the  peculiarity  and  high  privilege  of  the  American 
people  that  it  began  its  history  with  all  the  means  and  appliances 
of  high  civilization.  It  had  not  to  grow  out  of  barbarism  ;  it  had 
only  to  give  new  development  to  the  civilization  of  the  Old  World. 
Hence  one  reason  of  its  remarkable  progress.  This  truth  is  brought 
home  to  you  when  you  find  in  the  Far  West  all  the  most  recent 
adaptations  of  engineering  and  other  sciences.  Think,  for  one  item. 


636  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

of  22,000  miles  of  railway  and  40,000  miles  of  telegraph  in  Amer- 
ica !  It  is  to  me  a  satisfaction  to  think  that  we  Englishmen  are 
aiding,  by  our  capital,  in  this  great  work.  We,  too,  are  putting  our 
hand  to  the  '  prairie-plough,'  whose  furrow  is  the  path  of  human 
progress.  The  day  is  gone  by  for  narrow  selfishness  and  national 
rivalries.  The  wise,  at  least,  rejoice  at  progress  wherever  it  exists, 
and  sink  national  jealousies  in  a  cosmopolitan  unity  of  occupations, 
ideas,  and  aspirations. 

The  prairies,  then,  are  becoming  settled  ;  but  here,  as  elsewhere, 
man's  lot  is  not  without  its  trials  and  troubles.  Two  great  necessaries, 
wood  and  water,  are  scarce.  The  former  can  be  brought  at  a  mod- 
erate expense  by  railway  ;  but  the  want  of  water,  and  especially 
good  water,  is  a  more  serious  evil.  All  over  the  prairies,  except  in 
some  favoured  spots,  they  have  to  dig  from  twenty  to  forty  feet 
for  water  ;  and  when  they  get  it,  it  is  hard,  and  much  impregnated 
with  lime.  It  seems  to  me  that,  from  this  cause,  Illinois,  and  such 
prairie  land  as  is  similarly  situated,  can  never  be  densely  populated, 
but  must  be  used  in  large  sections  for  agricultural,  and,  perhaps, 
pastoral  purposes,  while  towns  and  cities  of  any  magnitude  must 
be  situated  on  the  rivers.  Another  evil  is  the  unheal thiness  of  the 
prairie.  Illinois  has  a  particularly  bad  name  in  this  respect.  Some 
say  that  it  arises  greatly  from  the  progress  of  cultivation  ;  that  the 
turning  up  of  vast  masses  of  decaying  vegetable  matter  produces 
miasma ;  and  they  point  to  New  York  State,  and  Ohio,  where 
formerly  disease  existed  to  a  degree  now  unknown.  There  is  prob- 
ably truth  in  this,  but  I  fear  it  will  be  long  before  Illinois  will  be 
really  healthy.  An  intelligent  physician,  who  has  resided  twenty 
years  in  the  countiy,  told  me  he  perceived  no  improvement  as  yet. 

^  I  have  said  that  those  who  are  called  on  to  labor  in  these  [West- 
ern] States  have  their  own  hardships,  and  I  have  endeavored  to  ex- 
plain what  are  the  sufferings  to  which  the  town  laborer  is  subject. 
To  escape  from  this  is  the  laborer's  great  ambition,  and  his  mode 
of  doing  so  consists  almost  universally  in  the  purchase  of  land.  He 
saves  up  money  in  order  that  he  may  buy  a  section  of  an  allotment, 
and  thus  become  his  own  master.  All  his  savings  are  made  with 
1  Trollope,  North  America  [1861],  I,  143-146,  160-161. 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OE  THE  PRAIRIE  REGION     637 

a  view  to  this  independence.  Seated  on  his  own  land  he  will  have 
to  work  probably  harder  than  ever,  but  he  will  work  for  himself.  No 
task-master  can  then  stand  o\er  him  and  wound  his  pride  with 
harsh  words.  He  will  be  his  own  master;  will  eat  the  tood  which 
he  himself  has  grown,  and  live  in  the  cabin  which  his  own  hands 
have  built.  This  is  the  object  of  his  life  ;  and  to  secure  this  posi- 
tion he  is  content  to  work  late  and  early  and  to  undergo  the-  indig- 
nities of  previous  servitude.  The  government  price  for  land  is 
about  five  shillings  an  acre  —  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  —  and  the 
settler  may  get  it  for  this  price  if  he  be  contented  to  take  it  not  only 
untouched  as  regards  clearing,  but  also  far  removed  from  any  com- 
pleted road.  The  traffic  in  these  lands  has  been  the  great  speculat- 
ing business  of  Western  men.  Five  or  six  years  ago,  when  the 
rage  for  such  purchases  was  at  its  height,  land  was  becoming  a 
scarce  article  in  the  market.  Individuals  or  companies  bought  it 
up  with  the  object  of  reselling  it  at  a  profit ;  and  many,  no  doubt, 
did  make  money.  Railway  companies  were,  in  fact,  companies  com- 
bined for  the  purchase  of  land.  They  purchased  land  looking  to 
increase  the  value  of  it  fivefold  by  the  opening  of  a  railroad.  It 
may  easily  be  understood  that  a  railway,  which  could  not  be  in  it- 
self remunerative,  might  in  this  way  become  a  lucrative  speculation. 
No  settler  could  dare  to  place  himself  absolutely  at  a  distance  from 
any  thoroughfare.  At  first  the  margins  of  nature's  highways,  the 
navigable  rivers  and  lakes,  were  cleared.  But  as  the  railway  system 
grew  and  expanded  itself,  it  became  manifest  that  lands  might  be 
rendered  quickly  available  which  were  not  so  circumstanced  by  na- 
ture, A  company  which  had  purchased  an  enormous  territory  from 
the  United  States  government  at  five  shillings  an  acre  might  well 
repay  itself  all  the  cost  of  a  railway  through  that  territory,  even 
though  the  receipts  of  the  railway  should  do  no  more  than  main- 
tain the  current  expenses.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  thousands  of 
miles  of  American  railroads  have  been  opened  ;  and  here  again 
must  be  seen  the  immense  advantages  Vvhich  the  States  as  a  new 
country  have  enjoyed.  With  us  the  purchase  of  valuable  land  for 
railways,  together  with  the  legal  expenses  which  those  compulsory 
purchases  entailed,  have  been  so  great  that  with  all  our  traffic  rail- 
ways are  not  remunerative.    But  in  the  States  the  railways  have 


638  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

created  the  value  of  the  land.  The  States  have  been  able  to  begin 
at  the  right  end,  and  to  arrange  that  the  districts  which  are  bene- 
fited shall  themselves  pay  for  the  benefit  they  receive. 

The  government  price  of  land  is  125  cents,  or  about  five  shil- 
lings an  acre  ;  and  even  this  need  not  be  paid  at  once  if  the  settler 
purchase  directly  from  the  government.  He  must  begin  by  making 
certain  improvements  on  the  selected  land  — •  clearing  and  cultivat- 
ing some  small  portion,  building  a  hut,  and  probably  sinking  a  well. 
When  this  has  been  done  —  when  he  has  thus  given  a  pledge  of 
his  intentions  by  depositing  on  the  land  the  value  of  a  certain  amount 
of  labor,  he  cannot  be  removed.  He  cannot  be  removed  for  a  term 
of  years,  and  then  if  he  pays  the  price  of  the  land  it  becomes  his 
own  with  an  indefeasible  title.  Many  such  settlements  are  made  on 
the  purchase  of  warrants  for  land.  Soldiers  returning  from  the 
Mexican  wars  were  donated  with  warrants  for  land  —  the  amount 
being  160  acres,  or  the  quarter  of  a  section.  The  localities  of  such 
lands  were  not  specified,  but  the  privilege  granted  was  that  of  oc- 
cupying any  quarter-section  not  hitherto  tenanted.  It  will,  of  course, 
be  understood  that  lands  favorably  situated  would  be  tenanted. 
Those  contiguous  to  railways  were  of  course  so  occupied,  seeing 
that  the  lines  were  not  made  till  the  lands  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
companies.  It  may  therefore  be  understood  of  what  nature  would 
be  the  traffic  in  these  warrants.  The  owner  of  a  single  warrant 
might  find  it  of  no  value  to  him.  To  go  back  utterly  into  the  woods, 
away  from  river  or  road,  and  there  to  commence  with  160  acres 
of  forest,  or  even  of  prairie,  would  be  a  hopeless  task  even  to  an 
American  settler.  Some  mode  of  transport  for  his  produce  must 
be  found  before  his  produce  would  be  of  value  —  before,  indeed, 
he  could  find  the  means  of  living.  But  a  company  buying  up  a 
large  aggregate  of  such  warrants  would  possess  the  means  of  mak- 
ing such  allotments  valuable  and  of  reselling  them  at  greatly  in- 
creased prices. 

The  primaiy  settler,  therefore  —  who,  however,  will  not  usually 
have  been  the  primary  owner  —  goes  to  work  upon  his  land  amid 
all  the  wildness  of  nature.  He  levels  and  burns  the  first  trees,  and 
raises  his  first  crop  of  corn  amid  stumps  still  standing  four  or  five 
feet  above  the  soil ;  but  he  does  not  do  so  till  some  mode   of 


THE  SETTLEMENT  Ol'    Till':   I'KAIKII';   RI'/JION      639 

conveyance  has  been  found  for  liini.  So  much  I  have  said  hoping 
to  explain  the  mode  in  which  the  frontier  speculator  paves  the  way 
for  the  frontier  agriculturist.  But  the  permanent  farmer  ver}^  gen- 
erally comes  on  the  land  as  the  third  owner.  The  first  settler  is  a 
rough  fellow,  and  seems  to  be  so  wedded  to  his  rough  life  that  he 
leaves  his  land  after  his  first  wild  work  is  done,  and  goes  again 
farther  off  to  some  untouched  allotment.  He  finds  that  he  can  sell 
his  improvements  at  a  profitable  rate  and  takes  the  price.  lie  is  a 
preparer  of  farms  rather  than  a  farmer.  He  has  no  love  for  the 
soil  which  his  hand  has  first  turned.  He  regards  it  merely  as  an 
investment ;  and  when  things  about  him  arc  beginning  to  wear  an 
aspect  of  comfort,  when  his  property  has  become  valuable,  he  sells 
it,  packs  up  his  wife  and  little  ones,  and  goes  again  into  the  woods. 
The  Western  American  has  no  love  for  his  own  soil  or  his  own 
house.  The  matter  with  him  is  simply  one  of  dollars.  To  keep  a 
farm  which  he  could  sell  at  an  advantage  from  any  feeling  of  affec- 
tion —  from  what  we  should  call  an  association  of  ideas  —  would 
be  to  him  as  ridiculous  as  the  keeping  of  a  family  pig  would  be  in 
an  English  farmer's  establishment.  The  pig  is  a  part  of  the  farm- 
er's stock  in  trade,  and  must  go  the  way  of  all  pigs.  And  so  is 
it  with  house  and  land  in  the  life  of  the  frontier  man  in  the 
Western  States. 

Ikit  yet  this  man  has  his  romance,  his  high  poetic  feeling,  and 
above  all  his  manly  dignity.  Visit  him,  and  you  will  find  him  with- 
out coat  or  waistcoat,  unshorn,  in  ragged  blue  trowsers  and  old  flannel 
shirt,  too  often  bearing  on  his  lantern  jaws  the  signs  of  ague  and 
sickness  ;  but  he  will  stand  upright  before  you  and  speak  to  you 
with  all  the  ease  of  a  lettered  gentleman  in  his  own  library.  All 
the  odious  incivility  of  the  republican  servant  has  been  banished. 
He  is  his  own  master,  standing  on  his  own  threshold,  and  finds  no 
need  to  assert  his  equality  by  mdeness.  He  is  delighted  to  see  you, 
and  bids  you  sit  down  on  his  battered  bench  without  dreaming  of 
any  such  apolog}'  as  an  English  cottier  offers  to  a  Lady  Bountiful 
when  she  calls.  He  has  worked  out  his  independence,  and  shows 
it  in  every  easy  movement  of  liis  l)()d\'.  He  tells  you  of  it  uncon- 
sciously in  every  tone  of  his  voice.  Vou  will  always  find  in  his  cal:)in 
some  newspaper,  some  book,  some  token  of  advance  in  education. 


640  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

When  he  questions  you  about  the  old  country  he  astonishes  you  by 
the  extent  of  his  knowledge.  I  defy  you  not  to  feel  that  he  is  su- 
perior to  the  race  from  whence  he  has  sprung  in  England  or  in 
Ireland.  To  me  I  confess  that  the  manliness  of  such  a  man  is 
very  charming.  He  is  dirty,  and,  perhaps,  squalid.  His  children 
are  sick  and  he  is  without  comforts.  His  wife  is  pale,  and  you 
think  you  see  shortness  of  life  written  in  the  faces  of  all  the  family. 
But  over  and  above  it  all  there  is  an  independence  which  sits  grace- 
fully on  their  shoulders,  and  teaches  you  at  the  first  glance  that  the 
man  has  a  right  to  assume  himself  to  be  your  equal.  It  is  for  this 
position  that  the  laborer  works,  bearing  hard  words  and  the  indig- 
nity of  tyranny ;  suffering  also  too  often  the  dishonest  ill  usage 
which  his  superior  power  enables  the  master  to  inflict. 

"  I  have  lived  very  rough,"  I  heard  a  poor  woman  say,  whose 
husband  had  ill  used  and  deserted  her.  "  I  have  known  what  it  is 
to  be  hungry  and  cold,  and  to  work  hard  till  my  bones  have  ached. 
I  only  wish  that  I  might  have  the  same  chance  again.  If  I  could 
have  ten  acres  cleared  two  miles  away  from  any  living  being,  I 
could  be  happy  with  my  children.  I  find  a  kind  of  comfort  when 
I  am  at  work  from  daybreak  to  sundown,  and  know  that  it  is  all 
my  own."  I  believe  that  life  in  the  backwoods  has  an  allurement 
to  those  who  have  been  used  to  it  that  dwellers  in  cities  can  hardly 
comprehend.  .   .   . 

There  is  very  much  in  the  mode  of  life  adopted  by  the  settlers 
in  these  regions  which  creates  admiration.  The  people  are  all 
intelligent.  They  are  energetic  and  speculative,  conceiving  grand 
ideas,  and  carrying  them  out  almost  with  the  rapidity  of  magic. 
A  suspension  bridge  half  a  mile  long  is  erected,  while  in  England 
we  should  be  fastening  together  a  few  planks  for  a  foot  passage. 
Progress,  mental  as  well  as  material,  is  the  demand  of  the  people 
generally.  Ever)^body  understands  eveiything,  and  everybody  in- 
tends sooner  or  later  to  do  everything.  All  this  is  very  grand  ;  but 
then  there  is  a  terrible  drawback.  One  hears  on  every  side  of  intelli- 
gence, but  one  hears  also  on  eveiy  side  of  dishonesty.  Talk  to  whom 
you  will,  of  whom  you  will,  and  you  will  hear  some  tale  of  successful 
or  unsuccessful  swindling.  It  seems  to  be  the  recognized  rule 
of  commerce  in  the  far  West  that  men  shall  go  into  the  world's 


PIONEERING  WITH   SLAVES  IN  THE  SOirniWES'i'     64 1 

markets  prepared  to  cheat  and  to  be  cheated.  It  may  be  said  that  as 
long  as  this  is  ackno\vled<;ed  and  understood  on  all  sides,  no  harm 
will  be  done.  It  is  eciually  lair  for  all.  When  I  was  a  child  there 
used  to  be  certain  i;"ames  at  which  it  was  agreed  in  beginning  either 
that  there  should  be  cheating  or  that  there  should  not.  It  may  be 
said  that  out  there  in  the  Western  States,  men  agree  to  play  the 
cheating  game  ;  and  that  the  cheating  game  has  more  of  interest  in 
it  than  the  other.  Unfortunately,  however,  they  who  agree  to  play 
this  game  on  a  large  scale  do  not  keep  outsiders  altogether  out  of 
the  playground.  Indeed,  outsiders  become  very  welcome  to  them  ; 
and  then  it  is  not  pleasant  to  hear  the  tone  in  which  such  outsiders 
speak  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  sport  to  which,  they  have  been  in- 
troduced. When  a  beginner  in  trade  finds  himself  furnished  with 
a  barrel  of  wooden  nutmegs,  the  joke  is  not  so  good  to  him  as 
to  the  experienced  merchant  who  supplies  him.  This  dealing  in 
wooden  nutmegs,  this  selling  of  things  which  do  not  exist,  and 
buying  of  goods  for  which  no  price  is  ever  to  be  given,  is  an  insti- 
tution which  is  much  honored  in  the  West.  W^e  call  it  swindling 
—  and  so  do  they.  But  it  seemed  to  me  that  in  the  Western 
States  the  word  hardly  seemed  to  leave  the  same  impress  on  the 
mind  that  it  does  elsewhere.   .   .   . 

V.    PIONEERINCx  WITH   SLAVES  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST 

^  About  the  year  1835  a  great  many  Virginians  were  induced  to 
remove  with  their  families  to  the  far  South.  For  several  reasons 
Thomas  [Dabney]  began  to  consider  the  expediency  of  moving  out 
to  the  then  new  country.  He  was  considered  one  of  the  most 
successful  wheat  and  tobacco  farmers  in  his  part  of  the  State. 
But  the  expensive  style  of  living  in  Gloucester  began  to  be  a 
source  of  serious  anxiety.  He  knew  that  with  a  young  and  grow- 
ing family  to  educate  and  provide  for  the  difficulty  would  be  greater 
each  year.  He  felt  also  the  increasin'g  difficulty  of  giving  to  his 
negroes  the  amount  of  nourishing  food  that  he  considered  neces- 
sary for  laboring  people.    In  view  of  these  facts,  he  made  u])  his 

1  Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter,  pp.  42,  47-48,  49-50,  63,  64,  65,  67, 
68-69,  83. 


642  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

mind  that  he  must  leave  his  home  in  Virginia  for  a  new  one  in 
the  cotton-planting  States.  .  .  . 

Thomas  went  through  a  large  part  of  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and 
Mississippi  looking  at  the  country  before  deciding  on  a  body  of 
land  in  Hinds  County,  Mississippi.  He  succeeded  in  purchasing 
four  thousand  acres  from  half  a  dozen  small  farmers. 

The  ancestors  of  both  Thomas  and  Sophia  Dabney  had  been  slave- 
owners. The  family  servants,  inherited  for  generations,  had  come 
to  be  regarded  with  great  affection,  and  this  feeling  was  warmly  re- 
turned by  the  negroes.  The  bond  between  master  and  servant  was, 
in  many  cases,  felt  to  be  as  sacred  and  close  as  the  tie  of  blood. 

During  the  course  of  years  many  of  the  Elmington  negroes  had 
intermarried  with  the  negroes  on  neighboring  estates. 

When  the  southern  move  was  decided  on,  Thomas  called  his 
servants  together  and  announced  to  them  his  intention  to  remove, 
with  his  family,  to  Mississippi.  He  further  went  on  to  say  that  he 
did  not  mean  to  take  one  unwilling  servant  with  him.  His  plan 
was  to  offer  to  buy  all  husbands  and  wives,  who  were  connected 
with  his  negroes,  at  the  owners'  prices,  or  he  should,  if  his  people 
preferred,  sell  those  whom  he  owned  to  any  master  or  mistress 
whom  they  might  choose.  No  money  difficulty  should  stand  in 
the  way.  Everything  should  be  made  to  yield  to  the  important 
consideration  of  keeping  families  together. 

Without  an  exception,  the  negroes  determined  to  follow  their 
beloved  master  and  mistress.  They  chose  rather  to  give  up  the 
kinspeople  and  friends  of  their  own  race  than  to  leave  them.   .  .  . 

The  journey  was  made  with  so  much  care  and  forethought  that 
not  a  case  of  serious  illness  occurred  on  the  route.  The  white 
families  were  quartered  at  night,  if  practicable,  in  the  houses  that 
they  found  along  the  way.  Tents  were  provided  for  the  negroes. 
The  master  himself,  during  the  entire  journey,  did  not  sleep  under 
a  roof.  The  weather  was  perfect :  no  heavy  rains  fell  during  the 
two  months.  He  wrapped  himself  in  his  great-coat,  with  some- 
times the  addition  of  a  blanket,  and  slept  all  night  in  their  midst, 
under  one  of  the  travelling  wagons.   .   .   . 

In  selecting  his  plantation,  Thomas  showed  his  usual  sound 
judgment  in  practical  matters.    It  comprised  four  thousand  acres 


PIONEERING  WITH  SLAVES   IN  THE  SOrTIIWEST     643 

in  a  compact  body,  not  all  boui^ht  at  one  time,  but  as  he  saw 
opportunity  to  secure  the  property  of  small  farmers  whose  land 
adjoined  his.  In  this  way  he  shaped  his  place  to  suit  himself; 
and  it  was  characteristic  of  his  exact  methods  that  after  making 
his  final  purchase  the  section  lines  fell  so  as  to  form  an  almost 
exact  square,  with  Tallahala  Creek  crossing  it  diagonally  from  north- 
east to  southwest.  The  lowland  bordering  the  creek,  called  "  The 
Bottom,"  was  inexhaustibly  fertile,  and  ensured  heavy  crops  in  the 
dr)^est  season.  From  the  creek-bottom  the  land  gradually  rises 
and  runs  back  in  a  series  of  hills  and  plateaus.  Those  not  already 
cleared  for  cultivation  were  covered  with  a  magnificent  growth  of 
timber,  —  oaks  of  many  species,  yellow  pine,  hickory,  elm,  sweet 
and  black-gum,  besides  countless  other  trees  and  shrubs  of  less 
value.  Walnut-trees  of  magnificent  size,  magnolia,  beech,  and 
laurel  grew  on  the  banks  of  the  creek.  .  .  . 

It  was  Thomas's  plan  in  the  management  of  this  large  estate  to 
bring  under  cultivation  a  certain  portion  of  new  land  every  year. 
His  rule  was  to  clear  one  hundred  acres  each  season.  The  cotton- 
plant  delights  in  a  virgin  soil,  and  he  counted  on  making  a  bale 
and  a  half  of  cotton  to  the  acre  on  all  new  ground.  This  was,  of 
course,  above  the  average.  In  the  hill  country  a  planter  thinks 
himself  rewarded  for  his  labor  by  an  average  yield  of  half  a  bale 
to  the  acre.  Thomas  one  year  made  six  hundred  bales  on  six 
hundred  acres,  but  that  was  an  exceptional  season.  .  .  . 

In  entering  on  this  pioneer  life  many  difficulties  had  to  be  met 
that  were  a  new  experience  to  people  coming  from  lower  Virginia. 
One  of  the  first  was  the  unavoidable  delay  in  getting  supplies  of 
meat  for  the  servants.  For  two  weeks  after  their  arrival  they  had 
none.   .   .   . 

There  were  then  no  railroads,  and  the  cotton  crop  had  to  be 
hauled  in  wagons  forty  miles,  to  Grand  Gulf.  The  roads  were  so 
bad  that  to  trust  the  teams  to  negro-drivers  alone  was  not  to  be 
thought  of,  and  the  master  went  with  e\ery  wagon.   .   .   . 

Thomas  was  misunderstood  and  misjudged  by  the  people  in 
Mississippi  by  whom  he  found  himself  surrounded.  The  plainer 
classes  in  Virginia,  like  those  in  England,  from  whom  they  were 
descended,  recognized  the  difference  between  themselves  and  the 


644  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

higher  classes,  and  did  not  aspire  to  social  equality.  But  in 
Mississippi  the  tone  was  different.  They  resented  anything  like 
superiority  in  breeding.   .   .   . 

It  was  the  custom  among  the  small  farmers  in  his  neighbor- 
hood to  call  on  each  other  to  assist  when  one  of  them  built  his 
house,  usually  a  log  structure.  Accordingly,  one  day  an  invitation 
came  to  the  new-comer  to  help  a  neighbor  to  "  raise  "  his  house. 
At  the  appointed  time  he  went  over  with  twenty  of  his  men,  and 
he  did  not  leave  till  the  last  log  was  in  place  and  the  last  board 
nailed  on  the  roof,  handing  over  the  simple  cabin  quite  com- 
pleted to  the  owner.  This  action,  which  seemed  so  natural  to  him, 
was  a  serious  offence  to  the  recipient,  and,  to  his  regret,  he  was 
sent  for  to  no  more  "  house-raisings."  On  another  occasion,  a 
small  farmer  living  a  few  miles  from  him  got  "  in  the  grass,"  as 
the  country  people  express  it  when  the  grass  has  gotten  ahead 
of  the  young  cotton-plants  and  there  is  danger  of  their  being 
choked  by  it.  Again  Thomas  went  over  with  twenty  men,  and 
in  a  few  hours  the  field  was  brought  to  perfect  order.  The  man 
said  that  if  Colonel  Dabney  had  taken  hold  of  a  plough  and 
worked  by  his  side  he  would  have  been  glad  to  have  his  help,  but 
to  see  him  sitting  up  on  his  horse  with  his  gloves  on  directing 
his  negroes  how  to  work  was  not  to  his  taste.  He  heard  a  long 
time  after  these  occurrences  that  he  could  have  soothed  their 
wounded  pride  if  he  had  asked  them  to  come  over  to  help  him 
to  raise  his  cabins.  But  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  call  on  two 
or  three  poor  white  men  to  work  among  his  servants  when  he 
had  no  need  of  help.  .  .   . 

His  plantation  was  considered  a  model  one,  and  was  visited  by 
planters  anxious  to  learn  his  methods.  He  was  asked  how  he  made 
his  negroes  do  good  work.  His  answer  was  that  a  laboring  man 
could  do  more  work  and  better  work  in  five  and  half  days  than  in 
six.  He  used  to  give  the  half  of  Saturdays  to  his  negroes,  unless 
there  was  a  great  press  of  work  ;  but  a  system  of  rewards  was  more 
efficacious  than  any  other  method.  He  distributed  prizes  of  money 
among  his  cotton-pickers  every  week  during  the  season,  which 
lasted  four  or  five  months.  One  dollar  was  the  first  prize,  a 
Mexican  coin  valued  at  eighty-seven  and  a  half  cents  the  second, 


PIONEERING  WITH   SLAVKS   IN  THE  SOUTHWl^ST   645 

seventy-five  cents  the  lhii"cl,  and  so  on,  down  to  the  smallest  prize, 
a  small  Mexican  coin  called  a  picayune,  which  was  valued  at  six 
and  a  quarter  cents.  .   .   . 

When  one  person  picked  six  hundred  ])ounds  in  a  day,  a  five- 
dollar  gold-piece  was  the  reward.  On  most  other  plantations  four 
hundred  pounds  or  three  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  was 
considered  a  good  day's  work,  but  on  the  J^urleigh  place  many 
picked  five  hundred  pounds.  i\ll  had  to  be  picked  free  of  trash. 
No  one  could  do  this  who  had  not  been  trained  in  childhood.  To 
get  five  hundred  pounds  a  picker  had  to  use  both  hands  at  once. 
Those  who  went  into  the  cotton-fields  after  they  were  grown  only 
knew  how  to  pull  out  cotton  by  holding  on  to  the  stalk  with  one 
hand  and  picking  it  out  with  the  other.  Two  hundred  pounds  a 
day  would  be  a  liberal  estimate  of  what  the  most  industrious  could 
do  in  this  manner.   .   .   . 

The  negroes  were  helped  in  every  way  to  gather  the  cotton,  not 
being  interrupted  or  broken  down  by  any  other  work.  Some  of  the 
men  were  detailed  to  carry  the  cotton-hampers  to  the  wagons  that 
the  pickers  might  lift  no  weights.  Water-carriers,  with  buckets  of 
fresh  water,  went  up  and  down  the  rows  handing  water  to  the 
pickers.   .   .  . 

.  .  ,  Thomas  raised  all  his  own  mules  and  nearly  all  his  own 
horses,  —  his  thoroughbred  riding-horses  always, —  and  frequently 
he  had  more  than  he  needed  of  both.  The  great  droves  of  mules 
and  horses  brought  annually  from  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  to  less 
thrifty  planters  found  no  sale  at  Burleigh  unless  the  master  hap- 
pened to  need  a  pair  of  carriage-horses.  Two  teams  of  six  mules 
each  carried  off  his  cotton  crop,  going  to  the  station  every  working- 
day  for  months.  It  was  only  ten  miles  off,  but  the  eight  ]:)ales  of 
cotton,  that  weighed  nearly  five  hundred  pounds  apiece,  and  the 
heavy,  deeply  cut-up  roads,  made  it  a  day's  journey.  As  the  return- 
ing wagon-drivers  came  up  in  the  evenings  the}-  were  met  by  other 
men,  who  took  the  mules  out  and  cared  for  them,  and  loaded  up 
the  wagons  for  the  next  day.  It  was  not  considered  right  b\-  the 
master  that  those  who  occupied  the  responsible  position  of  drivers 
should  have  these  labors  to  perform.  They  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  go.  to  the  house  to  deliver  the  cotton  receipts,  get  a  drink  of 


646 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 


whiskey,  and  some  tobacco  too,  if  the  regular  allowance  issued  had 
run  short,  and  then  home  to  supper  and  to  rest,  ready  for  a  fresh 
start  in  the  morning.   .   .   . 

1  The  newly-settled  districts  of  the  southern  States  are  as  unlike 
as  possible  to  all  this  [Stockbridge,  Massachusetts].  They  are  ex- 
treme opposite  cases.  If  human  life  presents  its  fairest  aspects  in  the 
retired  townships  .of  New  England,  —  some  of  its  very  worst,  per- 
haps, are  seen  in  the  raw  settlements  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 

When  we  drew  near  to  Columbus,  Georgia,  we  were  struck  with 
amazement  at  the  stories  that  were  told,  and  the  anecdotes  that  were 
dropped,  in  the  stage,  about  recent  attempts  on  human  life  in  the 
neighbourhood  ;  and  at  the  number  of  incidents  of  the  same  kind 
which  were  the  news  of  the  day  along  the  road.  Our  driver  from 
Macon  had  been  shot  at,  in  attempting  to  carry  off  a  young  lady. 
A  gentleman,  boarding  in  the  hotel  at  Columbus,  was  shot  in  the 
back,  in  the  street,  and  laid  by  for  months.  No  inquiry  was  made, 
or  nothing  came  of  it.  The  then  present  governor  of  the  State  of 
Mississippi  had  recently  stood  over  two  combatants,  pistol  in  hand,  to 
see  fair  play.  This  ivas  stated  as  a  remarkable  fact.  The  landlord 
of  the  house  where  we  stopped  to  breakfast  on  the  day  we  were  to 
reach  Columbus,  April  9th,  1835,  was,  besides  keeping  a  house  of 
entertainment,  a  captain  of  militia,  and  a  member  of  the  legislature 
of  Georgia.  He  was  talking  over  with  his  guests  a  late  case  of 
homicide  in  a  feud  between  the  Myers  and  Macklimore  families. 
He  declared  that  he  would  have  laws  like  those  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians  against  homicide  ;  and,  in  the  same  breath,  said  that  if 
he  were  a  Mvers,  he  would  sh(X)t  Mr.  Macklimore  and  all  his 
sons.   .   .   . 

We  saw  to-day,  the  common  sight  of  companies  of  slaves  trav- 
elling westwards  ;  and  the  very  uncommon  one  of  a  party  returning 
into  South  Carolina.  When  we  overtook  such  a  company  pro- 
ceeding westwards,  and  asked  where  they  were  going,  the  answer 
commonly  given  by  the  slaves  was,  "Into  Yellibama."  —  Some- 
times these  poor  creatures  were  encamped,  under  the  care  of  the 

1  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1S34-1836],  I,  212,  216,  21S-219,  221-223, 
228-229. 


IMONKKRING  WITIf    ST.Wl'.S   IN  TIIK  ROU'IMIWEST   647 

slavetrader,  on  the  banks  of  a  clear  stream,  to  spend  the  da)-  in 
washing  their  clothes.  Sometimes  they  were  loitering  along  the 
road  ;  the  old  folks  and  infants  mounted  on  the  top  of  a  wagon- 
load  of  luggage;  the  ahle-l)odied,  on  foot,  pcrha])s  silent,  perhaps 
laughing  ;  the  prettier  of  the  girls,  perhai)s  with  a  flower  in  the 
hair,  and  a  lover's  arm  around  her  shoulder.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  The  "  camping  out  "  is  usually  done  in  a  sheltered,  dry  spot 
in  the  woods,  not  far  from  some  little  stream,  where  the  kettle  may 
be  filled,  and  where  the  dusty  children  may  be  washed.  Sleepy  as 
I  might  be,  in  our  night  journeys,  1  was  ever  awake  to  this  jjicture, 
and  never  tired  of  conteniplating  it.  A  dun  haze  would  first  ap- 
pear through  the  darkness  ;  and  then  gleams  of  light  across  the 
road.  Then  the  whole  scene  opened.  If  earlier  than  ten  at  niglit, 
the  fire  would  be  blazing,  the  pot  boiling,  the  shadowy  horses  behind, 
at  rest,  the  groups  fixed  in  their  attitudes  to  gaze  at  us,  whether 
they  were  stretching  their  sailcloth  on  poles  to  windward,  or  draw- 
ing up  the  carts  in  line,  or  gathering  sticks,  or  cooking.  While 
watching  us,  they  little  thought  what  a  picture  they  themselves 
made.  If  after  midnight,  the  huge  fire  was  flickering  and  smoul- 
dering ;  figures  were  seen  crouching  under  the  sailcloth,  or  a  head 
or  two  was  lifted  up  in  the  wagon.  A  solitar)-  figure  was  seen  in 
relief  against  the  fire  ;  the  watch,  standing  to  keep  himself  awake  ; 
or,  if  greeted  by  our  driver,  thrusting  a  pine  slip  into  the  fire,  and 
approaching  with  his  blazing  torch  to  ask  or  to  give  information. 
In  the  morning  the  places  where  such  encampments  have  been  can- 
not be  mistaken.  There  is  a  clear,  trodden  space,  strewed  with 
chips  and  refuse  food,  with  the  bare  poles  which  had  supported  the 
sailcloth,  standing  in  the  midst,  and  a  scorched  spot  where  the  fire 
had  been  kindled.  Others,  besides  emigrants,  camp  out  in  the 
woods.  Farmers,  on  their  way  to  a  distant  market,  find  it  cheaper 
to  bring  food,  and  trust  otherwise  to  the  hospitality  of  dame  Nature, 
than  to  put  up  at  hotels.  Between  the  one  and  the  other,  we  were 
amply  treated  with  the  untiring  spectacle.  .  ,  . 

It  is  not  difficult  to  procure  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life. 
Most  articles  of  food  are  provided  on  the  plantation.  Wine  and 
groceries  are  obtained  from  Mobile  or  New  Orleans  ;  and  clothing 
and  furniture  from  the  north.    Tea  is  twenty  shillings  English  per 


648  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

lb. ;  brown  sugar,  threepence-halfpenny ;  white  sugar,  sixpence- 
halfpenny.  A  gentleman's  family,  where  there  are  children  to  be 
educated,  cannot  live  for  less  than  from  seven  hundred  pounds  to 
one  thousand  pounds  per  annum.  The  sons  take  land  and  buy 
slaves  very  early  ;  and  the  daughters  marry  almost  in  childhood  ; 
so  that  education  is  less  thought  of,  and  sooner  ended,  than  in 
almost  any  part  of  the  world.  The  pioneers  of  civilization,  as  the 
settlers  in  these  new  districts  may  be  regarded,  care  for  other  things 
more  than  for  education  ;  or  they  would  not  come.  They  are,  from 
whatever  motive,  money-getters  ;  and  few  but  money-getting  quali- 
fications are  to  be  looked  for  in  them.  It  is  partly  amusing,  and 
partly  sad,  to  observe  the  young  people  of  these  regions  ;  some,  fit 
for  a  better  mode  of  life,  discontented  ;  some  youths  pedantic,  some 
maidens  romantic,  to  a  degree  which  makes  the  stranger  almost 
doubt  the  reality  of  the  scenes  and  personages  before  his  eyes. 
The  few  better  educated  who  come  to  get  money,  see  the  absurdity, 
and  feel  the  wearisomeness  of  this  kind  of  literary  cultivation  ; 
but  the  being  in  such  society  is  the  tax  they  must  pay  for  making 
haste  to  be  rich, 

I  heard  in  Montgomery  of  a  wealthy  old  planter  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, who  had  amassed  millions  of  dollars,  while  his  children 
can  scarcely  write  their  names.  Becoming  aware  of  their  deficien- 
cies, as  the  place  began  to  be  peopled  from  the  eastward,  he  sent 
a  son  of  sixteen  to  school,  and  a  younger  one  to  college ;  but  they 
proved  "  such  gawks,"  that  they  were  unable  to  learn,  or  even  to 
remain  in  the  society  of  others  who  were  learning ;  and  their  old 
father  has  bought  land  in  Missouri,  whither  he  was  about  to  take 
his  children,  to  remove  them  from  the  contempt  of  their  neigh- 
bours. They  are  doomed  to  the  lowest  ofifice  of  social  beings  ;  to 
be  the  mechanical,  unintelligent  pioneers  of  man  in  the  wilderness. 
Surely  such  a  warning  as  this  should  strike  awe  into  the  whole 
region,  lest  they  should  also  perish  to  all  the  best  purposes  of  life, 
by  getting  to  consider  money,  not  as  a  means,  but  an  end. 

I  suppose  there  must  be  such  pioneers  ;  but  the  result  is  a  society 
which  it  is  a  punishment  to  its  best  members  to  live  in.  There  is 
pedantry  in  those  who  read  ;  prejudice  in  those  who  do  not ;  cox- 
combry among  the  young  gentlemen  ;   bad  manners  among  the 


PIONEERING  WITH   SLAVES   IN    11  IK  SOUTHWEST     649 

young  ladies  ;  and  an  absence  of  all  reference  to  the  higher,  the 
real  objects  of  life.  When  to  all  this  is  added  that  tremendous 
curse,  the  possession  of  irresponsible  power,  [over  slaves,]  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  character  must  become,  in  such  regions,  what  it  was 
described  to  me  on  the  spot,  "  composed  of  the  chivalric  elements, 
badly  combined ;  "  and  the  wise  will  feel  that,  though  a  man  may 
save  his  soul  anywhere,  it  is  better  to  live  on  bread  and  water 
where  existence  is  most  idealized,  than  to  grow  suddenly  rich  in 
the  gorgeous  regions  where  mind  is  corrupted  or  starved  amidst 
the  luxuriance  of  nature.  The  hard-working  settler  of  the  north- 
west, who  hews  his  way  into  independence  with  his  own  hands, 
is,  or  may  be,  exempt  from  the  curse  of  this  mental  corruption  or 
starvation  ;  but  it  falls  inevitably  and  heavily  upon  those  who  fatten 
upon  the  bounty  of  Nature,  in  the  society  of  money-getters  like 
themselves,  and  through  the  labours  of  degraded  fellow-men,  whom 
they  hold  in  their  injurious  power. 

We  saw  several  plantations  while  we  were  in  this  neighbourhood. 
Nothing  can  be  richer  than  the  soil  of  one  to  which  we  went,  to 
take  a  lesson  in  cotton-growing.  It  will  never  want  more  than  to 
have  the  cotton  seed  returned  to  it.  We  saw  the  plough,  which  is 
very  shallow.  Two  throw  up  a  ridge,  which  is  wrought  by  hand 
into  little  mounds.  After  these  are  drilled,  the  seed  is  ]3ut  in  by 
hand.  This  plantation  consists  of  nine  hundred  and  fifty  acres, 
and  is  iiourishing  in  eveiy  way.   .   .   . 

The  profits  of  cotton-growing,  when  I  was  in  Alabama,  were 
thirty-five  per  cent.  One  planter  whom  I  knew  had  bought  fifteen 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  land  within  two  years,  which  he  could 
then  have  sold  for  sixty-five  thousand  dollars.  He  expected  to  make, 
that  season,  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  dollars  of  [from]  his  growing 
crop.  It  is  certainly  the  place  to  become  rich  in  ;  but  the  state  of 
society  is  fearful.  One  of  my  hosts,  a  man  of  great  good-nature, 
as  he  shows  in  the  treatment  of  his  slaves,  and  in  his  family  rela- 
tions, had  been  stabbed  in  the  back  in  the  reading-room  of  the 
town,  two  years  before,  and  no  prosecution  was  instituted.  Another 
of  my  hosts  carried  loaded  pistols  for  a  fortnight,  just  before  I 
arrived,  knowing  that  he  was  lain  in  wait  for  by  persons  against 
whose  illegal  practices  he  had  given  information  to  a  magistrate, 


650  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

whose  carriage  was  therefore  broken  in  pieces,  and  thrown  into  the 
river.  A  lawyer  with  whom  we  were  in  company  one  afternoon,  was 
sent  for  to  take  the  deposition  of  a  dying  man  who  had  been  sitting 
with  his  family  in  the  shade,  when  he  received  three  balls  in  the 
back  from  three  men  who  took  aim  at  him  from  behind  trees. 
The  tales  of  jail-breaking  and  rescue  were  numberless  ;  and  a  lady 
of  Montgomery  told  me  she  had  lived  there  four  years,  during 
which  time  no  day,  she  believed,  had  passed  without  some  one's 
life  having  been  attempted,  either  by  duelling  or  assassination.  It 
will  be  understood  that  I  described  this  region  as  presenting  an 
extreme  case  of  the  material  advantages  and  moral  evils  of  a  new 
settlement,  under  the  institution  of  slavery.  .   .  . 

1.  .  .  I  stayed  two  days  in  Natchez,  and  rode  with  a  friend  to 
the  distance  of  fifty-five  miles  above  Natchez,  on  the  Mississippi, 
passing  through  Gibsonport,  twenty-five  miles  from  Natchez,  and 
six  miles  from  the  Mississippi,  a  town  having  a  court-house,  a  news- 
paper printing  office,  and  about  sixty  houses,  with  1 100  inhabitants. 
The  following  day  we  arrived  at  Messrs.  D.'s  plantation.  These  two 
brothers  having  purchased,  three  years  ago,  6500  acres  of  land,  at 
the  rate  of  two  dollars  an  acre,  landed  with  their  slaves  at  their  new 
purchase,  from  their  former  residence  in  Kentucky.  The  lands  be- 
ing a  complete  wilderness,  their  first  occupation  was  to  raise  cabins 
for  themselves  and  their  slaves.  This  was  accomplished  in  four 
weeks.  They  succeeded  during  the  first  year  in  clearing  fifty  acres 
of  land,  twenty-five  of  which  were  sown  in  the  month  of  February 
with  cotton  seed,  the  rest  with  corn.  This  was  sufficient  to  defray 
the  expense  of  the  first  year.  The  clearing  of  woods,  however,  in 
this  country,  if  not  canebrake  bottom,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  as  in 
the  northern  states.  Numerous  shrubs,  thistles,  and  thorns,  of  an 
immense  size,  form  hedges,  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  pene- 
trate. To  these  obstructions  may  be  added,  snakes,  muskitoes,  and 
in  the  marshes,  alligators,  which,  though  not  so  dangerous  as  the 
Egyptian  crocodile,  are  still  a  great  annoyance.  The  trees  are  here 
destroyed  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  north,  by  killing  them. 
Shrubs,  underwood,  canebrake,  are  burnt,  and  the  corn  or  cotton 
^  Postel,  The  Americans  as  They  Are  [1828],  pp.  125-126,  127-128,  201-202. 


PIONEERING  WITH  SLAVES  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST     65  I 

is  planted  instead.  This  is  the  work  of  the  negroes,  who  labour 
under  the  superintendence  of  their  masters,  or,  if  he  be  a  wealthy 
man,  of  his  overseer.  In  the  months  of  June  or  July  the  ground 
is  ploughed  or  turned  up  ;  the  weeds  and  shrubs  are  cleared  away, 
as  is  done  in  the  case  of  Indian  corn  ;  the  cultivation  of  cotton, 
though  more  troublesome,  being  conducted  much  in  the  same  man- 
ner. In  the  month  of  October,  the  cotton  begins  to  ripen,  the  buds 
ojDcn,  and  the  white  flower  appears.  .  .  .  The  two  brothers  in  this, 
the  third  year  from  the  date  of  their  establishment,  raised  200  bales 
of  cotton  from  200  acres  of  cleared  land.  According  to  their  own 
estimation,  and  from  what  I  know,  they  might  have  raised  350 
bales,  had  it  not  been  for  a  disaster  which  befell  them  in  the  spring 
of  the  year  1825.  They  were  visited  with  a  hurricane,  which  lifted 
their  dwelling-house  from  the  ground,  carried  it  to  a  considerable 
distance  and  completely  destroyed  it,  with  the  entire  furniture.  .  .  . 
This  misfortune  had,  of  course,  considerably  retarded  tlic  iin])rove- 
ments  in  progress,  and  thrown  them  back  for  at  least  a  twelvemonth. 
Still  the  planters  calculated  this  year  upon  a  profit  of  10,000  dol- 
lars from  their  plantation  :  4000  dollars  may  be  deducted  from 
this  for  household  and  other  necessary  expenses,  leaving  a  clear 
profit  of  6000  dollars.  The  original  capital  of  the  two  brothers 
consisted,  (including  the  value  of  their  slaves),  of  20,000  dollars. 
They  paid  half  the  purchase  money  when  they  took  possession,  and 
the  rest  in  the  present  year.  Their  plantation  is  now  worth  60,000 
dollars.  In  the  state  of  Mississippi,  the  principal  article  of  cultiva- 
tion is  cotton,  as  it  is  the  staple  article  of  its  commerce  ;  corn  and 
the  breeding  of  cattle  are  considered  as  secondary  objects,  though 
many  plantations  reckon  from  100  to  300  head  of  cattle,  which 
have  a  free  range  in  the  vast  forests  in  quest  of  food.  (3nly  those 
intended  for  fattening  are  kept  at  home  and  fed  with  cotton  seed, 
which  in  a  few  weeks  will  make  them  exceedingly  fat.  Turkeys 
and  poultry  in  general  are  found  in  abundance,  and  constitute  with 
firewood  the  articles  which  are  sold  to  stf^am-boats  passing  on  their 
way.  Indian  corn  supplies  in  these  parts  the  place  of  rye  or  wheat. 
The  slaves  live  exclusively  on  cornbread  ;  their  masters  vary  it  with 
wheat  cakes.  Wheat,  flour,  whiskey,  articles  of  dress,  sacking,  and 
blankets,  come  from  the  north,  or  from  New  Orleans. 


652  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

...  A  cotton  plantation  may  now  be  established  by  means  of 
a  capital  of  10,000  dollars,  3000  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  1500 
or  2000  acres  of  land,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  from  Baton 
Rouge  up  to  the  Walnut-hills,  on  both  sides  of  the  river ;  or  what 
is  still  preferable,  on  the  banks  of  the  Red-river.  Ten  slaves  at  5000 
dollars  leaves  2000  for  the  first  year's  current  expenses.  The  be- 
ginner will  not  find  it  difficult  to  clear  fifty  acres  in  the  first  twelve 
months  ;  and  to  raise  from  twenty-five  acres,  thirty  bales  of  cotton, 
the  produce  of  which  will,  with  the  crop  of  corn  from  the  remain- 
ing twenty-five  acres,  keep  him  for  the  first  year,  the  cotton  alone 
being  worth  1500  dollars,  independently  of  the  corn.  The  follow- 
ing year  he  may  raise  sixty  bales,  giving  an  income  of  3000  dollars, 
every  slave  thereby  yielding  about  300  dollars  ;  proceeding  thus  in  a 
manner  which  in  a  few  years  more  will  render  his  income  equal  to  his 
original  capital.^ 

VI.   THE  EVIL  OF  DISPERSION 

2.  .  .  In  the  history  of  the  world,  there  is  no  example  of  a 
society  at  once  dispersed  and  highly  civilized  ;  while  there  are 
instances  without  end,  in  the  history  of  colonization,  of  societies 
which,  being  civilized,  became  barbarous  as  soon  as  they  were  dis- 
persed over  an  extensive  territory.  That  division  of  each  man's 
labour  among  several  employments,  which,  says  Adam  Smith,  is 
the  immediate  cause  of  ignorance,  is  an  effect  of  dispersion  ;  and 
dispersion  interferes  with  the  cultivation  of  knowledge  in  another 
way ;  that  is,  by  obstacles  to  social  intercourse,  to  the  interchange 
of  ideas,  to  the  exercise  of  the  mental  faculties. 

The  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  a  more  dispersed  society 
than  the  colonists  of  Franklin's  time.    When  Jefferson  wrote  the 

1  There  is  still  another  phase  of  western  settlement  besides  those  which  have 
been  described  above.  It  is  the  settlement  of  the  mountain  region  of  the  far  West. 
Its  economic  basis  was  chiefly  the  exploitation  of  mineral,  rather  than  agricultural, 
resources  and  it  gave  rise  to  a  very  different  kind  of  frontier  society  from  any  kind 
of  pioneering  which  had  preceded  it.  Its  description,  however,  does  not  belong 
here,  for  the  movement  had  only  fairly  begun  in  i860.  As  a  whole  it  belongs  to 
the  period  since  that  date,  and  is  so  important  a  feature  of  our  economic  history 
during  that  period  that  it  deserves  a  separate  and  more  detailed  description  than 
can  be  given  here. 

-  Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1S34],  pp.  19S-200,  195,  196. 


THE  EVIL  OF  DISPERSION  653 

Declaration  of  Independence,  the  vast  regions  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  had  scarcely  been  opened  for  settlement.  Washington 
became  a  soldier  in  contests  with  the  Indians  on  the  western 
frontier  of  Virginia,  which  is  now  the  eastern  frontier  of  states 
more  extensive  than  the  dependent  colonies.  r>en  if  the  increase 
of  people  had  been  equal  to  the  acquisition  of  land,  still  the  dis- 
persion would  have  been  greater,  because  the  interior  settle- 
ments are,  by  reason  of  their  great  distance  from  the  sea,  more 
deficient  in  natural  means  of  communication.  Washington  often 
foretold  some  of  the  evils  that  would  result  from  spreading  towards 
the  west,  unless  the  eastern  and  western  states  were  connected  by 
canals  and  good  roads.  His  warning  was  neglected  until  lately, 
when  the  eastern  states  became  alarmed  at  the  amount  of  emigra- 
tion to  the  west.  In  those  eastern  states,  the  dependent  colonies 
that  were,  they  talk  now  of  Washington's  inspiration,  and  are  most 
anxious  to  establish  means  of  intercourse  with  the  western  settle- 
ments :  they  will  find  it  difficult  to  remedy  their  own  error.  The 
western  wilderness  was  theirs,  and  liable  to  be  treated  in  the  way 
most  for  their  advantage.  They  thought  only  of  gratifying  their 
national  vanity,  by  extending  as  much  as  possible  the  surface  of 
the  Union.  Not  content  with  promoting  emigration  to  the  wilder- 
ness, when  their  own  population  was  so  scanty  that  they  ought 
rather  to  have  encouraged  immigration  from  Europe,  they  sent  to 
Europe  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  more  wilderness,  and  in  one 
case  [purchase  of  Louisiana]  actually  paid  hard  money  for  an  acces- 
sion of  mischief.  The  result  is,  that  population  has  spread,  not 
merely  as  fast  as  it  has  increased,  but  faster ;  that  there  are  fewer 
people  to  the  square  mile  than  when  population  was  about  a  quarter 
of  its  present  amount ;  and  that  this  smaller  number  of  people  in 
proportion  to  land,  besides  being  separated  from  each  other  by 
greater  distance,  are  not  so  well  provided  with  the  means  of  social 
intercourse.  Where  there  are  markets,  there  the  people  live 
together  ;  but  these  are  few  and  far  between,  .  .  . 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  obstacles  to  social 
intercourse  are  confined  to  the  newest  settlements.  When  the 
states  were  colonies,  waste  land  was  usually  given  away  by  their 
governments,  often  in  vast  tracts  to  persons  who  had  no  means 


654  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

of  cultivating  them,  and  who,  therefore,  either  left  the  land  in  a 
desert  state,  or  disposed  of  it  to  others  at  so  very  cheap  a  rate  that 
individuals  readily  obtained  more  land  than  they  could  possibly 
cultivate.  In  either  case,  the  dispersion  of  the  people  was  very 
great ;  for  either  the  desert,  wanting  roads,  was  a  bar  to  inter- 
course among  the  people  who  surrounded  it,  or  each  settler  fixed 
on  it  was,  still  by  want  of  roads,  separated  from  all  the  other 
settlers.  But  since  the  government  of  the  United  States  has, 
generally,  instead  of  giving  away  new  land,  sold  it  by  auction  to 
the  highest  bidder  above  a  fixed  minimum  price,  some  new  states, 
which  offered  peculiar  attractions,  have  been  more  densely  or  rather 
less  thinly  peopled  than  some  of  the  old  colonies,  and  far  better 
provided  with  roads,  which  are  more  easily  made  in  proportion  as 
they  are  less  wanted,  that  is,  in  proportion  as  the  people  are  less 
dispersed.  Still,  above  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  America 
pass  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  in  comparative  loneliness ;  in  a 
state  which,  if  it  could  be  imagined  by  hill  squires  in  Wales,  even 
they  would  call  unbearable  solitude.  It  is  a  state  of  existence  not 
readily  imagined  by  any  Englishman,  quite  incomprehensible  by 
those  who  have  always  lived  in  towns  ;  but  the  Englishman,  who 
shall  conceive  what  it  is,  will  be  at  no  loss  to  account  for  many 
American  habits  and  customs,  besides  that  peculiar  kind  of  super- 
stition which  displeases  English  travellers.   .  .  . 

The  American  of  the  backwoods  has  often  been  described  to 
the  English  as  grossly  ignorant,  dirty,  unsocial,  delighting  in  rum 
and  tobacco,  attached  to  nothing  but  his  rifle,  adventurous,  restless, 
more  than  half-savage.  Deprived  of  social  enjoyments  or  excite- 
ments, he  has  recourse  to  those  of  savage  life,  and  becomes  (for  in 
this  respect  the  Americans  degenerate)  unfit  for  society.  As  the 
evils  of  society,  misery,  and  vice  produced  by  miseiy,  are  unknown 
in  America,  as  they  would  have  been  quite  as  well  avoided  with  a 
greater  concentration  of  the  people ;  as,  indeed,  the  produce  of 
American  industry  might  have  been  greater  if  the  people  had  been 
less  dispersed,  the  semi-barbarism  of  American  backwoodsmen  is 
an  unnecessary  evil ;  and  an  evil,  too,  without  the  least  counter- 
vailing advantage  ;  but,  though  caused  without  a  motive,  still  it  has 
been  caused  by  all  the  governments  which  have  disposed  of  new 


THE  EVIL  OF  DISPERSION  655 

land  in  America,  from  that  of  Queen  r^lizabeth,  wliich  bestowed 
twenty-five  millions  of  acres  upon  an  individual,  to  that  of  President 
Jackson,  which  sells  new  land  at  the  very  low  price  of  five  shil- 
lings per  acre.   ,  .  . 

^  Among  the  most  interesting  personages  in  the  PJnited  States, 
are  the  Solitaries,  —  solitary  families,  not  individuals,  luiropeans, 
who  think  it  much  to  lodge  in  a  country  cottage  for  six  weeks  in 
the  summer,  can  form  little  idea  of  the  life  of  a  solitary  family  in 
the  wilds.  I  did  not  see  the  most  sequestered,  as  I  never  happened 
to  lose  my  way  in  the  forests  or  on  the  prairies  :  but  I  witnessed 
some  modes  of  life  which  realized  all  I  had  conceived  of  the 
romantic,  or  of  the  dismal. 

One  rainy  October  day,  I  saw  a  settler  at  work  in  the  forest,  on 
which  he  appeared  to  have  just  entered.  His  clearing  looked,  in 
comparison  with  the  forest  behind  him,  of  about  the  size  of  a  pin- 
cushion. He  was  standing,  up  to  the  knees  in  water,  among  the 
stubborn  stumps,  and  charred  stems  of  dead  trees.  He  was  notch- 
ing logs  with  his  axe,  beside  his  small  log-hut  and  stye.  There 
was  swamp  behind,  and  swamp  on  each  side;  —  a  pool  of  mud 
around  each  dead  tree,  which  had  been  wont  to  drink  the  moisture. 
There  was  a  semblance  of  a  tumble-down  fence  :  no  orchard  yet ; 
no  grave-yard  ;  no  poultry  ;  none  of  the  graces  of  fixed  habitation 
had  grown  up.  On  looking  back  to  catch  a  last  view  of  the  scene, 
I  saw  two  little  boys,  about  three  and  four  years  old,  leading  a 
horse  home  from  the  forest ;  one  driving  the  animal  behind  with 
an  armful  of  bush,  and  the  other  reaching  up  on  tiptoe  to  keep  his 
hold  of  the  halter ;  and  both  looking  as  if  they  would  be  drowned 
in  the  swamp.  If  the  mother  was  watching  from  the  hut,  she 
^ust  have  thought  this  strange  dismal  play  for  her  little  ones. 
The  hardworking  father  must  be  toiling  for  his  children  ;  for  the 
success  of  his  after  life  can  hardly  atone  to  him  for  such  a  desti- 
tution of  comfort  as  I  saw  him  in  the  midst  of.  Many  such  scenes 
arc  passed  on  every  road  in  the  western  parts  of  the  St^ites.  They 
become  cheering  when  the  plough  is  seen,  or  a  few  slieep  are 
straggling  on  the  hill  side,  seeming  lost  in  space.   .   .   . 

1  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836J,  I,  162-163,  291-292,  319. 


656  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

The  pride  and  delight  of  Americans  is  in  their  quantity  of  land. 
I  do  not  remember  meeting  with  one  to  whom  it  had  occurred  that 
they  had  too  much.  Among  the  many  complaints  of  the  minority, 
this  was  never  one,  I  saw  a  gentleman  strike  his  fist  on  the  table 
in  an  agony  at  the  country  being  so  "  confoundedly  prosperous  :  " 
I  heard  lamentations  over  the  spirit  of  speculation ;  the  migration 
of  young  men  to  the  back  country  ;  the  fluctuating  state  of  society 
from  the  incessant  movement  westwards ;  the  immigration  of 
labourers  from  Europe  ;  and  the  ignorance  of  the  sparse  popula- 
tion. All  these  grievances  I  heard  perpetually  complained  of ; 
but  in  the  same  breath  I  was  told  in  triumph  of  the  rapid  sales  of 
land  ;  of  the  glorious  additions  which  had  been  made  by  the  acqui- 
sition of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and  of  the  probable  gain  of  Texas. 
Land  was  spoken  of  as  the  unfailing  resource  against  over  manu- 
facture ;  the  great  wealth  of  the  nation  ;  the  grand  security  of  every 
man  in  it.  .  .  . 

The  possession  of  land  is  the  aim  of  all  actions,  generally  speak- 
ing, and  the  cure  for  all  social  evils,  among  men  in  the  United 
States.  If  a  man  is  disappointed  in  politics  or  love,  he  goes  and 
buys  land.  If  he  disgraces  himself,  he  betakes  himself  to  a  lot  in 
the  west.  If  the  demand  for  any  article  of  manufacture  slackens, 
the  operatives  drop  into  the  unsettled  lands.  If  a  citizen's  neigh- 
bours rise  above  him  in  the  towns,  he  betakes  himself  where  he 
can  be  monarch  of  all  he  surveys.  An  artisan  works,  that  he  may 
die  on  land  of  his  own.  He  is  frugal,  that  he  may  enable  his  son 
to  be  a  landowner.  Farmer's  daughters  go  into  factories  that  they 
may  clear  off  the  mortgage  from  their  father's  farms  ;  that  they 
may  be  independent  landowners  again.   .   .  . 

The  methods  according  to  which  the  disposal  of  land  is  carried 
on  are  as  good  as  the  methods  of  government  almost  invariably  are 
in  America.  The  deficiency  is  in  the  knowledge  of  the  relation 
which  land  bears  to  other  capital  and  to  labour.  A  few  clear-headed 
men  have  foreseen  the  evil  of  so  great  a  dispersion  of  the  people 
as  has  taken  place,  ^  and  have  consistently  advocated  a  higher  price 
being  set  upon  land  than  that  at  which  it  is  at  present  sold.  Such 
men  are  now  convinced  that  evils  which  seem  to  bear  no  more 
^  Compare  Rush,  in  Chapter  X,  pp.  558-559. 


THE  EVIL  OF  DISPERSION  657 

relation  to  the  price  of  land  than  the  fall  of  an  apple  to  the  motions 
of  the  planets,  are  attributable  to  the  reduction  in  the  price  of  j^overn- 
ment  lots  :  that  much  political  blundering,  and  reli<;ious  animosity  ; 
much  of  the  illegal  violence,  and  much  of  the  popular  apatliy  (jn 
the  slave  question,  which  have  disgraced  the  country,  are  owing  to 
the  public  lands  being  sold  at  a  minimum  price  of  a  dollar  and 
a-quarter  per  acre.  Many  excellent  leaders  of  tlie  democratic  party 
think  the  people  at  large  less  fit  to  govern  themselves  wisely  than 
they  were  fivc-and-twenty  years  ago.  This  seems  to  me  improbable  ; 
but  I  believe  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  dispersion  has  hitherto  been 
too  great ;  and  that  the  intellectual  and  moral,  and,  of  course,  the 
political  condition  of  the  people  has  thereby  suffered.   .   ,   , 

^  .  .  The  territoiy  which  they  [the  settlers]  acquire  is  out  of 
all  proportion  to  their  wants,  their  physical  strength,  or  their  capi- 
tal ;  they  cultivate  only  here  and  there  a  very  fertile  spot,  where  the 
powers  of  the  soil  are  soon  spent  by  a  succession  of  exhausting 
crops  ;  and  in  the  careless  style  of  agriculture  to  which  they  become 
accustomed,  through  their  dependence  on  the  extent  and  natural 
richness  of  their  land,  is  soon  lost  all  remembrance  of  the  agricul- 
tural art  and  science  which  they  brought  with  them  from  their  old 
home.  Widely  separated  from,  each  other,  amply  supplied  with  food 
by  the  bounty  of  nature,  but  destitute  of  the  manufactured  articles 
on  which  depend  the  comforts  and  even  the  decencies  of  life,  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  law,  and  beyond  the  sphere  of  education,  they 
rapidly  approximate  the  condition  of  the  savages  whom  they  have 
just  dispossessed.  They  become  "squatters,"  "bushmen,"  "  back- 
woodsmen," whose  only  enjoyments  are  hunting  and  intoxication, 
whose  only  schoolroom  is  the  forest,  and  whose  sense  of  justice  is 
manifested  only  by  the  processes  of  Lynch  law.  They  are  doomed 
to  the  solitary,  violent,  brutal  existence,  which  destroys  all  true  civi- 
lization, all  sympathy  with  other  men,  though  it  increases  strength 
of  body,  adroitness,  courage,  and  the  spirit  of  adventure.  The  want 
of  local  attachments,  and  an  insatiable  thirst  for  wandering  and  ad- 
venture, are,  I  fear,  the  most  striking  traits  in  the  character  of  the 
whole  population  of  our  Mississippi  valley.    Their  homes  even  in 

1  Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy  [1856],  pp.  94-95- 


658  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

that  fair  region  are  but  homes  of  yesterday  ;  they  had  only  pitched 
their  camps  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash,  wliile  on 
their  way  to  the  Sacramento  and  the  C'olumbia.  The  truant  dispo- 
sition which  carried  them  over  the  Alleglianies,  hurries  them  on- 
ward to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  I  do  not  go  so  far  as  an  eminent 
thinker  of  our  own  day,  who  has  expressed  in  eloquent  language 
his  fears  lest  these  constant  migrations  should  lead  our  countrymen 
back  to  barbarism  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  ' '  pioneers  of  civiliza- 
tion," as  they  have  been  fondly  called,  leave  laws,  education,  and 
the  arts,  all  the  essential  elements  of  civilization,  behind  them. 
They  may  be  the  means  of  partially  civilizing  others,  but  they 
are  in  great  danger  of  brutalizing  themselves. ^ 

VII.    ECONOMIC   CONDITIONS   AFFECTING  NEW 
SETTLEMENTS 

2  The  colony  of  a  civilized  nation  which  takes  possession,  either 
of  a  waste  country  or  of  one  so  thinly  inhabited,  that  the  natives 
easily  give  place  to  the  new  settlers,  advances  more  rapidly  to 
wealth  and  greatness  than  any  other  human  society. 

The  colonists  carry  out  with  them  a  knowledge  of  agriculture 
and  of  other  useful  arts,  superior  to  what  can  grow  up  of  its  own 
accord  in  the  course  of  many  centuries  among  savage  and  barbar- 
ous nations.  They  carry  out  with  them  too  the  habit  of  subordi- 
nation, some  notion  of  the  regular  government  which  takes  place 
in  their  own  country,  of  the  system  of  laws  which  supports  it,  and 
of  a  regular  administration  of  justice ;  and  they  naturally  establish 
something  of  the  same  kind  in  the  new  settlement.  But  among 
savage  and  barbarous  nations,  the  natural  progress  of  law  and  gov- 
ernment is  still  slower  than  the  natural  progress  of  arts,  after  law 
and  government  have  been  so  far  established,  as  is  necessary  for 
their  protection.  Every  colonist  gets  more  land  than  he  can  possi- 
bly cultivate.    He  has  no  rent,  and  scarce  any  taxes  to  pay.    No 

1  Consult  on  this  subject  Carey,  Rush,  and  The  Report  of  the  Convention  of 
the  Friends  of  Domestic  Industry,  in  Chapter  X,  pp.  552-563.  For  a  description 
of  the  effect  of  too  great  dispersion  of  the  population  on  the  older  states  from 
which  the  western  settlers  came,  see  De  Bow,  in  Chapter  XV,  pp.  7S7-790. 

~  Smith,  The  Wealth  of  Nations,  Bk.  IV,  ch.  vii,  part  ii. 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  NEW  SETTLEMENTS     659 

landlord  shares  with  him  in  its  produce,  and  the  share  of  the  sover- 
eign is  commonly  but  a  trilie.  He  has  every  motive  to  render  as 
great  as  possible  a  produce,  which  is  thus  to  be  almost  entirely  his 
own.  liut  liis  land  is  commonly  so  extensive,  that  with  all  his  own 
industr)-,  and  with  all  the  industry  of  other  people  whom  he  can 
get  to  employ,  he  can  seldom  make  it  produce  the  tenth  part  of 
what  it  is  capable  of  producing.  He  is  eager,  therefore,  to  collect 
labourers  from  all  quarters,  and  to  reward  them  with  the  most  lib- 
eral wages.  Ikit  those  liberal  wages,  joined  to  the  plenty  and  cheap- 
ness of  land,  soon  make  those  labourers  leave  him,  in  order  to 
become  landlords  themselves,  and  to  reward,  with  equal  liberality, 
other  labourers,  who  soon  leave  them  for  the  same  reason  that  they 
left  their  first  master.  The  liberal  reward  of  labour  encourages 
marriage.  The  children,  during  the  tender  years  of  infancy,  are 
well  fed  and  properly  taken  care  of,  and  when  they  are  grown  up, 
the  value  of  their  labour  greatly  overpays  their  maintenance.  When 
arrived  at  maturity,  the  high  price  of  labour,  and  the  low  price  of 
land,  enable  them  to  establish  themselves  in  the  same  manner  as 
their  fathers  did  before  them. 

In  other  countries  rent  and  profit  eat  up  wages,  and  the  two 
superior  orders  of  people  oppress  the  inferior  one.  But  in  new 
colonies,  the  interest  of  the  two  superior  orders  obliges  them  to 
treat  the  inferior  one  with  more  generosity  and  humanity  ;  at  least, 
where  that  inferior  one  is  not  in  a  state  of  slavery.  Waste  lands 
of  the  greatest  natural  fertility,  are  to  be  had  for  a  trifle.  The  in- 
crease of  revenue  which  the  proprietor,  who  is  always  the  under- 
taker, expects  from  their  improvement,  constitutes  his  profit ; 
which  in  these  circumstances  is  commonly  very  great.  But  this 
great  profit  cannot  be  made  without  employing  the  labour  of  other 
people  in  clearing  and  cultivating  the  land  ;  and  the  disproportion 
between  the  great  extent  of  the  land  and  the  small  number  of  the 
people,  which  commonly  takes  place  in  new  colonies,  makes  it  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  get  this  labour.  He  does  ncjt,  therefore,  dispute 
about  wages,  but  is  willing  to  employ  labour  at  any  price.  The 
high  wages  of  labour  encourage  population.  The  cheapness  and 
plenty  of  good  land  encourage  improvement,  and  enable  the  pro- 
prietor to  pay  those  high  wages.    In  those  wages  consists  almost 


66o  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

the  whole  price  of  the  land  ;  and  though  they  are  high,  considered  as 
the  wages  of  labour,  they  are  low  considered  as  the  price  of  what  is 
so  very  valuable.  What  encourages  the  progress  of  population  and 
improvement,  encourages  that  of  real  wealth  and  greatness.  ... 

1  The  influence  exercised  on  production  by  the  separation  of  em- 
ployments, is  more  fundamental  than,  from  the  mode  in  which  the 
subject  is  usually  treated,  a  reader  might  be  induced  to  suppose.  It 
is  not  merely  that  when  the  production  of  different  things  becomes 
the  sole  or  principal  occupation  of  different  persons,  a  much  greater 
quantity  of  each  kind  of  article  is  produced.  The  truth  is  much 
beyond  this.  Without  some  separation  of  employments,  very  few 
things  would  be  produced  at  all. 

Suppose  a  set  of  persons,  or  a  number  of  families,  all  employed 
precisely  in  the  same  manner  ;  each  family  settled  on  a  piece  of  its 
own  land,  on  which  it  grows  by  its  labour  the  food  required  for  its 
own  sustenance,  and  as  there  are  no  persons  to  buy  any  surplus 
produce  where  all  are  producers,  each  family  has  to  produce  within 
itself  whatever  other  articles  it  consumes.  In  such  circumstances, 
if  the  soil  was  tolerably,  fertile,  and  population  did  not  tread  too 
closely  on  the  heels  of  subsistence,  there  would  be,  no  doubt,  some 
kind  of  domestic  manufactures  ;  clothing  for  the  family  might  per- 
haps be  spun  and  woven  within  it,  by  the  labour  probably  of  the 
women  (a  first  step  in  the  separation  of  employments)  ;  and  a 
dwelling  of  some  sort  would  be  erected  and  kept  in  repair  by  their 
united  labour.  But  beyond  simple  food  (precarious,  too,  from  the 
variations  of  the  seasons),  coarse  clothing,  and  very  imperfect  lodg- 
ing, it  would  be  scarcely  possible  that  the  family  should  produce  any- 
thing more.  They  would,  in  general,  require  their  utmost  exertions 
to  accomi^lish  so  much.  Their  power  even  of  extracting  food  from 
the  soil  would  be  kept  within  narrow  limits  by  the  quality  of  their 
tools,  which  would  necessarily  be  of  the  most  wretched  description. 
To  do  almost  anything  in  the  way  of  producing  for  themselves  ar- 
ticles of  convenience  or  luxury,  would  require  too  much  time,  and, 
in  many  cases,  their  presence  in  a  different  place.  Very  few  kinds 
of  industry,  therefore,  would  exist ;  and  that  which  did  exist,  namely 
1  Mill,  I'rinciples  of  Political  Economy,  Bk.  I,  ch.  viii ;  V>k.  Ill,  ch.  xvii. 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  NKW  SETTLEMENTS     66 1 

the  production  of  necessaries,  would  be  extremely  inefficient,  not 
solely  from  imperfect  implements,  but  because,  when  the  f^round 
and  the  domestic  industry  fed  by  it  had  ix'en  made  to  supply  the 
necessaries  of  a  single  family  in  tolerable  abundance,  there  would 
belittle  motive,  while  the  numbers  of  the  family  remained  the  same, 
to  make  either  the  land  or  the  labour  produce  more. 

But  suppose  an  event  to  occur,  which  would  amount  to  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  circumst;mces  of  this  little  settlement.  Sup]X)se  that  a 
company  of  artificers,  provided  with  tools,  and  with  food  sufficient 
to  maintain  them  for  a  year,  arri\-e  in  the  country  and  establish 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  the  population.  These  new  settlers  oc- 
cupy themselves  in  producing  articles  of  use  or  ornament  adapted 
to  the  taste  of  a  simple  people  ;  and  before  their  food  is  exhausted 
they  have  produced  these  in  considerable  quantity,  and  are  ready  to 
exchange  them  for  more  food.  The  economical  position  of  the 
landed  population  is  now  most  materially  altered.  They  have  an 
opportunity  given  them  of  acquiring  comforts  and  luxuries.  Things 
which,  while  they  depended  solely  on  their  own  labour,  they  never 
could  have  obtained,  because  they  could  not  have  produced,  are  now 
accessible  to  them  if  they  can  succeed  in  producing  an  additional 
quantity  of  food  and  necessaries.  They  are  thus  incited  to  increase 
the  productiveness  of  their  industry.  Among  the  conveniences  for 
the  first  time  made  accessible  to  them,  better  tools  are  probably  one : 
and  apart  from  this,  they  have  a  motive  to  labour  more  assiduously, 
and  to  adopt  contrivances  for  making  their  labour  more  effectual. 
By  these  means  they  will  generally  succeed  in  compelling  their  land 
to  produce,  not  only  food  for  themselves,  but  a  surplus  for  the  new 
comers,  wherewith  to  buy  from  them  the  products  of  their  industry. 
The  new  settlers  constitute  what  is  called  a  market  for  surplus 
agricultural  produce  :  and  their  arrival  has  enriched  the  settlement 
not  only  by  the  manufactured  articles  which  they  produce,  but  by 
the  food  which  would  not  have  been  produced  unless  they  had 
been  there  to  consume  it. 

There  is  no  inconsistency  between  this  doctrine,  and  the  propo- 
sition we  before  maintained,  that  a  market  for  commodities  does 
not  constitute  employment  for  labour.  The  labour  of  the  agri- 
culturists was  already  provided  with  employment;  they  are   not 


662  SETTLEMENT  OE  THE  WEST 

indebted  to  the  demand  of  the  new  corners  for  being  able  to  main- 
tain themselves.  What  that  demand  does  for  them  is,  to  call  their 
labour  into  increased  vigour  and  efficiency  ;  to  stimulate  them,  by 
new  motives,  to  new  exertions.  Neither  do  the  new  comers  owe 
their  maintenance  and  employment  to  the  demand  of  the  agricul- 
turists :  with  a  year's  subsistence  in  store,  they  could  have  settled 
side  by  side  with  the  former  inhabitants,  and  produced  a  similar 
scanty  stock  of  food  and  necessaries.  Nevertheless,  we  see  of  what 
supreme  importance  to  the  productiveness  of  the  labour  of  produc- 
ers, is  the  existence  of  other  producers  within  reach,  employed  in 
a  different  kind  of  industry.  The  power  of  exchanging  the, products 
of  one  kind  of  labour  for  those  of  another,  is  a  condition,  but  for 
which,  there  would  almost  always  be  a  smaller  quantity  of  labour 
altogether.  When  a  new  market  is  opened  for  any  product  of 
industry,  and  a  greater  quantity  of  the  article  is  consequently 
produced,  the  increased  production  is  not  always  obtained  at  the 
expense  of  some  other  product ;  it  is  often  a  new  creation,  the 
result  of  labour  which  would  otherwise  have  remained  unexerted  ; 
or  of  assistance  rendered  to  labor  by  improvements  or  by  modes  of 
cooperation  to  which  recourse  would  not  have  been  had  if  an  in- 
ducement had  not  been  offered  for  raising  a  larger  produce. 

From  these  considerations  it  appears  that  a  country  will  seldom 
have  a  productive  agriculture,  unless  it  has  a  large  town  population, 
or  the  only  available  substitute,  a  large  export  trade  in  agricultural 
produce  to  supply  a  population  elsewhere.  I  use  the  phrase  town 
population  for  shortness,  to  imply  a  population  non-agricultural ; 
which  will  generally  be  collected  in  towns  or  large  villages,  for  the 
sake  of  combination  of  labour.  The  application  of  this  truth  by 
Mr.  Wakefield  to  the  theory  of  colonization,  has  excited  much  at- 
tention, and  is  doubtless  destined  to  excite  much  more.  It  is  one 
of  those  great  practical  discoveries,  which,  once  made,  appear  so 
obvious  that  the  merit  of  making  them  seems  less  than  it  is.  Mr. 
Wakefield  was  the  first  to  point  out  that  the  mode  of  planting  new 
settlements,  then  commonly  practised  —  setting  down  a  number  of 
families  side  by  side,  each  on  its  piece  of  land,  all  employing  them- 
selves in  exactly  the  same  manner,  —  though  in  favourable  circum- 
stances it  may  assure  to  those  families  a  rude  abundance  of  mere 


ClONDl'i'lONS  Al'FECriNO  NI-:W  SF/r'I'LKMl'.NTS     663 

necessaries,  can  never  be  other  than  unfavourable  to  great  produc- 
tion or  rapid  growth  :  and  liis  system  consists  of  arrangements  for 
securing  that  every  colony  shall  have  from  the  first  a  town  popula- 
tion bearing  due  proportion  to  its  agricultural,  and  that  the  cultiva- 
tors of  the  soil  shall  not  be  so  widely  scattered  as  to  be  deprived  by 
distance,  of  the  benefit  of  that  town  population  as  a  market  for  their 
produce.  The  principle  on  which  the  scheme  is  founded,  does  not 
depend  on  any  theory  respecting  the  superior  productiveness  of 
land  held  in  large  portions,  and  cultivated  by  hired  labour.  Sup- 
posing it  true  that  land  yields  the  greatest  produce  when  divided 
into  small  properties  and  cultivated  by  peasant  proprietors,  a  town 
population  would  be  just  as  necessary  to  induce  those  proprietors 
to  raise  that  larger  produce :  and  if  they  were  too  far  from  the 
nearest  seat  of  non-agricultural  industry  to  use  it  as  a  market  for  dis- 
posing of  their  surplus,  and  thereby  suppying  their  other  wants, 
neither  that  surplus  nor  any  equi\'alent  for  it  would,  generally 
speaking,  be  produced. 

It  is,  above  all,  the  deficiency  of  town  population  which  limits 
the  productiveness  of  the  industry  of  a  country  like  India.  'J'lie 
agriculture  of  India  is  conducted  entirely  on  the  system  of  small 
holdings.  There  is,  however,  a  considerable  amount  of  combina- 
tion of  labour.  The  village  institutions  and  customs,  which  are  the 
real  framework  of  Indian  society,  make  provision  for  joint  action 
in  the  cases  in  which  it  is  seen  to  be  necessary ;  or  where  they 
fail  to  do  so,  the  government  (when  tolerably  well  administered) 
steps  in,  and  by  an  outlay  from  the  revenue,  executes  by  combined 
labour  the  tanks,  embankments,  and  works  of  irrigation,  which  are 
indispensable.  The  implements  and  processes  of  agriculture  are 
however  so  wretched,  that  the  produce  of  the  soil,  in  spite  of  great 
natural  fertility  and  a  climate  highly  favourable  to  vegetation,  is 
miserably  small  :  and  the  land  might  be  made  to  yield  food  in 
abundance  for  many  more  than  the  present  number  of  inhabitants, 
without  departing  from  the  system  of  small  holdings.  But  to  this 
the  stimulus  is  wanting,  which  a  large  town  population,  connected 
with  the  rural  districts* by  easy  and  unexpensive  means  of  communi- 
cation, would  afford.  That  town  population,  again,  does  not  grow 
up,  because  the  few  wants  and  unaspiring  spirit  of  the  cultivators 


664  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST 

(joined  until  lately  with  great  insecurity  of  property,  from  military 
and  fiscal  rapacity)  prevent  them  from  attempting  to  become  con- 
sumers of  town  produce.  In  these  circumstances  the  best  chance 
of  an  early  development  of  the  productive  resources  of  India, 
consists  in  the  rapid  growth  of  its  export  of  agricultural  produce 
(cotton,  indigo,  sugar,  coffee,  &c.)  to  the  markets  of  Europe.  The 
producers  of  these  articles  are  consumers  of  food  supplied  by  their 
fellow-agriculturists  in  India ;  and  the  market  thus  opened  for  sur- 
plus food  will,  if  accompanied  by  good  government,  raise  up  by 
degrees  more  extended  wants  and  desires,  directed  either  towards 
European  commodities,  or  towards  things  which  will  require  for 
their  production  in  India  a  larger  manufacturing  population.  .  .  . 

Such,  then,  is  the  direct  economical  advantage  of  foreign  trade. 
But  there  are,  besides,  indirect  effects,  which  must  be  counted  as 
benefits  of  a  high  order.  One  is,  the  tendency  of  every  extension 
of  the  market  to  improve  the  processes  of  production.  A  country 
which  produces  for  a  larger  market  than  its  own,  can  introduce  a 
more  extended  division  of  labour,  can  make  greater  use  of  machin- 
ery, and  is  more  likely  to  make  inventions  and  improvements  in  the 
processes  of  production.  Whatever  causes  a  greater  quantity  of  any- 
thing to  be  produced  in  the  same  place,  tends  to  the  general  in- 
crease of  the  productive  powers  of  the  world.  There  is  another 
consideration,  principally  applicable  to  an  early  stage  of  industrial 
advancement,  A  people  may  be  in  a  quiescent,  indolent,  unculti- 
vated state,  with  all  their  tastes  either  fully  satisfied  or  entirely 
undeveloped,  and  they  may  fail  to  put  forth  the  whole  of  their 
productive  energies  for  want  of  any  sufficient  object  of  desire.  The 
opening  of  a  foreign  trade,  by  making  them  acquainted  with  new 
objects,  or  tempting  them  by  the  easier  acquisition  of  things  which 
they  had  not  previously  thought  attainable,  sometimes  works  a  sort 
of  industrial  revolution  in  a  country  whose  resources  were  previously 
undeveloped  for  want  of  energy  and  ambition  in  the  people  :  in- 
ducing those  who  were  satisfied  with  scanty  comforts  and  little  work, 
to  work  harder  for  the  gratification  of  their  new  tastes,  and  even  to 
save,  and  accumulate  capital,  for  the  still  more  complete  satisfaction 
of  those  tastes  at  a  future  time.   .  .   . 


CONDITIONS  AFFECTING  NEW  SETTLEMENTS     665 

^  The  great  evil,  and  it  is  a  serious  one  indeed,  under  whieh  the 
inhabitants  of  the  western  eountry  lai^or,  arises  from  the  want  of 
a  market.  There  is  no  jilace  where  the  great  sbiple  articles  for  the 
use  of  civilized  life  can  be  produced  in  greater  abundance  or  with 
greater  ease,  and  yet  as  respects  most  of  the  luxuries  and  many  of 
the  conveniences  of  life  the  people  arc  poor.  They  have  no  vent 
for  their  produce  at  home,  and,  being  all  agriculturists,  they  pro- 
duce alike  the  same  article  with  the  same  facility  ;  and  such  is  the 
present  difficulty  and  expense  of  transporting  their  produce  to  an 
Atlantic  port  that  little  benefit  is  realized  from  that  quarter.  The 
single  circumstance  of  want  of  a  market  is  already  beginning  to 
produce  the  most  disastrous  effect,  not  only  on  the  industry,  but  on 
the  morals  of  the  inhabitants.  Such  is  the  fertility  of  their  land 
that  one-half  their  time  spent  in  labor  is  sufficient  to  produce  every 
article  which  their  farms  are  capable  of  yielding,  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities for  their  own  consumption,  and  there  is  nothing  to  incite  them 
to  produce  more.  They  are,  therefore,  naturally  led  to  spend  the 
other  part  of  their  time  in  idleness  and  dissipation.  Their  increase 
in  numbers  far  from  encourages  them  to  become  manufacturers  for 
themselves,  but  puts  to  a  greater  distance  the  time  when,  quitting 
the  freedom  and  independence  of  masters  of  the  soil,  they  submit 
to  the  labor  and  confinement  of  manufacturers.  .  .  .  '•^ 

1  Porter,  Speech  on  Internal  Improvements,  Annals  of  Congress,  1810,  p.  1388. 

2  Cf.  Bowen,  in  Chapters  XII  and  XIII,  pp.  657-658,  6S7-689. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
THE   PUBLIC   LAND    POLICY 

INTRODUCTION 

Great  as  the  influence  of  the  settlement  of  the  West  has  been  upon  our 
national  life,  the  demands  which  it  has  made  upon  the  government,  as  already 
noted,  have  been  curiously  small.  When  a  nation  undertakes  to  colonize  on 
any  considerable  scale,  its  government  is  commonly  called  upon  to  deal  with  at 
least  four  important  matters.  It  has  first  to  devise  some  form  of  government 
for  the  newly  settled  communities ;  second,  it  has  to  regulate  the  commerce  of 
these  communities  with  itself  and  with  the  rest  of  the  world ;  third,  it  has  to 
regulate  the  relation  of  the  settlers  with  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  country ; 
and,  fourth,  it  has  to  dispose  of  the  public  lands.  In  the  case  of  the  United 
States,  only  the  last  of  these  has  ever  played  any  considerable  part  in  our 
national  politics.  By  devising,  at  the  very  start,  a  form  of  government  for  the 
territories  which  handed  over  to  the  settlers  practically  complete  self-govern- 
ment, and  adding  to  this  the  policy  of  admitting  new  settlements  into  the  Union 
as  states  very  early  in  their  development,  the  national  government  escaped 
entirely  the  difficult  problem  of  governing  dependencies.  The  admission  of 
territories  into  the  Union  as  states  has  often  disturbed  our  politics,  but  the 
government  of  territories  has  never  done  so.  In  the  same  way,  the  establish- 
ment of  interstate  free  trade  by  the  Constitution  of  1789  and  its  extension  to 
the  territories  excluded  completely  that  other  difficult  problem  of  colonization, 
commercial  regulation.  Indian  affairs  have  occasionally  become  important  and 
called  for  energetic  action  on  the  part  of  the  government,  but  the  small  num- 
ber of  natives  and  the  vast  territory  into  which  they  could  retire  before  the 
advancing  pioneers  have  prevented  these  difficulties  from  becoming  perma- 
nently serious.  It  is  only  the  disposition  of  the  public  lands  which  has  called 
for  the  continuous  attention  of  the  legislature  and  administrative  officials. 

The  public  land  policy  of  our  government  has  been  determined  by  two 
ideas :  first,  that  of  using  the  land  as  a  financial  resource  of  the  federal  gov- 
ernment ;  and  second,  that  of  putting  the  lands  as  speedily  as  possible  into  the 
hands  of  actual  settlers.  The  first  was  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  lands 
from  being  actually  given  away  until  the  passage  of  the  Homestead  Act  in  1862. 
From  1820  on,  however,  the  second  idea  came  steadily  to  the  front,  as  shown 
by  the  reduction  of  the  price  of  land,  its  sale  in  smaller  areas,  the  preemption 
policy  gradually  adopted,  and  the  grant  of  large  areas  to  aid  in  the  construction 
of  canals  and  railroads.    The  chief  effect  of  these  last,  from  the  point  of  view 

666 


INTRODUCTION  667 

of  the  country  as  a  whole,  was  to  hasten  settlement.  With  the  adoption  of  the 
Homestead  Act  the  idea  of  using  the  public  lands  as  a  financial  resource  was 
abandoned  entirely,  though  our  financial  needs  were  never  greater  than  at  that 
time.  Henceforth  the  public  domain  was  to  be  devoted  almost  entirely  to  the 
interests  of  actual  settlers.  The  only  exception  to  this  was  the  grant  of  lands 
to  all  the  states  for  educational  purposes. 

The  history  of  this  policy  reveals  but  little  appreciation  on  the  part  of  our 
statesmen  of  its  far-reaching  influence  upon  our  social  evolution.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  circumstance  affecting  American  society  is  the  fact  that  the 
people  have  always  been  in  contact  with  unoccupied  lands.  The  settlement  of 
these  lands  has  always  constituted  a  large  part  of  their  activity.  About  the  only 
way  in  which  the  government  could  regulate  this  great  influence  upon  our  na- 
tional life  was  through  the  land  policy ;  but  our  statesmen  never  seem  to  have 
realized  that  this  influence  could  be  anything  but  beneficial.  The  only  evil  that 
the  policy  sought  to  prevent  was  the  engrossing  of  large  areas  by  speculators 
who  would  thereby  prevent  or  postpone  their  occupation  by  actual  settlers.  That 
there  was  an  evil  to  be  feared  in  the  too  great  dispersion  of  the  people  over 
the  land  never  made  any  impression  on  the  masses  of  the  people,  though  it 
did  not  escape  the  attention  of  a  few  thoughtful  observers.  Getting  the  public 
lands  into  the  hands  of  actual  settlers  seemed  obviously  wise  and  beneficent. 
Little  attention  was  given  to  the  fact  that  this  involved  the  scattering  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  older  states  over  a  vast  area. 

This  is  the  more  remarkable  since  the  injury  to  the  older  communities 
which  the  movement  involved  was  obvious  enough,  and  there  is  not  lacking 
evidence  that  many  individuals  in  those  communities  saw  and  appreciated  it. 
Never  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  however,  did  it  receive  any  discussion.  There 
are  two  possible  explanations  of  this.  In  the  first  place,  no  public  man  wished 
to  alienate  western  people  by  opposing  a  policy  which  they  so  strongly  favored, 
even  though  it  involved  some  sacrifice  of  the  interests  of  his  constituents,  and 
some  injury  to  the  nation  as  a  whole.  In  the  second  place,  the  eastern  states 
did  not  fail  to  recognize  that  the  growth  of  the  West  reflected  prosperity  upon 
themselves.  After  181 5  internal  trade  became  the  great  prize  for  which  the 
commercial  cities  of  the  seaboard  were  contending,  and  it  was  to  the  South  and 
West  that  the  eastern  manufacturers  looked  for  that  great  home  market  which 
was  their  chief  support.  Moreover,  foreign  immigration  set  in  to  sup])ly  the 
place  of  the  pioneers  from  this  section.  Even  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 
which  felt  most  severely  the  drain  of  their  population  to  the  West,  received 
some  compensation  in  the  resulting  rise  in  the  value  of  their  slaves.  For  these 
reasons  no  effective  protest  was  made  against  a  land  policy  that  stimulated  the 
too  great  dispersion  of  the  population.  The  social  evils  involved  in  this  move- 
ment were  too  complex  and  difficult  to  be  comprehended  by  the  ordinary 
citizen.  Only  thoughtful  persons  were  likely  to  recognize  it,  and  only  disinter- 
ested ones  were  likely  to  urge  its  remedy  upon  the  legislature.  Such  persons 
were  never  numerous  enough  to  influence  the  land  legislation  of  the  country. 


668  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

■    L    PRINCIPAL  FEATURES 

^May  1 8,  1796,  Congress  passed  the  act  for  the  sale  of  the 
lands  of  the  United  States  in  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river 
of  Ohio  and  above  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  River  (in  the  pres- 
ent State  of  Ohio).  This  act  provided  for  a  surveyor-general  of  the 
district  and  for  the  parceling  of  the  lands  therein  for  sale.  It  gave 
the  substance  of  the  present  rectangular  system  of  surveys  for  the 
public  domain.  It  provided  for  the  sale  of  the  surveyed  lands  in 
sections  of  640  acres  (a  mile  square)  at  public  sale,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  governor  or  secretary  of  the  Territory  and  the  surveyor- 
general,  and  they  were  to  be  sold  at  Cincinnati  and  Pittsburgh,  and 
the  price  to  be  not  less  than  $2  per  acre.  Two  months'  notice  of 
sale  was  to  be  given  by  advertisement,  and  sale  to  take  place  one 
month  thereafter.  The  remainder  of  the  seven  ranges  of  townships 
surveyed  under  the  act  of  May  20,  1785,  were  to  be  sold  at  public 
sale  at  Philadelphia,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  in  quarter  townships,  eight  sections  of  640  acres  each, 
taking  out  the  four  sections  in  the  center,  which  were  reserved.  .  .  , 

The  act  of  May  10,  1800,  introduced  the  present  system  of  dis- 
position of  lands  through  officers  called  registers,  whose  offices  were 
situated  within  defined  districts.  It  established  four  land  offices 
within  the  Northwest  Territory,  with  an  officer  for  each  called  a 
register,  bonded  for  $10,000  ;  one  office  at  Cincinnati,  one  at 
Chillicothe,  one  at  Marietta,  and  the  other  at  Steubenville.  These 
were  the  first  district  land  offices  established  in  the  United  States. 

The  surveyor-general  was  to  transmit  to  the  register  (as  now)  a 
copy  of  plate  of  tracts  to  be  sold,  and  another  copy  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  (now  to  the  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office). 

Lands  west  of  the  Muskingum  were  to  be  subdivided  into  half- 
sections  of  3  20  acres  each,  and  held  as  such  ;  west  of  that  river  to 
be  subdivided  and  sold  as  usual,  in  sections  of  640  acres.  These 
lands  were  to  be  offered  for  sale  at  public  vendue,  after  notice  at 
the  offices,  respectively,  under  the  direction  of  the  register  and  the 

1  Donaldson,  The  Public  Domain,  pp.  200,  201,  202-203,  205,  178,  188,  214, 
215-216,  332,  350,  223,  257-258,  261-262,  284,  265,  267. 


PRINCIPAL  FEATURKS  669 

governor  or  secretary  of  the  Territory.  All  such  sales  U)  close  in 
three  weeks,  and  the  lands  remaining'  unsold  to  be  disposed  of  at 
private  sale  ;  none  to  be  sold  at  less  than  $2  per  acre  ;  payment  to 
be  made  in  specie  or  evidences  of  the  public  debt  at  the  time  of 
purchase,  the  person  or  persons  to  pay,  exclusive  of  fees,  $6  for 
every  section  and  $3  for  eveiy  half-section,  for  surveying  expenses, 
and  deposit  one-twentieth  jxxrt  of  the  amount  of  the  purchase 
money,  forfeited  in  forty  days  if  an  addition  of  one-fourth  part  of 
the  amount  of  purchase-money  was  not  paid  ;  another  fourth  part 
to  be  paid  within  two  years  ;  another  fourth  part  within  three  years, 
and  the  remaining  fourth  part  within  four  years  after  the  date  of 
sale.  Interest  at  6  per  cent,  per  annum  from  the  day  of  sale  to  be 
charged  on  the  last  three  payments  as  they  become  due.  A  dis- 
count of  3  per  cent,  per  year  to  be  allowed  for  prepayment  of  any 
of  the  last  three  payments. 

If  the  first  payment  was  not  made,  the  lands  became  forfeited 
and  might  again  be  sold,  but  not  for  less  at  private  sale  than  the 
sum  offered  at  public  sale. 

Lands  not  paid  for  at  end  of  one  year  after  last  payment  be- 
came due  were  to  be  advertised  for  thirty  days  and  sold  during 
court ;  the  surplus,  if  any,  after  payment  of  United  States  and  ex- 
penses of  sale,  was  to  be  returned  to  original  owners.  Lands  not 
sold  were  to  revert  to  the  United  States  and  be  disposed  of  as 
other  lands.  .  .  . 

The  price  was  fixed  at  not  less  than  $2  per  acre.  (Under  con- 
tract the  first  sales  of  lands  by  the  Government  were  66|  and  75 
cents.)  The  United  States  at  this  time  was,  and  had  been  for  ten 
years,  in  competition  with  several  States  who  were  disposing  of 
western  lands  —  Connecticut  selling  her  "  Western  Reserve  "  lands 
at  40  cents  an  acre  in  Northeastern  Ohio  ;  Virginia  with  her  rich 
lands  in  Kentucky  in  the  market ;  North  Carolina  selling  in  Ten- 
nessee ;  Pennsylvania  with  her  charter  lands  offered  through  her 
State  office  ;  and  Georgia  with  her  lands  in  the  territory  now  part 
of  Alabama  and  Mississippi.  Massachusetts,  before  this,  had  re- 
duced the  price  of  her  Maine  lands  to  50  cents  an  acre  to  check 
western  emigration.  There  began  to  be  a  serious  exodus  to  the 
western  country.     The  roads  were  filled  with  moving  families  and 


670 


THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 


almost  entire  neighborhoods  moved  west.  Fertile  lands,  at  low 
prices,  were  abundant,  and  speculators  were  numerous.  Under  this 
credit  system  men  became  loaded  with  large  land  purchases,  ex- 
pecting to  make  sale  of  a  portion  at  an  early  date  to  incoming  im- 
migrants at  an  advance,  and  to  hold  the  remainder  for  themselves. 
The  sales  under  this  system,  from  the  opening  of  the  land  offices 
in  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio  by  the  above  act  to 
June  30,  1820,  were  as  follows  : 

Gross  Quantity  sold  under  the  Credit  System 


Location 

In  Ohio 

In  Indiana 

In  Illinois 

In  Missouri 

In  Alabama 

In  Mississippi 

In  Louisiana 

In  Michigan 

Total 


8,848,152.31 
2,490,736.17 

i'593.247-53 
1,249,113.91 
3,957,281.00 
1,147,988.10 
45,277.00 
67,362.02 


i9'399.i58-04 


517,226,186.95 

5,137,350.20 

3,227,805.20 

3'349'4657o 

16,182,147.67 

2,297,652.91 

90,554.00 

178,400.46 


$47,689,563.09 


This  was  afterward  scaled  down  by  acts  of  Congress,  by  re- 
versions and  relinquishment,  so  that  the  Government  parted  title, 
under  the  credit  system,  to  1 3,642,536  acres,  and  received  therefor 
$27,900,379.29.  .   .  . 

Petitions,  resolutions,  legislative  enactments,  and  personal  applica- 
tions for  relief  from  the  pressure  of  land  purchases  from  the  Govern- 
ment under  the  credit  system  resulted  in  various  acts  of  relief.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  These  acts  were  all  operative  for  the  benefit  of  persons 
holding  not  over  640  acres.  The  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
April  24,  1820,  provided  for  the  sale  of  half  quarter-sections,  or 
80-acre  lots  of  land,  and  that  credit  should  not  be  allowed  for  the 
purchase-money  of  any  lands  after  July  i,  1820,  but  that  complete 
]3ayment  must  be  made  by  the  purchaser  or  applicant  at  the  time 
of  purchase  ;  and  by  section  3  of  this  act,  it  was  provided  that  the 
public  lands  offered  should  be  sold  at  the  "  minimum  "  price  of 
$1.25  per  acre  at  either  public  or  private  sale,  and  provided  for  the 


PRINCIPAL  FEATURES  671 

entry  or  purchase  by  persons  at  the  several  district  land  oflfices  of 
all  lands  which,  prior  to  July  i,  had  been  offered  at  public  sale  and 
remained  unsold.  It  further  provided  for  the  sale  of  reverted  lands, 
which  were  forfeited  for  non-fulfilment  of  purchase  terms  under  the 
credit  system.  Previous  to  this  time  Congress  had,  by  special  acts, 
directed  land  sales  to  be  made,  but  by  this  act  it  became  the  duty 
of  the  President,  and  has  so  continued  to  this  day,  to  issue  procla- 
mations of  sale  of  public  lands  through  the  Commissioner  of  the 
General  Land  Office.  This  act  was  a  great  innovation.  It  reduced 
the  price  of  all  public  lands  whicli  should  be  offered  to  tlie  mini- 
mum of  $1.25  per  acre,  and  after  they  were  offered  (i.e.  offered  at 
public  sale  after  due  advertising  and  notice)  such  as  remained  un- 
sold were  to  be  held  for  sale  at  the  district  land  office  at  $1.25  per 
acre,  in  unlimited  quantities  of  not  less  than  80  acres  (half  quarter- 
sections)  at  private  sale. 

Thus,  in  the  period  from  1786  to  1820,  the  price  had  fallen  from 
$2  to  $1.25  per  acre  cash,  and  the  quantity  which  might  be  sold 
was  reduced  from  whole  townships  and  eight  sections  to  sections 
(640  acres),  half-sections  (320  acres),  quarter-sections  (160  acres), 
and  half  quarter-sections  (80  acres),  thus  fostering  small  holdings 
at  a  low  price,  with  deed  in  fee  from  the  Government.   .   .   . 

The  land  surveys  under  the  United  States  are  uniform  and  done 
under  what  is  known  as  the  "rectangular  system."  This  system 
of  surveys  was  reported  from  a  committee  of  Congress  May  7, 
1784.  ... 

This  ordinance  required  the  public  lands  to  be  divided  into 
"  Jnindrcds  "  of  ten  geographical  miles  square,  and  those  again  to  be 
subdivided  into  lots  of  one  mile  square  each,  to  be  numbered  from  i 
to  100,  commencing  in  the  northwestern  corner  and  counting  from 
west  to  east  and  from  east  to  west  continuously  ;  and  also  that  the 
lands  thus  subdivided  should  be  first  offered  at  public  sale.  .  .   . 

The  system  as  adopted  provided  for  sale  in  sections  of  640  acres, 
one  mile  square.  In  1820  a  quarter-section,  or  160  acres,  could  be 
purchased  [also  half  quarter-sections  or  80  acres].  In  1832  sub- 
divisions were  ordered  by  law  into  40-acre  tracts  or  quarter-quarter- 
sections  to  settlers,  and  in  1846  to  all  purchasers.   .  .  . 


672  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

The  rectangular  system  came  in  at  the  birth  of  the  public  do- 
main. It  started  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  lands  for  sale  in  the 
territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  in  the  survey  of  the  first 
seven  ranges  of  townships  therein  adjoining  Pennsylvania.  It 
afterward  covered  the  territory  south  of  the  river  Ohio,  and  thence 
was  applied  to  the  old  Natchez  settlement,  in  the  present  State  of 
Mississippi,  It  now  extends  over  portions,  if  not  all,  of  every  public 
land  State  and  Territory  in  the  Union.  It  has  been  in  operation 
for  about  ninety  years,  and  has  been  a  faithful  friend  to  the  set- 
tlers on  the  public  domain. 

In  the  extensive  sphere  over  which  the  surveys  have  progressed 
from  Plorida,  on  the  Atlantic,  and  westward  to  the  Pacific,  includ- 
ing all  the  public  land  States  and  Territories  of  the  Union,  with 
the  exception  of  Alaska,  formerly  Russian  America,  the  system  has 
worked  satisfactorily,  furnishing  facilities  for  the  acquisition  of 
public  lands  in  any  region  of  the  country,  and  methods  for  the 
restoration  of  landmarks  which  may  be  lost  or  destroyed  by  time 
or  accident.  Adequate  means  exist  in  the  surrounding  landmarks 
of  the  adjacent  public  surveys,  whereby  missing  metes  and  bounds 
can  be  restored  in  accordance  with  the  original  field-notes  thereof, 
and  the  designations  placed  on  township  plats.  Its  recommen- 
dations to  the  public  lie  in  its  economy,  simplicity,  and  brevity 
of  description  in  deeding  the  premises  by  patent  and  for  future 
conveyancing,  and  in  the  convenience  of  reference  from  the 
most  minute  legal  subdivision  to  the  corners  and  lines  of  sec- 
tions, and  of  townships  of  given  principal  base  and  meridians. 
Its  greatest  convenience  is  its  extreme  simplicity  of  description. 
Any  person,  by  the  monuments  and  markings,  can  readily  find 
the  tract  sought  for.  It  was  originated  for  land-parceling  for 
sale,  and  it  has  answered  the  purpose.  The  system  now  extends 
over  the  whole  surface  of  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Missouri,  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  Kansas,  and  portions  of  the  States  of  P^lorida,  Louisiana, 
Nevada,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  California,  Oregon,  and  Colorado ; 
also  in  the  Territories  of  Washington,  Utah,  Montana,  Idaho, 
Wyoming,  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  Dakota,  and  the  Indian 
Territory,  .  ,  . 


PRINCIPAL  FEATURES  673 

The  first  enactment  relating  to  pre-emption  was  the  act  of 
March  3,  1801,  giving  a  right  of  "  ]:)re-emption  "  to  certain  per- 
sons who  had  contracted  with  John  Cleves  Symmes,  or  his  asso- 
ciates, for  lands  lying  between  the  Miami  rivers,  in  the  Territory 
of  the  United  States,  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River.  These  persons 
were  living  upon  the  lands  once  within  the  Symmes  tract,  but 
were  not  included  in  the  patent  for  the  reduced  area,  which  he 
finally  obtained. 

This  pre-emption  or  preference  right  thus  first  established  was 
a  step  toward  abolishing  the  sale  of  unoffered  land,  and  giving  a 
settler  the  first  right  or  preference  as  against  a  person  desiring  to 
purchase  and  hold  ior  investment  or  speculation. 

The  essential  conditions  of  a  pre-emption  are  actual  entry  u]3on, 
residence  in  a  dwelling,  and  improvement  and  cultivation  of  a 
tract  of  land.  The  several  pre-emption  acts  give  a  preference  to 
the  settlers. 

Pre-emption  is  a  premium  in  favor  of  and  condition  for  making 
permanent  settlement  and  a  home.  It  is  a  preference  for  actual 
tilling  and  residing  upon  a  piece  of  land.  The  original  act  was 
followed  through  the  period  from  1801  to  1841  —  forty  years  — 
by  sixteen  acts  ;  the  most  important  being  the  act  of  1830.  Under 
the  act  of  April  5,  1832,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  1834, 
ordered  the  subdivision  of  80-acre  tracts  into  40-acre  lots  — quarter- 
quarter  sections  —  and  the  minimum  subdivision  for  sale  or  entry 
was  a  40-acre  parcel  at  $1.25  per  acre.   .   .  . 

The  pre-emption  system  arose  from  the  necessities  of  settlers, 
and  through  a  series  of  more  than  57  years  of  experience  in 
attempts  to  sell  or  otherwise  dispose  of  the  public  lands.  The 
early  idea  of  sales  for  revenue  was  abandoned,  and  a  plan  of  dis- 
position for  homes  was  substituted.  The  pre-emption  system  was 
the  result  of  law,  experience,  executive  orders,  departmental  rulings, 
and  judicial  construction.  It  has  been  many-phased,  and  was  ap- 
plied by  special  acts  to  special  localities,  with  peculiar  or  additional 
features,  but  it  has  always  and  to  this  day  contains  the  germ  of 
actual  settlement,  under  which  thousands  of  homes  have  been 
made  and  lands  made  productive,  yielding  a  profit  in  crops  to  the 
farmer  and  increasing  the  resources  of  the  Nation.    The  necessity 


674  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

of  protecting  actual  settlers  on  the  public  domain  and  giving  a 
preference  right  to  persons  desiring  to  make  homes  thereon  be- 
came more  apparent  in  the  years  from  1830  to  1840.  The  receipts 
of  the  Government  from  cash  land  sales,  during  that  period,  was 
^81,913,017.83  ;  in  the  years  1835  and  1836  being,  respectively 
^15,999,804.14  and  $25,167,833.06,  The  largest  yearly  receipts 
before  or  since,  and  representing  about  32,800,000  of  acres  (ap- 
proximating the  area  of  the  present  State  of  Alabama,  and  more 
than  the  area  of  Ohio  or  Indiana),  were  as  follows  : 

In  1837 $6,770,036.52 

In  1838 3,081,939.47 

In  1839 7,076,447.35 

In  1840 3,242,285.58 

In  1841 1,363,090.04 

.  .  .  The  homestead  bill,  or  the  granting  of  free  homes  from 
and  on  the  public  domain,  became  a  national  question  in  1852. 
The  Free  Soil  Democracy,  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  August  11,  1852,  in 
National  Convention,  nominated  John  P.  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  for  President  and  Vice-President, 
and  adopted  the  following  as  the  12th  plank  or  resolution  in  their 
platform  : 

That  the  public  lands  of  the  United  States  belong  to  the  people,  and  should 
not  be  sold  to  individuals,  nor  granted  to  corporations,  but  should  be  held  as  a 
sacred  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and  should  be  granted  in  limited 
quantities,  free  of  cost,  to  landless  settlers. 

Thereafter  it  became  a  national  question  until  its  passage  in 
1862,  and  was  in  the  platforms  of  political  parties.  It  was  peti- 
tioned for  and  against.  Public  sentiment  was  aroused.  It  was  a 
serious  innovation  and  would  cause  an  almost  entire  change  in  the 
settlement  laws.  Instead  of  the  public  lands  being  sold  for  cash, 
for  profit,  or  being  taken,  first,  under  the  pre-emption  system,  which 
eventuated  in  cash  purchases,  they  were  to  be  given  to  actual  set- 
tlers who  would  occupy,  improve,  and  cultivate  them  for  a  term 
of  years,  and  then  receive  a  patent  free  of  acreage  charges,  with 
fees  paid  by  the  homesteader  sufficient  to  cover  cost  of  survey 
and  transfer  of  title. 


PRINCIPAL   FKATIRKS  675 

It  was  the  third  and  most  important  step  in  the  history  of  the 
public  land  system.  Once  adopted,  no  person  could  estimate  its 
moral,  social,  and  political  effects.   .   .   . 

The  essence  of  the  homestead  law  and  the  amendments  is  em- 
bodied in  the  conditions  of  actual  settlement,  dwelling  on,  and 
cultivation  of  the  soil  embraced  in  an  entry.  It  gives  for  a  nominal 
fee,  equal  to  334  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  $26  in  the  (jther  States, 
.to  a  settler — a  man  or  woman  over  the  age  of  twenty-one  )'ears,  head 
of  a  family,  or  a  single  person  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  )'ears, 
a  citizen  of  the  Lhiited  States  or  having  declared  an  intention  of 
becoming  such  —  the  right  to  locate  upon  160  acres  of  unoccupied 
public  land  in  any  of  the  public  land  States  and  Territories  subject 
to  entry  at  a  United  States  land  office,  to  live  upon  the  same  for 
a  period  of  five  years,  and,  upon  proof  of  a  compliance  with  the 
law,  to  receive  a  patent  therefor  free  of  cost  or  charge  for  the 
land.    P\ill  citizenship  is  requisite  to  obtain  final  title. 

The  present  homestead  law  contains  all  of  the  beneficial  features 
of  the  pre-emption  act  with  the  additions  suggested  by  experience 
and  the  changed  condition  of  national  life.  The  eighth  section 
of  the  act  contains  the  substance  of  the  pre-emption  act  in  the 
matter  of  purchase.  If  the  locator  desires  to  buy  his  homestead 
outright  at  the  end  of  six  months,  he  can,  upon  due  proof,  pay  for 
his  land  at  $1.25  or  $2.50  per  acre,  as  the  case  may  be,  which  is 
called  commutation  of  a  homestead.  It  contains  one  feature  as 
broad  in  its  terms  and  as  beneficial  in  its  principle  as  the  domain 
it  covers.      It  is  as  follows  : 

No  lands  acquired  under  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall,  in  any  event, 
become  liable  to  the  satisfaction  of  any  debt  or  debts  contracted  prior  to  the 
issuing  of  the  patent  therefor. 

The  homestead  act  is  now  the  approved  and  preferred  method 
of  acquiring  title  to  the  public  lands.  It  has  stood  the  test  of 
eighteen  years,  and  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  system  extending 
through  nearly  eighty  years,  and  now,  within  the  circle  of  a  hun- 
dred years  since  the  United  States  acquired  the  first  of  her  public 
lands,  the  homestead  act  stands  as  the  concentrated  wisdom  of 
legislation  for   settlement  of  the   i)ublic   lands.     It    protects    the 


676 


THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 


Government,  it  fills  the  States  with  homes,  it  builds  up  com- 
munities, and  lessens  the  chances  of  social  and  civil  disorder 
by  giving  ownership  of  the  soil,  in  small  tracts,  to  the  occupants 
thereof.  It  was  copied  from  no  other  nation's  system.  It  was 
originally  and  distinctively  American,  and  remains  a  monument 
to  its  originators.   .   .   . 

The  lands  granted  in  the  States  and  reserved  in  the  Territo- 
ries for  educational  purposes  by  acts  of  Congress  from  1785  to 
June  30,  1880,  were  — 

For  Public  or  Common  Schools 

Every  sixteenth  section  of  public  land  in  the  States  admitted 
prior  to  1848,  and  every  sixteenth  and  thirty-sixth  section  of  such 
land  in  States  and  Territories  since  organized  —  estimated  at 
67,893,919  acres. 

For  Seminaries  or  Universities 

The  quantity  of  two  townships,  or  46,080  acres,  in  each  State 
or  Territory  containing  public  land,  and,  in  some  instances,  a 
greater  quantity,  for  the  support  of  seminaries  or  schools  of  a 
higher  grade  —  estimated  at  1,165,520  acres. 

For  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Colleges 

The  grant  to  all  the  States  for  agricultural  and  mechanical  col- 
leges, by  act  of  July  2,  1862,  and  its  supplements,  of  30,000  acres, 
for  each  Representative  and  Senator  in  Congress  to  which  the 
State  was  entitled,  of  land  "  in  place  "  where  the  State  contained  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  public  land  subject  to  sale  at  ordinary  private 
entiy  at  the  rate  of  $1.25  per  acre,  and  of  scrip  representing  an 
equal  number  of  acres  where  the  State  did  not  contain  such  descrip- 
tion of  land,  the  scrip  to  be  sold  by  the  State  and  located  by  its 
assignees  on  any  such  land  in  other  States  and  Territories,  subject 
to  certain  restrictions.  Land  in  place,  1,770,000  acres  ;  land  scrip, 
7,830,000  acres  ;  total,  9,600,000  acres. 

In  all,  78,659,439  acres  for  educational  purposes  under  the 
heads  above  set  out  to  June  30,  1880. 


PRINCIPAL  FKATURES  (-y^'] 

The  lands  thus  ceded  to  the  several  Stiites  were  disposed  of  or 
are  held  for  disposition,  and  the  proceeds  used  as  permanent  en- 
dowments for  common  school  funds.  ...  As  an  illustration,  the 
State  of  Ohio  has  a  permanent  endowment  for  education  called  the 
"  Irreducible  State  Debt,"  the  result  of  sale  of  all  granted  lands  for 
education,  of  ^4,289,718.52.  .  .  . 

April  30,  1802,  Congress  made  the  first  appropriation  of  public 
lands  in  favor  of  public  improvements,  in  the  enabling  act  for  the 
State  of  Ohio  it  was  provided  that  one-twentieth  part  of  the  net 
proceeds  from  the  sales  of  public  lands  lying  in  said  State  and  sold 
by  Congress  should  be  given  to  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  laying 
out  and  making  public  roads  from  the  navigable  waters  emptying 
into  the  Atlantic  to  the  Ohio  River  —  roads  to  be  laid  out  under 
authority  of  Congress  with  the  consent  of  the  several  States  through 
which  they  passed. 

The  act  giving  ( )hio  3  per  cent,  of  the  net  proceeds  of  land  sales 
for  laying  out,  opening,  and  making  roads  within  said  State  was 
passed  March  3,  1803. 

Canal  Grants,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois 

Legislation  of  like  character  was  passed  until  after  the  year  1823. 
A  canal  act,  with  riglit  of  way,  for  Indiana,  was  passed  March  26, 
1824.    This  was  not  utilized. 

The  act  for  Indiana,  passed  March  2,  1827,  abrogated  the  act 
of  1824,  and  an  act  of  like  date  gave  to  Illinois  —  as  did  the  act 
to  Indiana —  grants  of  land  in  aid  of  the  construction  of  two  canals. 
The  Indiana  Canal,  the  Wabash  and  Erie,  was  to  connect  the 
Wabash  River  wjth  Lake  Erie,  and  the  Illinois  Canal  was  to  con- 
nect the  waters  of  the  Illinois  River  with  those  of  Lake  Michigan. 
The  act  of  May  24,  1828,  gave  to  the  State  of  Ohio  a  grant 
to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  Miami  Canal  from  Dayton  to 
Lake  Erie. 

Land  equal  to  two  and  one-half  sections  in  width  on  each  side 
of  the  canal  was  granted,  the  United  States  reserving  each  alternate 
section,  which  reservation  then  inaugurated  has  become  the  rule  in 
land-grants  for  improvements. 


678  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

When  the  hnes  of  the  canals  were  estabhshed  selections  of  land 
were  to  be  allowed,  and  the  title  in  fee  at  once  passed  to  the  States, 
who  were  to  dispose  of  the  same.  The  act  provided  that  the 
construction  of  the  cajials  should  be  commenced  within  five  years 
and  completed  within  twenty  years,  and  upon  failure  to  comply 
with  these  conditions  the  States  were  to  pay  the  United  States 
the  amount  received  for  any  lands  previously  sold.  Purchases 
from  the  States  were  protected  by  the  title  in  fee  having  passed  to 
the  State  upon  location  of  the  canals.  This  was  equal  to  a  cash 
advance  by  the  Nation  for  construction  purposes,  as  the  lands 
were  sold  by  the  States  and  the  money  thus  obtained  built  the 
improvements. 

These  acts  of  March  2,  1827,  and  May  24,  1828,  (with  the  sub- 
secjuent  legislation  thereunder),  granting  lands  to  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois  in  aid  of  the  construction  of  the  canals  named,  resulted 
in  the  vesting  to  those  States  for  such  purpose  of  2,014,816  acres 
of  land  ;  the  grant  to  the  Wabash  and  Erie  Canal  being,  in  Indi- 
ana 1,457,366.06  acres,  in  Ohio  266,535  acres,  a  total  of  1,723,- 
901.06  acres  ;  and  the  Illinois  Canal,  connecting  the  Illinois  River 
with  Lake  Michigan,  290,915  acres.  .   .   . 

The  act  of  September  20,  1850,  was  the  first  railroad  act  of  real 
importance,  and  initiated  the  system  of  grants  of  land  for  railroads 
by  Congress  which  prevailed  until  after  July  i,  1862.  This  grant 
gave  the  State  of  Illinois  alternate  sections  of  land  (even-numbered) 
for  six  sections  in  width  on  either  side  of  the  [Illinois  Central] 
road  and  branches,  being  a  grant  of  specific  sections. 

The  second  section  initiated  the  "indemnity"  practice,  or  the 
granting  of  lands  to  the  company  in  lieu  of  lands  within  the  origi- 
nal grant  occupied  by  legal  settlers  at  the  time  of.  the  definite  loca- 
tion of  the  route,  to  be  taken  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  road,  and 
designated  the  method  of  disposition.  The  third  section  provided 
that  lands  of  the  United  States  within  the  grant  limits  should  not 
be  sold  at  less  than  double  minimum  price  ($2.50)  being  an  increase 
of  the  price  of  lands  from  $1.25  to  $2.50  per  acre  or  from  single 
to  double  minimum.  It  provided  for  a  forfeiture  of  the  grant,  with 
payment  by  the  State  to  the  LInited  States  for  lands  sold,  in  case 
of  failure  to  construct  within  a  certain  fixed  time.    Unsold  lands 


PRINCIPAL  FEATURES  679 

were  to  revert  to  the  i)ul)lie  domain,  and  purehasers  from  the  St;ite 
to  have  good  title.  This  was  provithng  tor  default  and  re\ision 
thereafter. 

The  road  was  to  be  a  pubhe  higliway,  to  Ix'  used  b\-  the  (loxern- 
ment  free  of  toll  or  other  charges,  and  tlie  mails  were  to  be  earried 
at  prices  to  be  fixed  by  Congress. 

[A  subsequent]  act  extended  like  terms  and  conditions  to  the 
States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi  in  aid  of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio 
road  which  was  to  connect  with  the  Illinois  Central  and  branches 
—  all  of  which  roads  are  now  established.   .   .   . 

By  an  act  of  the  Illinois  legislature,  of  date  February  10,  185  i, 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated  as  a  body 
politic  and  corporate.   .   .  . 

The  fifteenth  section  of  the  act  gave  the  lands  ceded  to  the  State 
for  railroad  purposes  to  this  company,  the  governor  of  the  State 
to  make  deed  in  fee  therefor  to  the  corporation.   .   .   . 

The  Hannibal  and  .Saint  Joseph  and  Mis.souri  Pacific  Railroads 
were  the  roads  built  under  the  act  of  June  10,  1852,  donating  to 
the  State  of  Missouri  certain  lands.  This  act  contained  two  features 
in  addition  to  the  main  provisions  of  the  Illinois  grant,  viz.  a  plan 
of  disposition  of  the  lands  granted,  and  a  clause  directing  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior  to  offer  at  public  sale,  at  periods,  at  the  double 
minimum  price  ($2.50  per  acre)  the  reserved  Government  sections. 
The  provisions  of  the  Illinois  bill  requiring  the  States  to  reimburse 
the  Government  for  lands  sold,  in  case  of  default,  were  not  in  the 
Missouri  act;  and  in  the  Arkansas  act  of  I^'ebruary  9,  1S53,  the 
section  to  "offer"  the  reserved  lands  was  omitted.   .   .   . 

The  series  of  grants  to  Iowa  and  other  States  in  1856,  and 
the  Minnesota  act  of  1857,  were  in  the  form  and  substxmce  of 
the  Missouri  grants  of  June  10,  1852,  with  the  change  of  "  odd  " 
for  "even"  in  the  description  of  the  sections  granted  to  the 
States.  .  .  . 

The  public  having  by  petition  evidenced  their  opinion  to  Con- 
gress, the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated  by  a 
direct  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  Julv  i,  1862. 
They  were  to  build  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.    This  was  a  complete  change  in  the 


68o  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

system  of  land  bounties  to  aid  in  the  building  of  railroads.  The 
grant  was  direct  to  the  corporation,  thus  avoiding  the  established 
rule  of  using  a  State  as  a  trustee  and  agent  of  transfer.  It  had 
been  fiercely  contended  prior  to  this  that  Congress  could  not  create 
a  corporation  to  do  business  in  a  State  without  the  consent  of  the 
State.  The  company  was  given  right  of  way,  allowances  for  shops, 
stations,  &c.,  and  in  aid  of  construction  "  every  alternate  section 
of  public  land,"  by  odd  numbers,  unless  previously  disposed  of, 
reserved,  or  mineral  (coal  and  iron  afterward  construed  not  to  be 
reserved  l3y  this  term),  to  the  extent  of  five  alternate  sections  per 
mile  on  each  side  of  the  road.   .   .   . 

II.    ATTACK  AND    DEFENCE  OF  THE    POLICY 
1  Clays  Report  ou  Public  Lands,  lSj2. 

The  committee  are  instructed  by  the  Senate  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  reducing  the  price  of  the  public  lands,  and  also  of 
ceding  them  to  the  several  States  in  which  they  are  situated  on 
reasonable  terms.  The  committee  will  proceed  to  examine  these 
two  subjects  of  inquiry  distinctly,  beginning  first  with  that  which 
relates  to  a  reduction  of  price.   .  .   . 

Against  any  considerable  reduction  of  the  price  of  the  public 
lands,  unless  it  be  necessary  to  a  more  rapid  population  of  the  new 
States,  which  will  be  hereafter  examined,  there  are  weighty,  if  not 
decisive  considerations  : 

I.  The  Government  is  the  proprietor  of  much  the  largest 
quantity  of  the  unseated  lands  of  the  United  States.  What  it  has 
in  market,  bears  a  large  proportion  to  the  whole  of  the  occupied 
lands  within  their  limits.  If  a  considerable  quantity  of  any  article, 
land,  or  any  commodity  whatever,  is  in  market,  the  price  at  which 
it  is  sold,  will  affect,  in  some  degree,  the  value  of  the  whole  of  that 
article,  whether  exposed  to  sale  or  not.  The  influence  of  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  price  of  the  public  lands  would  probably  be  felt  through- 
out the  Union  ;  certainly  in  all  the  western  States,  and  most  in 
those  which  contain,  or  are  nearest  to,  the  public  lands.  There 
ought  to  be  the  most  cogent  and  conclusive  reasons  for  adopting 

1  Senate  Documents,  No.  128,  ist  Session,  22d  Congress. 


ATTACK  AND  DEFENCE  OF  THE  POLICY  6S  I 

a  measure  which  might  seriously  impair  llie  vakie  of  the  property 
of  the  yeomanr)'  of  the  country.  Whilst  it  is  decidedly  the  most 
important  class  in  the  community,  most  patient,  patriotic,  and 
acquiescent  in  whatever  public  policy  is  pursued,  it  is  unable  or 
unwilling  to  resort  to  those  means  of  union  and  concert  which 
other  interests  employ  to  make  themselves  heard  and  respected. 
Government  should,  therefore,  feel  itself  constantly  bound  to  guard, 
with  sedulous  care,  the  rights  and  welfare  of  the  great  body  of  our 
yeomanry.  Would  it  be  just  towards  those  who  have  heretofore 
purchased  public  lands  at  higher  prices,  to  say  nothing  as  to  the 
residue  of  the  agricultural  interest  of  the  United  States,  to  make 
such  a  reduction,  and  thereby  impair  the  value  of  their  property  .'' 
Ought  not  an)'  such  plan  of  reduction,  if  adopted,  to  be  accom- 
panied with  compensation  for  the  injury  which  they  would  in- 
evitably sustain  .-• 

2.  A  material  reduction  of  price  would  excite  and  stimulate  the 
spirit  of  speculation,  now  dormant,  and  probably  lead  to  a  transfer 
of  vast  quantities  of  the  public  domain  from  the  control  of  Govern- 
ment to  the  hands  of  the  speculator.  At  the  existing  price,  and 
with  such  extensive  districts  as  the  public  constantly  offers  in  the 
market,  there  is  no  great  temptation  to  speculation.  The  demand 
is  regular,  keeping  pace  with  the  progress  of  emigration,  and  is 
supplied  on  known  and  moderate  terms.  If  the  price  were  much 
reduced,  the  strongest  incentives  to  engrossment  of  the  better  lands 
would  be  presented  to  large  capitalists  ;  and  the  emigrant,  instead 
of  being  able  to  purchase  from  his  own  Government  upon  uniform 
and  established  conditions,  might  be  compelled  to  give  much  higher 
and  more  fluctuating  prices  to  the  speculator.  An  illustration  of 
this  effect  is  afforded  by  the  military  bounty  lands  granted  during 
the  late  war.  Thrown  into  the  market  at  prices  below  the  Govern- 
ment rate,  they  notoriously  became  an  object  of  speculation,  and 
have  principally  fallen  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  retiuxling  the 
settlement  of  the  districts  which  include  them. 

3.  The  greatest  emigration  that  is  believed  now  to  take  place 
from  any  of  the  States,  is  from  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee. 
The  effects  of  a  material  reduction  in  the  price  of  the  public  lands, 
would  be,   1st.    To  lessen  the  value  of  real  estate  in  those  three 


682  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

States.  2d.  To  diminish  their  interest  in  the  pubUc  domain,  as  a 
common  fund  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  States.  And,  3d,  To  offer 
what  would  operate  as  a  bounty  to  further  emigration  from  those 
States,  occasioning  more  and  more  lands,  situated  within  them,  to 
be  thrown  into  the  market,  thereby  not  only  lessening  the  value 
of  their  lands,  but  draining  them  both  of  their  population  and 
currency. 

And,  lastly,  Congress  has,  within  a  few  years,  made  large 
and  liberal  grants  of  the  public  lands  to  several  States.  To  Ohio, 
922,937  acres  ;  to  Indiana,  384,728  acres  ;  to  Illinois,  480,000 
acres ;  and  to  Alabama,  400,000  acres ;  amounting,  together,  to 
2,187,665  acres.  Considerable  portions  of  these  lands  yet  remain 
unsold.  The  reduction  of  the  price  of  the  public  lands,  generally, 
would  impair  the  value  of  those  grants,  as  well  as  injuriously  affect 
that  of  the  lands  which  have  been  sold  in  virtue  of  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  inferred  and  contended,  from  the  large 
amount  of  public  land  remaining  unsold,  after  having  been  so  long 
exposed  to  sale,  that  the  price  at  which  it  is  held  is  too  high.  But 
this  apparent  tardiness  is  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  immense 
quantity  of  public  lands  which  have  been  put  into  the  market  by 
Government.  It  is  well  known  that  the  new  States  have  constantly 
and  urgently  pressed  the  extinction  of  the  Indian  title  upon  lands 
within  their  respective  limits  ;  and,  after  its  extinction,  that  they 
should  be  brought  into  market  as  rapidly  as  practicable.  The  liberal 
policy  of  the  General  Government,  coinciding  with  the  wishes  of 
the  new  States,  has  prompted  it  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  emigrants 
from  every  part  of  the  Union,  by  exhibiting  vast  districts  of  land 
for  sale,  in  all  the  States  and  Territories,  thus  offering  every  variety 
of  climate  and  situation  to  the  free  choice  of  settlers.  From  these 
causes,  it  has  resulted  that  the  power  of  emigration  has  been  totally 
incompetent  to  absorb  the  immense  bodies  of  waste  lands  offered 
in  the  market.  For  the  capacity  to  purchase  is,  after  all,  limited 
by  the  emigration,  and  the  progressive  increase  of  population.  If 
the  quantity  thrown  into  the  market  had  been  quadrupled,  the 
probability  is  that  there  would  not  have  been  much  more  annually 
sold  than  actually  has  been.  With  such  extensive  fields  for  selec- 
tion before  them,  purchasers,  embarrassed  as  to  the  choice  which 


ATTACK  AND  DEFENCE  OF  THE  J'OLICV  6.S3 

they  should  mcike,  arc  sometimes  probably  influenced  by  caprice 
or  accidental  causes.  Whilst  the  better  lands  remain,  those  of 
secondary  value  will  not  be  purchased.  A  judicious  farmer  or 
planter  would  sooner  gi\'e  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre  for 
first-rate  land,  than  receive  as  a  donation  land  of  inferior  quality, 
if  he  were  compelled  to  settle  upon  it.  .  .  . 

Complaints  exist  in  the  new  States,  that  large  bodies  of  lands  in 
their  respective  territories,  being  owned  by  the  General  Ciovern- 
ment,  are  exempt  from  taxation  to  meet  the  ordinary  expenses  of 
the  State  Governments,  and  other  local  charges  ;  that  this  exemp- 
tion continues  for  five  years  after  the  sale  of  any  partic-ular  tract ; 
and  that  land,  being  the  principal  source  of  the  revenue  of  those 
States,  an  undue  share  of  the  burthen  of  sustaining  the  exjjcnses 
of  the  State  Governments  falls  upon  the  resident  poi)ulation.  To 
all  these  complaints,  it  may  be  answered  that,  by  voluntiuy  com- 
pacts between  the  new  States  respectively,  and  the  General  Govern- 
ment, five  per  cent,  of  the  nett  proceeds  of  all  the  sales  of  the 
public  lands,  included  within  their  limits,  are  appropriated  for 
internal  improvements,  leading  to  or  within  those  States  ;  that  a 
section  of  land  in  each  township,  or  one  thirty-sixth  part  of  the 
whole  of  the  public  lands  embraced  within  their  respective  bounda- 
ries, has  been  reserved  for  purposes  of  education  ;  and  that  the 
policy  of  the  General  Government  has  been  uniformly  marked  by 
great  liberality  towards  the  new  States,  in  making  various  and  some 
very  extensive  grants  of  the  public  lands,  for  local  purposes.  But, 
in  accordance  with  the  same  spirit  of  liberality,  the  committee 
would  recommend  an  appropriation  to  each  of  the  seven  States 
referred  to,  of  a  further  sum  of  ten  per  cent,  on  the  nett  proceeds 
of  the  sales  of  that  part  of  the  public  land  which  lies  within  it,  for 
objects  of  internal  improvement  in  their  respective  limits.  The 
tendency  of  such  an  appropriation  will  be  not  only  to  benefit  those 
States,  but  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  public  lands  remaining  to 
be  sold. 

The  committee  have  now  to  proceed  to  the  other  branch  of  the 
inquiry  which  they  were  required  to  make,  that  of  the  expediency 
of  ceding  the  public  lands  to  the  several  States  in  which  they  are 
situated,  on  reasonable  terms.   .   .   . 


684  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

If  the  proposed  cession  to  the  new  States  were  to  be  made  at  a 
fair  price,  such  as  the  General  Government  could  obtain  from  in- 
dividual purchasers  under  the  present  system,  there  would  be  no 
motive  for  it,  unless  the  new  States  are  more  competent  to  dispose 
of  the  public  lands  than  the  common  Government.  They  are  now 
sold  under  one  uniform  plan,  regulated  and  controlled  by  a  single 
legislative  authority,  and  the  practical  operation  is  perfectly  under- 
stood. If  they  were  transferred  to  the  new  States,  the  subsequent 
disposition  would  be  according  to  laws  emanating  from  various 
legislative  sources.  Competition  would  probably  arise  between  the 
new  States  in  the  terms  which  they  would  offer  to  purchasers. 
Each  State  would  be  desirous  of  inviting  the  greatest  number  of 
emigrants,  not  only  for  the  laudable  purpose  of  populating  rapidly 
its  own  territories,  but  with  the  view  to  the  acquisition  of  funds  to 
enable  it  to  fulfil  its  engagements  to  the  General  Government. 
Collisions  between  the  States  would  probably  arise,  and  their  injuri- 
ous consequences  may  be  imagined.  A  spirit  of  hazardous  specula- 
tion would  be  engendered.  Various  schemes  in  the  new  States 
would  be  put  afloat  to  sell  or  divide  the  public  lands.  Companies 
and  combinations  would  be  formed  in  this  countiy,  if  not  in  for- 
eign countries,  presenting  gigantic  and  tempting,  but  delusive  proj- 
ects ;  and  the  history  of  legislation,  in  some  of  the  States  of  the 
Union,  admonishes  us  that  a  too  ready  ear  is  sometimes  given  by 
a  majority,  in  a  legislative  assembly,  to  such  projects. 

A  decisive  objection  to  such  a  transfer  for  a  fair  equivalent,  is, 
that  it  would  establish  a  new  and  dangerous  relation  between  the 
General  Government  and  the  new  States.  In  abolishing  the  credit 
which  had  been  allowed  to  purchasers  of  the  public  lands,  prior  to 
the  year  1820,  Congress  was  principally  governed  by  the  consider- 
ation of  the  inexpediency  and  hazard  of  accumulating  a  large 
amount  of  debt  in  the  new  States,  all  bordering  on  each  other. 
Such  an  accumulation  was  deemed  unwise  and  unsafe.  It  pre- 
sented a  new  bond  of  interest,  of  sympathy,  and  of  union,  partially 
operating  to  the  possible  prejudice  of  the  common  bond  of  the  old 
Union.  But  that  debt  was  a  debt  due  from  individuals,  and  it  was 
attended  with  this  encouraging  security,  that  purchasers,  as  they  suc- 
cessively completed  the  payments  for  their  lands,  would  naturally 


ATTACK  AND  DEFENCIi:  OF  THE  POLICY  6S5 

be  disposed  to  aid  tlie  GovernnienL  in  enforein<;  payment  from 
delinquents.  The  projeet,  whieh  the  committee  are  now  consider- 
ing, is,  to  sell  to  the  States,  in  their  sovereign  character,  and,  con- 
sequently, to  render  them  public  debtors  to  the  General  Government 
to  an  immense  amount.  This  would  inevitably  create  between  the 
debtor  States  a  common  feeling,  and  a  common  interest,  distinct 
from  the  rest  of  the  Union.  These  States  are  all  in  tlie  western 
and  southwestern  quarter  of  the  Union,  remotest  from  the  centre 
of  Federal  power.  The  debt  would  be  felt  as  a  load  from  which 
they  would  constantly  be  desirous  to  relieve  themselves  ;  and  it 
would  operate  as  a  strong  temptation,  weakening,  if  not  danger- 
ous, to  the  existing  confederacy.  .  .  . 

If  the  proposed  cession  be  made  for  a  price  merely  nominal,  it 
would  be  contrary  to  the  express  conditions  of  the  original  cessions 
from  primitive  States  to  Congress,  and  contrary  to  the  obligations 
which  the  General  Government  stands  under  to  the  whole  people 
of  the  United  States,  arising  out  of  the  fact  that  the  acquisitions 
of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and  from  Georgia,  were  obtained  at  a 
great  expense,  borne  from  the  common  treasure,  and  incurred  for 
the  common  benefit.  Such  a  gratuitous  cession  could  not  be  made 
without  a  positive  violation  of  a  solemn  trust,  and  without  manifest 
injustice  to  the  old  States.  And  its  inequality  among  the  new 
States  would  be  as  marked  as  its  injustice  to  the  old  would  be  in- 
defensible. Thus,  Missouri,  with  a  population  of  140,455,  would 
acquire  38,291,1  52  acres  ;  and  the  State  of  Ohio,  with  a  population 
of  935,884,  would  obtain  only  5,586,834  acres.  Supposing  a  divi- 
sion of  the  land  among  the  citizens  of  those  two  States  respectively, 
the  citizen  of  Ohio  would  obtain  less  than  six  acres  for  his  share, 
and  the  citizen  of  Missouri  upwards  of  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  acres  as  his  proportion. 

Upon  full  and  thorough  consideration,  the  committee  have  come 
to  the  conclusion,  that  it  is  inexpedient  either  to  reduce  the  price 
of  the  public  lands,  or  to  cede  them  to  the  new  States.  They  be- 
lieve, on  the  contrary,  that  sound  policy  coincides  with  the  duty 
which  has  devolved  on  the  General  Government  to  the  whole  of 
the  Slates,  and  the  whole  of  the  people  of  the  Union,  and  enjoins 
the  preservation  of  the  existing  system  as  having  been  tried  and 


686  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

approved  after  long  and  triumphant  experience.  But,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  extraordinary  financial  prosperity  which  the  United 
vStates  enjoy,  the  question  merits  examination,  whether,  whilst  the 
General  Government  steadily  retains  the  control  of  this  great  na- 
tional resource  in  its  own  hands,  after  the  payment  of  the  public 
debt,  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  no  longer 
needed  to  meet  the  ordinary  expenses  of  Government,  may  not 
be  beneficially  appropriated  to  some  other  objects  for  a  limited 
time  ?  .  .  . 

The  inquiry  remains,  what  ought  to  be  the  specific  application 
of  the  fund  under  the  restriction  stated  ?  After  deducting  the  ten 
per  cent,  proposed  to  be  set  apart  for  the  new  States,  a  portion  of 
the  committee  would  have  preferred  that  the  residue  should  be  ap- 
plied to  the  objects  of  internal  improvement,  and  colonization  of 
the  free  blacks,  under  the  direction  of  the  General  Government. 
But  a  majority  of  the  committee  believes  it  better,  as  an  alternative 
for  the  scheme  of  cession  to  the  new  States,  and  as  being  most 
likely  to  give  general  satisfaction,  that  the  residue  be  divided  among 
the  twenty-four  States,  according  to  their  federal  representative 
population,  to  be  applied  to  education,  internal  improvement,  or 
colonization,  or  to  the  redemption  of  any  existing  debt  contracted 
for  internal  improvements,  as  each  State,  judging  for  itself,  shall 
deem  most  conformable  with  its  own  interests  and  policy.  .  .  , 

III.    ESTIMATES    OF  THE    POLICY 

^  It  is  curious  that  the  United  States  system  of  disposing  of  the 
public  lands,  adopted  in  all  its  essential  features  as  far  back  as  1 800, 
has  worked  better  than  any  other  plan  which  has  yet  been  devised. 
The  land  is  carefully  divided  by  the  government  surveys  into  town- 
ships six  miles  square,  each  of  these  be'ing  subdivided  into  thirty- 
six  sections,  of  one  square  mile,  or  640  acres,  each.  All  is  held  at 
a  minimum  price  of  $1.25  an  acre ;  and  the  sales  are  made  at  pub- 
lic auction,  as  rapidly  as  the  progress  of  the  population  seems  to 
require.  Lands  which  will  not  bring  $1.25  an  acre  at  the  public 
sale,  are  still  held  by  the  government  subject  to  entry  at  any  future 

1  Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  pp.  9S-100. 


ESTIMATES  OF  THE   POLICY  6S7 

time,  at  private  sale,  and  at  the  miniimini  price.  Any  person  can 
select  a  quarter,  or  even  an  eighth  section,  —  160  or  80  acres,  — 
wherever  he  can  find  one  surveyed  and  not  yet  sold,  and,  by  mak- 
ing a  record  of  his  intention  to  occupy  and  settle  it  himself,  he  can 
secure  what  is  called  the  "preemption  right";  —  a  right  which, 
partly  by  the  force  of  law  and  partly  by  custom,  amounts  to  a  privi- 
lege of  purchasing  that  land  at  the  minimum  price  of  $1.25  an 
acre,  whenever  the  government  shall  think  proper  to  sell  it,  which 
it  will  do  when  the  settlement  is  so  far  advanced  as  to  render  it 
probable  that  most  of  the  land  in  the  vicinity  will  bring  that  price. 
Thus  the  actual  settler  in  truth  obtains  his  land  on  credit,  though 
all  actual  sales  are  for  cash.  He  has  credit  till  the  actual  sale  is 
ordered  ;  and  some  years  may  interv^ene,  during  which  he  may  pro- 
ceed to  clear  and  cultivate  his  land,  and  actually  obtain  enough 
from  it  to  make  up  its  price,  secure  that  no  one  will  overbid  him, 
and  that  he  cannot  be  obliged  to  pay  more  than  $1.25  an  acre  for 
it,  however  great  may  be  his  improvements.  Five  per  cent  is  re- 
served from  the  proceeds  of  the  sales,  to  be  expended,  three  fifths 
for  making  roads  to  the  newly  settled  territory,  and  two  fifths  for 
the  support  of  seminaries  of  learning  therein. 

I  say  this  system  has  worked  well,  the  only  evil  experienced 
under  it  being,  that  speculators  will  sometimes  buy  up  large  tracts 
not  subject  to  preemption  right,  at  the  minimum  government  price, 
and  hold  them  for  an  indefinite  period,  hoping  that,  as  the  popu- 
lation gradually  close  up  and  concentrate  around  them,  they  may 
again  be  brought  into  market  at  a  much  advanced  price.  While 
thus  held,  they  remain  unoccupied,  —  broad  patches  of  wilderness 
among  the  settlements, — obstructing  communication  between  the 
surrounding  lands,  and  barring  out  occupation  and  improvement. 
But  there  is  a  check  to  this  evil  in  the  fact,  that  such  lands  are 
subject  to  State  taxation,  though  they  are  tax-free  before  they 
are  sold  by  the  United  States ;  and  the  taxes  being  proportioned 
to  the  rise  in  value  of  the  property^  it  is  not  for  the  interest  of 
the  speculators  to  retain  the  land  a  long  time. 

But  the  inhabitants  of  the  Western  States  make  a  great  mistake 
when  they  clamor  for  a  reduction  of  the  inijiiimiin  price  at  which 
the  public  lands  are  now  held,  and  even  demand  that  they  shall  be 


688  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

offered,  in  limited  quantities,  as  a  free  gift  to  actual  settlers.  Their 
object,  of  course,  in  making  these  demands,  is  to  stimulate  the  spirit 
of  emigration  to  the  West,  so  that  the  population  there  may  more 
speedily  become  dense,  and  the  value  of  the  lands  already  settled 
thus  be  enhanced.  The  object  is  a  good  one  ;  but  if  there  is  any 
force  in  the  considerations  now  adduced,  the  means  adopted  will 
tend  rather  to  check  than  promote  its  attainment.  It  is  surely  not 
for  the  interest  of  sparsely  settled  States,  like  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Michigan,  that  the  great  wave  of  emigration,  though  broadened  and 
deepened,  should  only  roll  over  them,  to  be  arrested  at  last  by  the 
farthest  limits  of  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  or  perhaps  to  pass  much 
farther,  and,  dashing  against  the  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to 
throw  its  spray  over  their  summits  into  Oregon  and  California. 
But  we  may  see  that  any  great  reduction  in  the  price  of  the  public 
lands  will  surely  have  this  effect.  The  most  eligible  land  in  the 
three  States  first  mentioned  has  already  been  taken  up  by  individ- 
uals, that  portion  which  yet  remains  in  the  hands  of  the  government 
being  either  less  fertile,  or  more  distant  from  navigable  streams  and 
other  means  of  communication,  or  situated  in  a  less  salubrious  or 
convenient  region,  than  the  tracts  first  selected  for  purchase.  They 
have  long  been  in  the  market,  and  have  not  yet  found  a  buyer. 
Even  now,  most  of  the  emigrants  pass  by  them,  seeking  public 
lands  which  are  more  remote  from  their  former  homes,  but  which, 
in  every  other  respect,  are  superior  to  these  long-neglected  spots, 
which  a  former  generation  of  immigrants  have  avoided.  Any  gen- 
eral reduction  of  the  government  price  could  not  affect  this  relative 
eligibility  of  the  nearer  and  more  distant  lands.  Reduce  the  price 
to  nothing,  —  give  away  the  lands  altogether,  —  and  the  emigrant 
will  still  pass  on,  pushed  for\vard  by  the  emigrant's  fond  illusion, 
that  the  farther  from  home,  the  nearer  to  El  Dorado. 

Again,  what  is  most  needed  for  an  increase  of  the  prosperity  of 
the  West — of  that  portion  of  it,  at  least,  which  lies  on  this  side 
of  the  Mississippi  —  is,  not  that  the  lands  yet  in  the  possession  of 
government  should  become  private  property,  but  that  the  population 
should  be  concentrated  on  the  tracts  already  owned  by  individuals, 
though  in  great  part  still  covered  by  the  primeval  forest.  To  en- 
hance the  value  of  these  broad  regions,  the  people  must  be  massed 


ESTIMATES  OF  THE  POLICY  6.S9 

together,  towns  and  cities  must  be  established,  manufacturing  and 
commercial  industry  must  be  added  to  agricultural,  and  the  hut  of 
the  backwoodsman  must  give  place  to  the  well-furnished  abode  of 
civilized  and  enlightened  man.  It  would  be  an  ill  mode  of  enhanc- 
ing the  value  of  the  farms  of  individuals,  to  offer  lands  in  their  im- 
mediate vicinity  at  a  nominal  price,  or  at  no  price  at  all.  The 
passion  for  owning  land,  which  converts  nearly  all  the  new  settlers 
in  our  Western  Stiites  into  farmers,  however  ill  fitted  for  such  occu- 
pation by  their  previous  pursuits,  is  as  injurious  to  agriculture  as  to 
the  other  great  branches  of  industry.  The  land  is  held  by  those  who, 
from  defect  of  experience  or  want  of  capital,  are  unable  to  develop 
its  resources,  or  even  to  remove  the  forest  from  a  tithe  of  their  do- 
mains. Corn,  fuel,  and  meat  are  abundant,  because  prodigal  nature 
affords  so  many  facilities  for  the  production  of  them,  that  the  skill, 
enterprise,  and  knowledge  of  the  cultivator  are  little  needed,  and 
are  therefore  imperfectly  called  forth,  l^ut  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone  ;  and  when  this  alone  is  supplied,  almost  without  labor 
and  without  stint,  he  learns  to  do  without  many  of  the  requisites 
even  of  a  low  stage  of  civilization,  and  allows  the  wants  of  his  higher 
nature  to  remain  unsatisfied.  The  want  of  a  market,  and  the  con- 
sequent surplus  of  agricultural  produce,  reduce  its  price  so  low,  that 
many  families  find  it  needless  to  raise  more  than  is  wanted  for  their 
own  consumption.   .   .   . 

1  The  methods  according  to  which  the  sales  of  the  public  lands 
in  the  United  States  are  conducted  are  excellent.  The  lots  are  so 
divided  as  to  preclude  all  doubt  and  litigation  about  boundaries. 
There  is  a  general  land-office  at  Washington,  and  a  subordinate  one 
in  each  district,  where  all  business  can  be  transacted  with  readiness 
and  exactitude.  Periodical  sales  are  made  of  lands  which  it  is  de- 
sirable to  bring  into  the  market.  These  are  disposed  of  to  the 
highest  bidder.  The  advance  of  the  population  into  the  wilderness 
is  thus  made  more  regular  than  it  would  be  if  there  were  not  a 
rendezvous  in  each  district,  where  it  could  be  ascertained  how  the 
settlement  of  the  neighbouring  country  was  going  on  ;  titles  are 
made  more  secure  ;  and  less  impunity  is  allowed  to  fraud. 

1  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836],  I,  336-337- 


690  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

The  pre-emption  laws,  originally  designed  for  the  benefit  of  poor 
settlers,  have  been  the  greatest  provocatives  to  fraud.  It  seemed  hard 
that  a  squatter,  who  had  settled  himself  on  unoccupied  land,  and 
done  it  nothing  but  good,  should  be  turned  off  without  remunera- 
tion, or  compelled  to  purchase  his  own  improvements  ;  and  in 
1830,  a  bill  was  therefore  passed,  granting  a  pre-emption  right  to 
squatters  who  had  taken  such  possession  of  unsold  lands.  It  pro- 
vided that  when  two  individuals  had  cultivated  a  quarter  section  of 
land,  (one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,)  each  should  have  a  pre-emp- 
tion right  with  regard  to  half  the  cultivated  portion  :  and  each  also 
to  a  pre-emption  of  eighty  acres  anywhere  else  in  the  same  land 
district.  Of  course,  abundance  of  persons  took  advantage  of  this 
law  to  get  the  best  land  very  cheap.  Two  men,  by  merely  cutting 
down,  or  blazing  a  few  trees,  or  "  camping  out  "  for  a  night  or  two, 
on  a  good  quarter-section,  have  secured  it  at  the  minimum  price. 
A  Report  to  Congress  states  that  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
"  large  companies  have  been  founded,  who  procure  affidavits  of 
improvements  to  be  made,  get  the  warrants  issued  upon  them,  and 
whenever  a  good  tract  of  land  is  ready  for  sale,  cover  it  over  with 
their ^oafs,  (warrants  of  the  required  habitation,)  and  thus  put  down 
competition.  The  frauds  upon  the  public,  within  the  past  year, 
[1835,]  from  this  single  source,  have  arisen  to  many  millions  of 
dollars."  Such  errors  in  matters  of  detail  are  sure  to  be  corrected 
soon  after  being  discovered.  The  means  will  speedily  be  found  of 
showing  a  due  regard  to  the  claims  of  squatters,  without  precipitat- 
ing the  settlement  of  land  by  unfairly  reducing  its  price  in  the 
market.  Whatever  methods  may  tend  to  lessen  rather  than  to  in- 
crease the  facilities  for  occupying  new  land,  must,  on  the  whole, 
be  an  advantage,  while  the  disproportion  between  land  and  labour 
is  so  great  as  it  now  is  in  the  western  regions  of  the  United  States. 

^  BucJianan  s   Veto  Alcssage  of  June  22,  1S60 

I  return  with  my  objections  to  the  Senate,  in  which  it  originated, 
the  bill  entitled  "An  act  to  secure  homesteads  to  actual  settlers  on 
the  public  domain,  and  for  other  purposes,"  presented  to  me  on  the 
20th  instant. 

1  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  V. 


ESTIMATES  OF  'I'lir:   I'OLICY  69 1 

This  bill  gives  to  every  citizen  of  the  L'nited  States  "  who  is  the 
head  of  a  family,"  and  to  every  person  of  foreign  birth  residing  in 
the  country-  who  has  declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen, 
though  he  may  not  be  the  head  of  a  family,  the  privilege  of  appro- 
priating to  himself  160  acres  of  Ciovernment  land,  of  settling  and 
residing  upon  it  for  five  years  ;  and  should  his  residence  continue 
until  the  end  of  this  period,  he  shall  then  receive  a  i)atent  on  the 
payment  of  25  cents  per  acre,  or  one-fifth  of  the  present  Govern- 
ment price.  During  this  period  the  land  is  protected  from  all  the 
debts  of  the  settler.   .   .   . 

It  will  prove  unequal  and  unjust  in  its  operation  among  the 
actual  settlers  themselves. 

The  first  settlers  of  a  new  country  are  a  most  meritorious  class. 
They  brave  the  dangers  of  savage  warfare,  suffer  the  privations  of 
a  frontier  life,  and  with  the  hand  of  toil  bring  the  wilderness  into 
cultivation.  The  "old  settlers,"  as  they  are  everywhere  called,  arc 
public  benefactors.  This  class  have  all  paid  for  their  lands  the 
Government  price,  or  $  i  .25  per  acre.  They  have  constructed  roads, 
established  schools,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  prosperous  common- 
wealths. Is  it  just,  is  it  equal,  that  after  they  have  accomplished 
all  this  by  their  labor  new  settlers  should  come  in  among  them 
and  receive  their  farms  at  the  price  of  25  or  18  cents  per  acre.-* 
Surelv  the  old  settlers,  as  a  class,  are  entitled  to  at  least  equal  bene- 
fits with  the  new.  If  you  give  the  new  settlers  their  land  for  a 
comparatively  nominal  price,  upon  every  principle  of  equality  and 
justice  you  will  be  obliged  to  refund  out  of  the  common  Treasury 
the  difference  which  the  old  have  paid  above  the  new  settlers  for 
their  land.   .   .   , 

This  bill  is  unjust  to  the  old  States  of  the  Union  in  many  re- 
spects ;  and  amongst  these  States,  so  far  as  the  public  lands  are 
concerned,  we  may  enumerate  every  State  east  of  the  Mississippi 
with  the  exception  of  Wisconsin  and  a  portion  of  Minnesota.  It 
is  a  common  belief  within  their  limits  that  the  older  Stiites  of  the 
Confederacy  do  not  derive  their  proportionate  benefit  from  the 
public  lands.  This  is  not  a  just  opinion.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
they  could  be  rendered  more  beneficial  to  these  States  under  any 
Other  system  than  that  w  hich  at  present  exists.   Their  proceeds  go 


692  THE  PUBLIC  LAND  POLICY 

into  the  common  Treasury  to  accomplish  the  objects  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  this  manner  all  the  States  are  benefited  in  just . 
proportion.  But  to  give  this  common  inheritance  away  would  de- 
prive the  old  States  of  their  just  proportion  of  this  revenue  without 
holding  out  any  the  least  corresponding  advantage.  Whilst  it  is 
our  common  glory  that  the  new  States  have  become  so  prosperous 
and  populous,  there  is  no  good  reason  why  the  old  States  should 
offer  premiums  to  their  own  citizens  to  emigrate  from  them  to  the 
West.  That  land  of  promise  presents  in  itself  sufficient  allurements 
to  our  young  and  enterprising  citizens  without  any  adventitious 
aid.  The  offer  of  free  farms  would  probably  have  a  powerful  effect 
in  encouraging  emigration,  especially  from  States  like  Illinois,  Ten- 
nessee, and  Kentucky,  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  could 
not  fail  to  reduce  the  price  of  property  within  their  limits.  An 
individual  in  States  thus  situated  would  not  pay  its  fair  value 
for  land  when  by  crossing  the  Mississippi  he  could  go  upon  the 
public  lands  and  obtain  a  farm  almost  without  money  and  with- 
out price.  .  .   . 

This  bill  lays  the  ax  at  the  root  of  our  present  admirable  land 
system.  The  public  land  is  an  inheritance  of  vast  value  to  us  and 
to  our  descendants.  It  is  a  resource  to  which  we  can  resort  in  the 
hour  of  difficulty  and  danger.  It  has  been  managed  heretofore 
with  the  greatest  wisdom  under  existing  laws.  In  this  management 
the  rights  of  actual  settlers  have  been  conciliated  with  the  interests 
of  the  Government.  The  price  to  all  has  been  reduced  from  $2 
per  acre  to  $1.25  for  fresh  lands,  and  the  claims  of  actual  settlers 
have  been  secured  by  our  preemption  laws.  Any  man  can  now 
acquire  a  title  in  fee  simple  to  a  homestead  of  80  acres,  at  the 
minimum  price  of  $1.25  per  acre,  for  $100.  Should  the  present 
system  remain,  we  shall  derive  a  revenue  from  the  public  lands 
of  $10,000,000  per  annum,  when  the  bounty-land  warrants  are 
satisfied,  without  oppression  to  any  human  being.  In  time  of  war, 
when  all  other  sources  of  revenue  are  seriously  impaired,  this  will 
remain  intact.  It  may  become  the  best  security  for  public  loans 
hereafter,  in  times  of  difficulty  and  danger,  as  it  has  been  hereto- 
fore. Why  should  we  impair  or  destroy  the  system  at  the  present 
moment  ?    What  necessity  exists  for  it .''  .   .  . 


CHAPTER   XIV 
THE   ORGANIZATION   OF   LABOR  AND   CAPITAL 

INTRODUCTION 

The  modern  labor  problem  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  existed  in  America 
until  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  llefore  that  time  the  Amer- 
ican peopIe~^had  indeecTtheir  labor  problem,  as  most  new  countries  have,  but  it 
was  something  quite  different  from  what  now  passes  under  that  name.  How 
to  secure  a  sufficient  number  of  wage  workers,  how  to  create  a  laboring  class, 
was  the  real  problem  ;  not  how  to  protect  laborers  from  the  injuries  of  excessive 
competition.  With  the  single  exception  of  commercial  enterprises,  capital  can- 
not be  invested  in  any  considerable  amount  in  an  industry  without  the  hiring 
of  labor.  No  matter  how  profitable  an  industry  may  be,  no  capitalist  as  such 
can  engage  in  it  until  he  is  able  to  secure  the  services  of  laborers.  As  capital 
accumulates  in  a  country,  therefore,  or  is  brought  in  from  outside  for  invest- 
ment, the  creation  of  a  wage-earning  class  becomes  a  matter  of  paramount  im- 
portance to  economic  progress.  Down  to  about  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  the 
difficulty  of  securing  an  adequate  supply  of  such  labor  and  keeping  it  was  felt 
in  every  industry  that  required  production  on  a  large  scale.  In  the  South  and 
the  West  Indies,  where  men  wished  to  invest  capital  in  the  production  of 
sugar,  tobacco,  and  cotton,  a  solution  of  the  difficulty  was  found  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  negro  slavery.  In  Spanish  America,  where  the  capitalist  wished 
to  exploit  the  mines,  it  was  found  in  a  system  of  compulsory  labor  for  the 
natives.  In  the  northern  part  of  the  United  States  for  many  generations  the 
capitalist  devoted  himself  to  commerce  and  shipping,  where  not  much  wage 
labor  was  required.  When,  however,  attention  was  turned  to  manufactures 
and  to  various  enterprises  for  improving  transportation,  the  same  difficulty 
had  to  be  met  there  that  had  long  been  felt  in  other  parts  of  America. 

It  was  chiefly  the  labor  of  women  and  children,  and  later  of  an  increasing 
body  of  immigrants,  which  made  possible  the  investment  of  capital  in  the  in- 
dustries of  this  region.  They  furnished  almost  the  only  wage  labor  which  was 
to  be  had.  They  could  not,  however,  be  called  a  laboring  class  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense  of  that  term ;  and  few  or  none  of  the  modern  problems  of  such  a 
class  appeared  among  them.  It  is  true  that  trade-unions  of  the  modern  type 
were  organized  in  considerable  numbers  in  the  country  before  1S50,  but  it  is 
misleading  to  infer  from  them  that  the  labor  situation  in  this  country  resem- 
bled even  remotely  the  conditions  which  caused  the  growth  of  labor  organi- 
zations in  Europe  during  the  same  time.    Communistic  societies,  based  on  the 

693 


694         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

ideas  of  Owen  and*  Fourier,  also  sprang  up  here  in  great  numbers  at  tliis  time ; 
but  no  one  would  infer  from  this  that  social  conditions  in  America  were  any- 
thing like  those  in  Europe  which  Owen  and  Fourier  were  striving  to  remedy. 
Trade-unions,  like  communistic  societies,  were  in  America  foreign  ideas,  taken 
up  by  our  people  at  a  time  of  great  social  and  moral  ferment  and  applied  here 
to  a  society  almost  completely  free  from  the  ills  those  devices  were  designed 
to  cure  in  Europe.  They  did  not  spring  out  of  industrial  conditions  here  and 
had  no  roots  in  the  country  itself  at  this  time. 

As  the  labor  problem  in  our  early  history  was  how  to  secure  combination, 
so  a  similar  problem  arose  in  relation  to  capital.  So  long  as  the  chief  enter- 
prises requiring  large  capital  were  commercial  and  maritime,  or  were  in  the 
production  of  agricultural  staples,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  great  difficulty 
in  bringing  together  under  one  management  a  sufficient  amount  of  capital  to 
carry  on  the  industries.  Single  individuals  or  two  or  three  persons  in  partner- 
ship could  supply  all  that  was  necessary.  But  when  attention  was  turned  to 
banking  and  insurance,  to  manufactures  requiring  expensive  machinery,  and  to 
various  transportation  enterprises  like  the  establishment  of  steamboat  lines 
and  the  building  of  turnpikes,  canals,  gnd  railroads,  sufficient  capital  could  not 
be  secured  in  this  way.  A  great  deal  of  saving  and  accumulation  of  capital 
took  place  during  the  prosperous  years  of  the  European  wars.  There  was 
capital  enough  in  the  country  in  the  aggregate  to  carry  on  these  new  enter- 
prises, but  it  existed  for  the  most  part  in  small  amounts  and  the  owners 
were  loath  to  risk  them  in  speculative  ventures  which  did  not  promise  very 
large  returns.  Some  means  had  to  be  devised  for  bringing  these  together  • 
so  as  to  provide  the  large  capitals  that  were  needed,  This  problem  was  met 
by  the  development  of  corporations.  Practically  none  had  existed  in  colonial 
times,  but  beginning  a  few  years  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution  we  find 
the  state  governments  creating  them  in  great  numbers  to  carry  on  the  various 
new  enterprises  that  were  attracting  attention.  They  began  with  banks  and  in- 
surance companies  during  the  last  ten  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Turn- 
pike and  manufacturing  companies  were  most  numerous  before  the  War  of 
1812,  while  banking,  canal,  and  railroad  companies  were  created  in  great  num- 
bers from  this  time  to  the  Civil  War.  Gradually  corporations  secured  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people,  and  to  an  increasing  extent  the  savings  of  the  country 
went  to  the  purchase  of  their  stocks  and  bonds.  There  seems  to  have  been 
some  little  fear  of  possible  dangers  from  them  at  first,  and  this  was  increased 
toward  banking  corporations  by  the  political  struggle  over  the  United  States 
Bank.  But  the  opposition  to  corporations  as  such  never  became  strong  or  gen- 
eral. On  the  contrary  they  were  regarded  as  an  application  of  the  democratic 
principle  to  business ;  the  small  stockholder  in  a  corporation  like  the  humble 
citizen  of  the  republic  had  a  voice  in  the  management  of  affairs.  The  attitude 
of  the  public  toward  corporations  soon  became  extremely  indulgent.  Few  pre- 
cautions were  taken  against  any  possible  evils  from  them,  and  almost  every 
concession  asked  for  was  eagerly  granted  by  the  state  governments  to  them. 


Till-   LA  DOR  PROBLEM  OF  NEW  COUNTRIES      695 

I.    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM    OF  NEW  COUNTRIES 

^,  .  .  I  have  now  to  request  your  special  attention  to  an  absolute 
condition  of  a  high  rate  of  profit  anywhere,  and,  indeed,  of  any  re- 
turn whatever  from  capital,  which  is  often  wanting  or  deficient  in 
colonies,  though  not  in  old  countries. 

In  this  country  [England],  for  example,  it  never  comes  into  any- 
body's head  to  doubt  that  capital  can  be  employed  in  a  productive 
business.  There  is  capital,  and  there  is  the  business  :  put  the  one 
into  the  other,  and  all  will  go  well.  The  business,  let  us  suppose, 
is  the  farming  of  500  acres  of  fertile  land  in  a  high  state  of  culti- 
vation, well  found  in  drainage,  fences,  and  buildings,  and  rent  free  : 
the  capital  is  ^^5000  worth  of  the  things  requisite  for  carrying  on 
the  business  of  the  farm,  such  as  crops  in  the  ground,  live  stock, 
fodder,  implements,  and  money  at  the  bank  wherewith  to  pay  out- 
goings till  incomings  restore  the  invested  capital.  Nothing  more 
seems  requisite.  .  .  .  But,  ...  let  us  suppose,  the  number  of 
labourers  on  this  farm  being  thiit}^,  that  two-thirds  of  them  quitted 
their  employer,  and  that  he  was  totally  unable  to  get  others  in  their 
place  :  .  .  .  We  can  hardly  bring  ourselves  to  imagine  the  occur- 
rence of  such  a  case  here.  It  is  substantially  an  every-day  case  in 
the  colonies.  Farmers,  or  other  men  of  business  there,  can  get  and 
keep  horses  as  many  as  they  please,  but  they  cannot  do  so  with 
labourers.    Labour,  which  is  here  a  drug,  is  scarce  there.  .  .   . 

It  has  long  been  an  axiom  with  political  economists,  that  the  most 
important  improvement  in  the  application  of  human  industiy  is 
what  they  call  "the  division  of  labour:  "  the  produce,  they  show, 
is  great  in  proportion  as  the  labour  is  divided.  Adam  Smith's  famous 
chapter  on  the  subject  satisfies  the  mind  on  this  point.  But  he  fell 
into  an  error  of  words,  which  has  kept  out  of  view  until  lately,  that 
what  he  calls  the  division  of  labour,  is  wholly  dependent  upon 
something  else.  It  is  dependent  upon  combination  amongst  the 
labourers.  In  his  illustrative  case  of  the  pin-factory,  for  example, 
the  separate  parts  of  the  whole  work  of  making  a  pin  could  not  be 
assigned  to  different  persons  —  one  drawing  the  wire,  another  pol- 
ishing it,  a  third  cutting  it  in  bits,  a  fourth  pointing  one  end  of  the 

1  Wakefield,  A  View  of  the  Art  of  Colonization  [1S51],  pp.  165-166,  167,  168-170. 


696         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

bits,  a  fifth  making  the  heads,  a  sixth  putting  them  on,  and  so  forth 
—  unless  all  these  persons  were  brought  together  under  one  roof, 
and  induced  to  co-operate.  The  bringing  together  of  workmen,  and 
inducing  them  to  co-operate,  is  a  combination  of  labour  :  it  cannot 
be  properly  called  by  any  other  name.   .   .   . 

The  principle  of  the  combination  of  labour,  which  seems  more 
important  the  more  one  reflects  on  it,  was  not  perceived  until  a 
colonial  inquiry  led  to  its  discovery  :  it  was  unnoticed  by  econo- 
mists, because  they  have  resided  in  countries  where  combination 
of  labour  takes  place,  as  a  matter  of  course,  whenever  it  is  re- 
quired :  it  seems  in  old  countries  like  a  natural  property  of  labour. 
But  in  colonies  the  case  is  totally  different.  There,  the  difficulty  of 
inducing  a  number  of  people  to  combine  their  labour  for  any  pur- 
pose, meets  the  capitalist  in  every  step  of  his  endeavours,  and  in 
every  line  of  industry.    I  shall  speak  of  the  consequences  presently. 

There  is  another  principle  of  labour  which  nothing  points  out  to 
the  economical  inquirer  in  old  countries,  but  of  which  every  colo- 
nial capitalist  has  been  made  conscious  in  his  own  person.  By  far 
the  greater  part  of  the  operations  of  industry,  and  especially  those 
of  which  the  produce  is  great  in  proportion  to  the  capital  and  labour 
employed,  require  a  considerable  time  for  their  completion.  As  to 
most  of  them,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  make  a  commencement  with- 
out the  certainty  of  being  able  to  carry  them  on  for  several  years. 
A  large  portion  of  the  capital  employed  in  them  is  fixed,  incontro- 
vertible, durable.  If  anything  happens  to  stop  the  operation,  all 
this  capital  is  lost.  If  the  harvest  cannot  be  gathered,  the  whole 
outlay  in  making  it  grow  has  been  thrown  away.  Like  examples, 
without  end,  might  be  cited.  They  show  that  constancy  is  a  no  less 
important  principle  than  combination  of  labour.  The  importance 
of  the  principle  of  constancy  is  not  seen  here,  because  rarely  in- 
deed does  it  happen,  that  the  labour  which  carries  on  a  business, 
is  stopped  against  the  will  of  the  capitalist ;  and  it  perhaps  never 
happens,  that  a  capitalist  is  deterred  from  entering  on  an  under- 
taking by  the  fear  that  in  the  middle  of  it  he  may  be  left  without 
labourers.  But  in  the  colonies,  on  the  contrary,  I  will  not  say  that 
this  occurs  every  day,  because  capitalists  are  so  much  afraid  of  it, 
that  they  avoid  its  occurrence  as  much  as  they  can,  by  avoiding,  as 


THE  LABOR   rkOI'.LEM  OF  NEW  COUNTRIES       697 

much  as  possible,  operations  which  require  much  time  for  their 
completion  ;  but  it  occurs,  more  or  less,  to  all  who  heedlessly  en- 
gage in  such  operations,  especially  to  new  comers  ;  and  the  general 
fear  of  it  —  the  known  difficulty  of  providing  with  certainty  that 
operations  shall  not  be  stopped  or  interrupted  by  the  inconstancy 
of  labour  —  is  as  serious  a  colonial  impediment  to  the  productive- 
ness of  industry  as  the  difficulty  of  combining  labour  in  masses  for 
only  a  short  time. 

Combination  and  constancy  of  labour  are  provided  for  in  old 
countries,  without  an  effort  or  a  thought  on  the  part  of  the  ca])ital- 
ist,  merely  by  the  abundance  of  labourers  for  hire.  In  colonies, 
labourers  for  hire  are  scarce.  The  scarcity  of  labourers  for  hire  is 
the  universal  complaint  of  colonies.  It  is  the  one  cause,  both  of  the 
high  wages  which  put  the  colonial  labourer  at  his  ease,  and  of  the 
exorbitant  wages  which  sometimes  harass  the  capitalist.   .  .  . 

1.  .  .  There  is  no  one  subject  on  which  so  many  complaints  are 
to  be  heard  from  every  class  of  American  society  as  the  immigra- 
tion of  foreigners.  The  incapacity  of  men  to  recognise  blessings 
in  disguise  has  been  the  theme  of  moralists  in  all  ages  :  but  it  might 
be  expected  that  the  Americans,  in  this  case,  would  be  an  exception. 
It  is  wonderful,  to  a  stranger,  to  see  how  they  fret  and  toil,  and 
scheme  and  invent,  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  help,  and  all  the 
time  quarrel  with  the  one  means  by  which  labour  is  brought  to  their 
door.  The  immigration  of  foreigners  was  the  one  complaint  by 
which  I  was  met  in  eveiy  corner  of  the  free  States  ;  and  I  really 
believe  I  did  not  converse  with  a  dozen  persons  who  saw  the  ultimate 
good  through  the  present  apparent  evil. 

It  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at  that  gentlemen  and  ladies, 
living  in  Boston  and  New  York,  and  seeing,  for  the  first  time  in 
their  lives,  half-naked  and  squalid  persons  in  the  street,  should  ask 
where  they  come  from,  and  fear  lest  they  should  infect  others  with 
their  squalor,  and  wish  they  would  keep  away.  It  is  not  much  to 
be  wondered  at  that  the  managers  of  charitable  institutions  in  the 
maritime  cities  should  be  weary  of  the  claims  advanced  by  indigent 
foreigners  :  but  it  is  surprising  that  these  gentlemen  and  ladies 

1  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836],  I,  339-34°.  341-342,  343-344- 


698         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

should  not  learn  by  experience  that  all  this  ends  well,  and  that  mat- 
ters are  taking  their  natural  course.  It  would  certainly  be  better 
that  the  emigrants  should  be  well  clothed,  educated,  respectable 
people  :  (except  that,  in  that  case,  they  would  probably  never  ar- 
rive ;)  but  the  blame  of  their  bad  condition  rests  elsewhere,  while 
their  arrival  is,  generally  speaking,  almost  a  pure  benefit.  Some 
are  intemperate  and  profligate  ;  and  such  are,  no  doubt,  a  great  in- 
jury to  the  cities  where  they  harbour  ;  but  the  greater  number  show 
themselves  decent  and  hardworking  enough,  when  put  into  employ- 
ment. Every  American  acknowledges  that  few  or  no  canals  or 
railroads  would  be  in  existence  now,  in  the  United  States,  but  for 
the  Irish  labour  by  which  they  have  been  completed  :  and  the  best 
cultivation  that  is  to  be  seen  in  the  land  is  owing  to  the  Dutch  and 
Germans  it  contains.  What  would  housekeepers  do  for  domestic 
service  without  foreigners  .''  If  the  American  ports  had  been  barred 
against  immigration,  and  the  sixty  thousand  foreigners  per  annum, 
with  all  their  progeny,  had  been  excluded,  where  would  now  have  been 
the  public  works  of  the  United  States,  the  agriculture,  the  shipping  ? 

The  most  emphatic  complainers  of  the  immigration  of  foreigners 
are  those  who  imagine  that  the  morals  of  society  suffer  thereby. 
My  own  conviction  is  that  the  morals  of  society  are,  on  the  whole, 
thereby  much  improved.  It  is  candidly  allowed,  on  all  hands,  that 
the  passion  of  the  Irish  for  the  education  of  their  children  is  a 
great  set-off  against  the, bad  qualities  some  of  them  exhibit  in  their 
own  persons  ;  and  that  the  second  and  third  generations  of  Irish 
are  among  the  most  valuable  citizens  of  the  republic.  The  immi- 
grant Germans  are  more  sober  and  respectable  than  the  Irish  ; 
but  there  is  more  difficulty  in  improving  them  and  their  children. 
The  Scotch  are  in  high  esteem.  .  .  . 

The  bad  moral  consequences  of  a  dispersion  of  agricultural  labour, 
and  the  good  moral  effects  of  an  adequate  combination,  are  so  serious 
as  to  render  it  the  duty  of  good  citizens  to  inform  themselves  fully 
of  the  bearings  of  this  question  [immigration]  before  they  attempt 
to  influence  other  minds  upon  it.  Those  who  have  seen  what  are 
the  morals  and  manners  of  families  who  live  alone  in  the  wilds, 
with  no  human  opinion  around  them,  no  neighbours  with  whom  to 
exchange  good  offices,   no  stimulus  to  mental  activity,  no  social 


THE  LA?>(^R  PROP.TJ'.M  OV  M:W  (OIXTRIES      699 

amusements,  no  church,  f/o  life,  nothing;  but  the  pursuit  of  tlie 
outward  means  of  living,  —  any  one  who  has  witnessed  this  will 
be  ready  to  agree  what  a  blessing  it  would  be  to  such  a  family  to 
shake  down  a  shower  of  even  poor  Irish  labourers  around  them. 
To  such  a  family  no  tidings  ought  to  be  more  welcome  than  of  the 
arrival  of  ship-load  after  ship-load  of  immigrants  at  the  ports,  some 
few  of  whom  may  wander  hithenvards,  and  by  entering  into  a  com- 
bination of  labour  to  obtiiin  means  of  living,  open  a  way  to  the  at- 
tainment of  the  ends.  Sixty  thousand  immigrants  a-year  !  What  are 
these  spread  over  so  many  thousand  square  miles  .-*  If  the  country 
could  be  looked  down  upon  from  a  balloon,  some  large  clusters  of 
these  would  be  seen  detained  in  the  cities,  because  they  could  not 
be  spared  into  the  country  ;  other  clusters  would  be  seen  about 
the  canals  and  railroads  ;  and  a  very  slight  sprinkling  in  the  back 
country,  where  their  stations  would  be  marked  by  the  prosperity 
growing  up  around  them. 

The  expedients  used  in  the  country  settlements  to  secure  a  com- 
bination of  labour  when  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  show  how  emi- 
nently deficient  it  is.  Every  one  has  heard  of  the  "frolic"  or 
"bee,"  by  means  of  which  the  clearing  of  lots,  the  raising  of 
houses,  the  harvesting  of  crops  is  achieved.  Roads  are  made,  and 
kept  by  contributions  of  labour  and  teams,  by  settlers.  For  the  rest, 
what  can  be  done  by  family  labour  alone  is  so  done,  with  great 
waste  of  time,  material,  and  toil.  The  wonderful  effects  of  a 
"frolic,"  in  ever)^  way,  should  serve,  in  contrast  with  the  toil  and 
difficulty  usually  expended  in  producing  small  results,  to  incline 
the  hearts  of  settlers  towards  immigrants,  and  to  plan  how  an  in- 
crease of  them,  may  be  obtained.   .   .   . 

Instead  of  complaining  of  the  sixty  thousand  immigrants  per 
annum,  and  lowering  the  price  of  land,  so  as  to  induce  dispersion, 
it  would  be  wise,  if  it  were  possible,  in  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  bring  in  sixty  thousand  more  labourers  per  annum,  and 
raise  the  price  of  land.  This  last  cannot,  perhaps,  be  done  :  but 
why  should  not  the  other  ?  With  a  surplus  revenue  that  they  do 
not  know  what  to  do  with,  and  a  scarcity  of  the  labour  which  they 
do  not  know  how  to  do  without,  why  not  use  the  surplus  funds 
accruing  from  the  lands  in  carr)dng  labour  to  the  soil  ? 


yoo         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

It  is  true,  Europeans  have  the  same  passion  for  land  as  the 
Americans ;  and  such  immigrants  would  leave  their  employers, 
and  buy  for  themselves,  as  soon  as  they  had  earned  the  requisite 
funds :  but  these,  again,  would  supply  the  means  of  bringing  over 
more  labour ;  and  the  intermediate  services  of  the  labourers  would 
be  so  much  gained.  If  the  arrangements  were  so  made  as  to  bring 
over  sober,  respectable  labourers,  without  their  being  in  any  way 
bound  to  servitude,  (as  a  host  of  poor  Germans  once  were  made 
white  slaves  of),  if,  the  land  and  labour  being  once  brought  to- 
gether, and  repayment  from  the  benefited  parties  being  secured, 
(if  desired,)  things  were  then  left  to  take  their  natural  course,  a 
greater  blessing  could  hardly  befall  the  United  States  than  such  an 
importation  of  labourers.  .   .   . 

There  are  troubles  between  employers  and  their  workmen  in  the 
United  States,  as  elsewhere  :  but  the  case  of  the  men  is  so  much 
more  in  their  own  hands  there  than  where  labour  superabounds, 
that  strikes  are  of  a  very  short  duration.  The  only  remedy  the 
employers  have,  the  only  safeguard  against  encroachments  from 
their  men,  is  their  power  of  obtaining  the  services  of  foreigners, 
for  a  short  time.  The  difficulty  of  stopping  business  there  is  very 
great ;  the  injury  of  delay  very  heavy  :  but  the  wages  of  labour  are 
so  good  that  there  is  less  cause  for  discontent  on  the  part  of  the 
workmen  than  elsewhere.  All  the  strikes  I  heard  of  were  on  the 
question  of  hours,  not  of  wages. 

The  employers  are,  of  course,  casting  about  to  see  how  they  can 
help  themselves  ;  and,  as  all  are  not  wise  and  experienced,  it  is 
natural  that  some  should  talk  of  laws  to  prohibit  Trades  Unions. 
There  is  no  harm  in  their  talking  of  such  ;  for  the  matter  will 
never  get  beyond  talk  ;  —  unless,  indeed,  the  combinations  of  opera- 
tives should  assume  any  forms,  or  comprehend  any  principles  in- 
consistent with  the  republican  spirit.  The  majority  will  not  vote 
for  any  law  which  shall  restrain  any  number  of  artisans  from  agree- 
ing for  what  price  they  will  sell  their  labour ;  though  I  heard 
several  learned  gentlemen  agreeing,  at  dinner  one  day,  that  there 
ought  to  be  such  laws.  On  my  objecting  that  the  interest  of  the 
parties  concerned  would,  especially  in  a  free  and  rising  country, 
settle  all  questions  between  labour  and  capital  with  more  precision, 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  IN  AMERICA  701 

fairness,  and  peace,  than  any  law,  it  was  ])leaclecl  that  intimidation 
and  outrage  were  practised  l)y  those  who  combined  against  those 
who  would  not  join  them.  1  found,  on  inquiry,  that  there  is  an 
ample  provision  of  laws  against  intimidation  and  outrage  ;  but  that 
it  is  difficult  to  get  them  executed.  If  so,  it  would  be  also  difficult 
to  execute  laws  against  combinations  of  workmen,  supposing  them 
obtained  :  and  the  grievance  does  not  lie  in  the  combination  com- 
plained of,  but  somewhere  else.  The  remedy  is,  (if  there  be  indeed 
intimidation  and  outrage,)  not  in  passing  more  laws,  to  be  in  like 
manner  defied,  while  sufficient  already  exist ;  but  in  enlightening 
the  parties  on  the  subjects  of  \i\w  and  social  obligation.   .  .  . 

II.    LABOR   CONDITIONS    IN   AMERICA ^ 

2  So  much  is  said  in  Europe  of  the  scarcity  of  agricultural  labour 
in  the  United  States,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  manufac- 
tures should  have  succeeded  as  they  have  done.  It  is  even  sup- 
posed by  some  that  the  tariff  was  rendered  necessary  by  a  deficiency 
of  labour :  that  by  offering  a  premium  on  manufacturing  industry, 
the  requisite  amount  was  sought  to  be  drawn  away  from  other 
employments,  and  concentrated  upon  this.  This  is  a  mistake. 
There  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  requisite  amount  of 
labour  would  have  been  forthcoming,  if  affairs  had  been  left  to 
take  their  natural  course. 

It  has  been  shown  that  domestic  manufactures  were  carried  on 
to  a  great  extent,  so  far  back  as  1790.  From  that  time  to  this, 
they  have  never  altogether  ceased  in  the  farm-houses,  as  the  home- 
spun, still  so  frequently  to  be  seen  all  over  the  country,  and  the 
agricultural  meetings  of  New  England,  (where  there  is  usually 
a  display  of  domestic  manufactures,)  will  testify.  The  hands  by 
which  these  products  are  wrought  come  to  the  factories,  when  the 
demand  for  labour  renders  it  worth  while  ;  and  drop  back  into 
the  farm-houses  when  the  demand  slackens. 

1  For  information  on  this  subject  consult  also  extracts  in  Chapter  II,  pp. 
35-36,  42-51,  75-76,  in  Chapter  IX,  pp.  464,  466,  482-486,  and  in  Chapter  X, 

PP-  536-546. 

2  Martineau,  Society  in  America  [1834-1836],  II,  53-55,  57-5S.  59-6o- 


702         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

It  is  not  the  custom  in  America  for  women  (except  slaves)  to 
work  out  of  doors.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  young  men  of 
New  England  migrate  in  large  numbers  to  the  west,  leaving  an 
over-proportion  of  female  population,  the  amount  of  which  I  could 
never  learn.  Statements  were  made  to  me  ;  but  so  incredible  that 
I  withhold  them.  Suffice  it  that  there  are  many  more  women  than 
men  in  from  six  to  nine  States  of  the  Union.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  there  was  much  silent  suffering  from  poverty  before 
the  institution  of  factories  ;  that  they  afford  a  most  welcome  re- 
source to  some  thousands  of  young  women,  unwilling  to  give  them- 
selves to  domestic  service,  and  precluded,  by  the  customs  of  the 
country,  from  rural  labour.  We  have  seen  how  large  a  proportion 
of  the  labour  in  the  Lowell  factories  is  supplied  by  women. 

Much  of  the  rest  is  furnished  by  immigrants.  I  saw  English, 
Irish,  and  Scotch  operatives.  I  heard  but  a  poor  character  of  the 
English  operatives;  and  the  Scotch  were  pronounced  "ten  times 
better."  The  English  are  jealous  of  their  "  bargain,"  and  on  the 
watch  lest  they  should  be  asked  to  do  more  than  they  stipulated 
for :  their  habits  are  not  so  sober  as  those  of  the  Scotch,  and  they 
are  incapable  of  going  beyond  the  single  operation  they  profess. 
Such  is  the  testimony  of  their  employers.   .   .   . 

I  visited  the  corporate  factory-establishment  at  Waltham,  within 
a  few  miles  of  Boston.  The  Waltham  mills  were  at  work  before 
those  of  Lowell  were  set  up.  The  establishment  is  for  the  spinning 
and  weaving  of  cotton  alone,  and  the  construction  of  the  requisite 
machinery.  Five  hundred  persons  were  employed  at  the  time  of 
my  visit.  The  girls  earn  two,  and  some  three,  dollars  a-week,  be- 
sides their  board.  The  little  children  earn  one  dollar  a-week.  Most 
of  the  girls  live  in  the  houses  provided  by  the  corporation,  which 
accommodate  from  six  to  eight  each.  When  sisters  come  to  the 
mill,  it  is  a  common  practice  for  them  to  bring  their  mother  to 
keep  house  for  them  and  some  of  their  companions,  in  a  dwelling 
built  by  their  own  earnings.  In  this  case,  they  save  enough  out  of 
their  board  to  clothe  themselves,  and  have  their  two  or  three  dol- 
lars a-week  to  spare.  Some  have  thus  cleared  off  mortgages  from 
their  fathers'  farms  ;  others  have  educated  the  hope  of  the  family 
at  college  ;  and  many  are  rapidly  accumulating  an  independence. 


LABOR  CONDI'I'IONS   IN  AMERICA 


702, 


I  saw  a  whole  street  of  houses  built  with  the  earninj^s  of  the  j:(irls  ; 
some  with  piazzas,  and  green  Venetian  blinds  ;  and  all  neat  and 
sufficiently  spacious.   .   .   . 

The  shoe-making  at  Lynn  is  carried  on  almost  entirely  in  pri- 
vate dwellings,  from  the  circumstance  that  the  people  who  do  it 
are  almost  all  farmers  or  fishermen  likewise.  A  stranger  who  has 
not  been  enlightened  upon  the  ways  of  the  place  would  be  aston- 
ished at  the  number  of  small  square  erections,  like  miniature  school- 
houses,  standing  each  as  an  appendage  to  a  dwelling-house.  These 
are  the  "  shoe-shops,"  where  the  father  of  the  family  and  his  boys 
work,  while  the  women  within  are  employed  in  binding  and  trim- 
ming. Thirty  or  more  of  these  shoe-shops  may  be  counted  in  a 
walk  of  half-a-mile.  When  a  Lynn  shoe  manufacturer  receives  an 
order,  he  issues  the  tidings.  The  leather  is  cut  out  by  men  on  his 
premises  ;  and  then  the  work  is  given  to  those  who  apply  for  it ; 
if  possible,  in  small  quantities,  for  the  sake  of  dispatch.  The  shoes 
are  brought  home  on  Friday  night,  packed  off  on  Saturday,  and  in 
a  fortnight  or  three  weeks  are  on  the  feet  of  dwellers  in  all  parts 
of  the  Union.  The  whole  family  works  upon  shoes  during  the 
winter ;  and  in  the  summer,  the  father  and  sons  turn  out  into  the 
fields,  or  go  fishing.  I  knew  of  an  instance  where  a  little  boy  and 
girl  maintained  the  whole  family,  while  the  earnings  of  the  rest 
went  to  build  a  house.  I  saw  very  few  shabby  houses.  Quakers 
are  numerous  in  Lynn.  The  place  is  unboundedly  prosperous, 
through  the  temperance  and  industry  of  the  people.  The  deposits 
in  the  Lynn  Savings'  Bank  in  1834  were  about  34,000  dollars,  the 
population  of  the  town  being  then  4,000.  Since  that  time,  both 
the  population  and  the  prosperity  have  much  increased.  It  must  be 
remembered,  too,  that  the  mechanics  of  America  have  more  uses 
for  their  money  than  are  open  to  the  operatives  of  England.  They 
build  houses,  buy  land,  and  educate  their  sons  and  daughters.  .  .  . 

1  In  our  modern  societies  the  improvements  of  machiner)-  have 
given  us  manufactures,  which  promise  to  be  a  source  of  inexhaustible 
prosperity  and  well-being  to  mankind.    The  English  manufactories 

1  Chevalier,  Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United  States  [1S36J,  pp. 
135-138.  i40-i42>  i43-'44,  341-344.  107-108. 


704 


ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 


alone  yield  about  eight  hundred  million  yards  of  cotton  stuffs 
annually,  or  about  one  yard  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  globe.  If  it 
were  required  to  produce  this  amount  of  cloth  without  machinery, 
by  the  fingers  alone,  it  is  probable  that  each  of  us  would  hardly  be 
able  to  card,  spin,  and  weave  his  yard  a  year,  so  that  the  whole 
time  of  the  whole  human  race  would  be  occupied  by  a  task,  which, 
by  the  aid  of  machinery,  is  accomplished  by  five  hundred  thousand 
arms  in  Great  Britain.  From  this  fact  we  may  conclude,  that  when 
the  manufacturing  system  shall  be  well  regulated  and  completely 
organised,  a  moderate  amount  of  labour  by  a  small  part  of  the 
human  race,  will  be  sufificient  to  produce  all  the  physical  comforts 
for  the  whole.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  it  will  be  so,  some  day 
or  another ;  but  this  beautiful  order  of  things  is  yet  remote.  The 
manufacturing  system  is  a  novelty,  it  is  expanding  and  maturing 
itself,  and  as  it  ripens,  it  certainly  will  improve  ;  the  staunchest 
pessimists  cannot  deny  this,  yet  we  should  expose  ourselves  to  the 
most  cruel  disappointments,  if  we  imagined  that  the  progress  of 
improvement  can  be  otherwise  than  slow,  step  by  step.  There  are 
seven-leagued  boots  in  faiiy-tales,  but  none  in  history.  Meanwhile 
the  manufacturing  system  temporarily  involves  the  most  disastrous 
consequences,  which  it  would  be  useless  to  enumerate  here.  Who 
has  not  sounded  its  depths  with  terror  ?  Who  has  not  wept  over 
it  ?  It  is  the  canker  of  England,  a  canker  so  inveterate,  that  one 
is  sometimes  tempted  to  think,  that  all  the  ability  displayed  of  late 
years  by  the  British  statesmen  in  attempts  at  domestic  reform,  will 
prove  a  dead  loss. 

The  introduction  of  the  manufacturing  system  into  a  new  coun- 
try, under  the  empire  of  very  different  circumstances,  is  an  event 
worthy  of  the  closest  attention.  No  sooner  was  I  recovered  from 
the  sort  of  giddiness  with  which  I  was  seized  at  the  sight  of  this 
extemporaneous  town,  hardly  had  I  taken  time  to  touch  it,  to 
make  sure  that  it  was  not-  a  pasteboard  town,  like  those  which 
Potemkin  erected  for  Catherine  along  the  7va(^/  to  Byzantmni, 
when  I  set  myself  to  inquire,  how  far  the  creation  of  manufactures 
in  this  country,  had  given  rise  to  the  same  dangers  in  regard  to 
the  welfare  and  morals  of  the  working  class,  and  in  regard  to  the 
security  of  the  rich  and  of  public  order,  as  in  Europe  ;  and  through 


T.AP.OR  CONDITIONS   IN  AMI'.klCA  705 

the  polite  attention  of  the  agents  of  the  t\v(j  ]:)rineipal  companies 
(the  Merrimack  and  the  Lawrence),  I  was  able  to  satisfy  my  curi- 
osity. The  cotton  manufacture  alone  employs  six  thousand  persons 
in  Lowell  ;  of  this  number  nearly  five  thousand  are  young  women 
from  17  to  24  years  of  age,  the  daughters  of  farmers  from  the  dif- 
ferent New  England  States,  and  particularly  from  Massachusetts, 
New  IlamjDshire,  and  Vermont ;  they  are  here  remote  from  their 
families,  and  under  their  own  control.  On  seeing  them  pass 
through  the  streets  in  the  morning  and  evening  and  at  their  meal- 
hours,  neatly  dressed  ;  on  finding  their  scarfs,  and  shawls,  and 
green  silk  hoods  which  they  wear  as  a  shelter  from  the  sun  and 
dust  (for  Lowell  is  not  yet  paved),  hanging  up  in  the  factories 
amidst  the  flowers  and  shrubs,  which  they  cultivate,  I  said  to  my- 
self, this,  then,  is  not  like  Manchester  ;  and  when  I  was  informed 
of  the  rate  of  their  wages,  I  understood  that  it  was  not  at  all  like 
Manchester.  l"he  following  are  the  average  weekly  wages  paid  by 
the  Merrimack  corporation  last  May. 

{3.00  Dolls. 
3.10     " 
2.78  « 

For  spinning 3.00      " 

T7                •  fj-io     " 

I"  or  weavmg -l 

For  warpintr  and  sizing J  o-   j 

In  the  cloth-room  (measuring  and  folding) .•    3.12      " 

These  numbers  are  averages  ;  the  wages  of  the  more  skilful  hands 
amounting  to  five,  and  sometimes  nearly  six  dollars.   .   .   . 

The  manufacturing  companies  exercise  the  most  careful  super- 
vision over  these  girls.  I  ha\'e  already  said,  that,  twelve  years  ago, 
Lowell  did  not  exist ;  when,  therefore,  the  manufactories  were  set 
up,  it  also  became  necessary  to  provide  lodgings  for  the  operatives, 
and  each  company  has  built  for  this  purpose  a  number  of  houses 
within  its  own  limits,  to  be  used  exclusively  as  boarding-houses  for 
them.  Here  they  are  under  the  care  of  the  mistress  of  the  house, 
who  is  paid  by  the  company  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  and  a  quarter 
a  week  for  each  boarder,  that  sum  being  stopped  out  of  the  weekly 
wages  of  the  girls.  These  housekeepers,  who  are  generally  widows, 


7o6         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

are  each  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  her  boarders,  and  they  are 
themselves  subject  to  the  control  and  supervision  of  the  company, 
in  the  management  of  their  little  communities.  Each  company 
has  its  rules  and  regulations,  which  are  not  merely  paper-laws,  but 
which  are  carried  into  execution  with  all  the  spirit  of  vigilant  per- 
severance that  characterises  the  Yankee.  I  will  give  you  a  short 
summary  of  one  of  these  codes,  for  they  seem  to  me  to  throw 
great  light  on  some  of  the  most  striking  peculiarities  of  this  coun- 
try, I  will  take  those  of  the  Lawrence  company,  which  is  the  most 
recently  formed  ;  they  are  a  revised  and  corrected  edition  of  the 
rules  and  regulations,  of  the  other  companies.  They  bear  date 
May  21,  1833.  Article  first  of  the  general  rules  is  as  follows: 
""  All  persons  employed  by  the  Company  must  devote  themselves 
assiduously  to  their  duty  during  working-hours.  They  must  be 
capable  of  doing  the  work  which  they  undertake,  or  use  all  their 
efforts  to  this  effect.  They  must  on  all  occasions,  both  in  their 
words  and  in  their  actions,  show  that  they  are  penetrated  by  a 
laudable  love  of  temperance  and  virtue,  and  animated  by  a  sense 
of  their  moral  and  social  obligations.  The  Agent  of  the  Company 
shall  endeavour  to  set  to  all  a  good  example  in  this  respect.  Every 
individual  who  shall  be  notoriously  dissolute,  idle,  dishonest,  or  in- 
temperate, who  shall  be  in  the  practice  of  absenting  himself  from 
divine  service,  or  shall  violate  the  Sabbath,  or  shall  be  addicted 
to  gaming,  shall  be  dismissed  from  the  service  of  the  Company." 
Article  2  :  "All  ardent  spirits  are  banished  from  the  Company's 
grounds,  except  when  prescribed  by  a  physician.  All  games  of 
hazard  and  cards  are  prohibited  within  their  limits  and  in  the 
boarding-houses."  The  articles  following  from  3  to  13,  determine 
the  duties  of  the  agent,  assistant  agent,  foremen,  watch  and  fire- 
men. Article  thirteenth  directs,  that  every  female  employed  by 
the  Company  shall  live  in  one  of  the  Company's  boarding-houses, 
attend  regularly  at  divine  service,  and  rigidly  observe  the  rules  of 
the  Sabbath.  Article  fourteenth  and  last,  contains  an  appeal  to  the 
operatives,  on  the  necessity  of  subordination,  and  on  the  compati- 
bility of  obedience  with  civil  and  religious  liberty.  There  is,  be- 
sides, a  special  rule  relative  to  boarding-houses  ;  it  recounts,  that 
the  Company  has  built  those  houses  and  lets  them  at  a  low  price, 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  IN  AMERICA  707 

wholly  for  the  good  of  the  hands,  and  tliat  tlie  Company,  there- 
fore, imposes  certaui  duties  on  the  persons  who  hire  them.  It 
makes  them  resi)onsible  for  the  neatness  and  comfortable  con- 
dition of  the  houses,  the  punctuality  and  good  (luality  of  tlic  meals, 
good  order  and  harmony  among  the  boarders  ;  it  requires  that  the 
keepers  of  the  houses  shall  receive  no  persons  as  boarders,  who 
are  not  employed  in  the  Company's  works,  and  it  obliges  them  to 
give  an  account  of  the  behaviour  of  the  girls.  It  also  prescribes 
that  the  doors  shall  be  shut  at  ten,  and  repeats  the  injunction 
of  attendance  at  divine  worship.   .   .   . 

Up  to  this  time,  then,  the  rules  of  the  companies  have  been 
observed.  Lowell,  with  its  steeple-crowned  factories,  resembles  a 
Spanish  town  with  its  convents  ;  but  with  this  difference,  that 
in  Lowell,  you  meet  no  rags  nor  Madonnas,  and  that  the  nuns  of 
Lowell,  instead  of  working  sacred  Jicarts,  spin  and  weave  cotton. 
Lowell  is  not  amusing,  but  it  is  neat,  decent,  peaceable,  and  sage. 
Will  it  always  be  so  .''  Will  it  be  so  long  .''  It  would  be  rash  to  affirm 
it;  hitherto  the  life  of  manufacturing  operatives  has  proved  little 
favourable  to  the  preservation  of  severe  morals.  So  it  has  been  in 
France,  as  well  as  in  England  ;  in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  as 
well  as  in  France.  But  as  there  is  a  close  connexion  between 
morality  and  competence,  it  may  be  considered  very  probable,  that 
while  the  wages  shall  continue  to  be  high  at  Lowell,  the  influences 
of  a  good  education,  a  sense  of  duty,  and  the  fear  of  public  opinion, 
will  be  sufficient  to  maintain  good  morals.  Will  wages,  then,  con- 
tinue to  be  what  they  are  .-'  There  are  some  causes  which  must  tend 
to  reduce  them  ;  the  rates  of  the  duties  which  protect  American 
industry  are  progressively  decreasing;  on  the  first  of  July,  1842, 
they  will  be  reduced  to  a  maximum  of  20  per  cent.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  processes  become  more  perfect,  the  labourers  grow 
more  skilful,  the  capitalists  are  realising  their  outlays,  and  conse- 
quently will  no  longer  expect  to  divide  10  or  12  per  cent.  A  certain 
diminution  of  wages  is  very  possible,  even  after  that  of  last  March, 
because  labour  is  paid  in  the  Lowell  factories,  better  than  it  is  in  the 
surrounding  country ;  but  there  must  be  limits  to  this  diminution. 
In  Europe,  work  is  often  wanting  for  the  hands  ;  here,  on  the 
other  side,  hands  are  wanting  for  the  work.    While  the  Americans 


7o8  ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

have  the  vast  domain  in  the  West,  a  common  fund,  from  which, 
by  industry,  each  may  draw  for  himself  and  by  himself,  an  ample 
heritage,  an  extreme  fall  of  wages  is  not  to  be  apprehended. 

In  America  as  in  Europe,  competition  among  the  head-workmen 
tends  to  reduce  their  wages  ;  but  the  tendency  is  not  increased  in 
America,  as  in  Europe,  by  the  competition  among  the  labourers, 
that  is,  bv  an  excess  of  hands  wanting  employ,  for  the  West  stands 
open  as  a  refuge  to  all  who  are  unemplo}ed.  In  Europe,  a  coalition 
of  workmen  can  only  signify  one  of  these  two  things  :  raise  our 
wages  or  we  shall  die  of  hunger  with  our  wives  and  children,  which 
is  an  absurdity  ;  or  raise  our  wages,  if  you  do  not,  we  shall  take  up 
arms,  which  is  a  civil  war  ;  in  Europe,  there  is  no  other  possible 
construction  to  be  put  upon  it.  But  in  America,  on  the  contrary, 
such  a  coalition  means,  raise  our  wages,  or  we  go  to  the  West. 
Every  coalition  which  does  not  amount  to  this  in  the  minds  of  the 
associates,  is  merely  the  whim  of  the  moment,  an  affair  of  little 
importance.  This  is  the  reason  why  coalitions  which  in  Europe  are 
often  able  to  shake  the  firmest  fabric,  present  no  real  danger  to  the 
public  peace  in  this  countiy,  where  authority  is  disarmed.  This  is 
the  reason  why  European  countries,  burdened  with  an  excess  of 
population,  need  for  their  safety  and  welfare  a  West,  into  which 
each  may  overflow  after  its  own  manner.  This  also  is  the  reason 
why  France  is  right  in  keeping  Algiers.   .   .  . 

The  United  States  are  certainly  the  land  of  promise  for  the 
labouring  class.  What  a  contrast  between  our  Europe  and  America  ! 
After  landing  in  New  York,  I  thought  every  day  was  Sunday,  for 
the  whole  population  that  throngs  Broadway  seems  to  be  arrayed 
in  their  Sunday's  best.  None  of  those  countenances  ghastly  with 
the  privations  or  the  foul  air  of  Paris  ;  nothing  like  our  wretched 
scavengers,  our  ragmen,  and  corresponding  classes  of  the  other  sex. 
Every  man  was  warmly  clad  in  an  outer  garment ;  every  woman 
had  her  cloak  and  bonnet  of  the  latest  Paris  fashion.  Rags,  filth, 
and  suffering  degrade  the  woman  even  more  than  the  man  ;  and 
one  of  the  most  striking  features  in  the  physiognomy  of  the  United 
States,  is,  undeniably,  the  change  which  has  been  introduced  in 
the  train  of  the  general  prosperity,  into  the  physical  condition  of 
women.    The  earnings  of  the  man  being  sufficient  for  the  support 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  IN  AMKRICA 


709 


of  the  family,  the  woman  has  no  other  duties  than  the  eare  of  the 
household,  a  circumstance  still  more  advantageous  for  her  children 
than  for  herself.  It  is  now  a  universal  rule  among  the  Anglo- 
Americans,  tliat  the  woman  is  exempt  from  all  heavy  work,  and 
she  is  never  seen,  for  instance,  taking  part  in  the  labours  of  the 
field,  nor  in  carrying  burdens.  Thus  freed  from  employments  un- 
suited  to  her  delicate  constitution,  the  sex  has  also  escaped  that 
hideous  ugliness  and  repulsive  coarseness  of  complexion  which  toil 
and  privation  everywhere  else  bring  upon  them.  Every  woman 
here  has  the  featin-es  as  well  as  the  dress  of  a  lady  ;  every  woman 
here  is  called  a  lady,  and  strives  to  appear  so.  You  would  search 
in  vain  among  the  Anglo-Americans,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  to  that  of  tlie  Mississippi,  for  one  of  those  wretched 
objects,  who  are  feminine  only  with  the  physiologist,  in  whom  our 
cities  abound,  or  for  one  of  those  haggisli  beldams  that  fill  our 
markets  and  three-fourths  of  our  fields.  You  will  find  specimens 
of  the  former  class  only  among  the  Indians  and  negroes,  and  of 
the  latter,  only  among  the  Canadian  French  and  Pennsylvania 
Germans  ;  for  their  women  labour  at  least  as  much  as  the  men. 
It  is  the  glory  of  the  English  race,  that  they  have  ever  and  every- 
where, as  much  as  possible,  interpreted  the  superiority  of  the  man 
to  the  woman,  as  reser\'ing  to  the  former  the  charge  of  the  ruder 
and  harder  forms  of  toil.  A  country  in  which  woman  is  treated 
according  to  this  principle  presents  the  aspect  of  a  new  and  better 
world. 

Figure  to  yourself  an  Irish  peasant,  who  at  home  could  scarcely 
earn  enough  to  live  on  potatoes,  who  would  look  upon  himself  as 
a  rich  man  if  he  owned  an  acre  of  ground,  but  who,  on  stepping 
ashore  at  New  York,  finds  himself  able  to  earn  a  dollar  a  day  by 
the  mere  strength  of  his  arm.  He  feeds  and  lodges  himself  for 
two  dollars  a  week,  and  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight  he  ma\'  have 
saved  enough  to  buy  ten  acres  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the  world. 
The  distance  from  New  York  to  the  West  is  great,  it  is  true  ;  but 
the  fare  on  the  great  canal  is  trifling,  and  he  can  easily  pay  his  way 
by  the  work  of  his  hands.  It  is  also  true,  that  the  poorest  Irishman 
would  not  think  of  buying  so  little  as  ten  acres  ;  the  least  that  one 
buys  in  the  West  is  eight}-.    What  of  that  ?  The  savings  of  a  few 


yio         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

months  will  enable  him  to  compass  them  ;  besides,  Uncle  Sam 
favours  emigrants,  and  if,  in  theory,  he  does  not  sell  his  land  on 
credit,  he  is,  in  fact,  very  indulgent  to  the  pioneer  who  comes  to 
subdue  the  savage  wilderness,  and  he  allows  him  to  occupy  the 
soil  temporarily  without  charge.  Thus  the  Irish,  who  would  go  to 
fisticuffs  with  any  body  for  denying  in  their  presence  that  the  isle 
of  Erin  was  a  terrestrial  paradise,  and  who,  under  the  inspiration 
of  whiskey,  sing  the  glories  of  \h2X  first  pem-l  of  the  sea,  quit  it  by 
fifty  thousands  for  the  United  States,  On  their  arrival,  they  cannot 
believe  their  own  eyes  ;  they  feel  of  themselves  to  find  out  whether 
they  are  not  under  some  spell.  They  do  not  dare  to  describe  to 
their  friends  in  Europe  the  streams  of  milk  and  honey  that  flow 
through  this  promised  land.   ,   .  . 

There  is  one  thing  in  the  United  States  that  strikes  a  stranger 
on  stepping  ashore,  and  is  of  a  character  to  silence  his  sentiments 
of  national  pride,  particularly  if  he  is  an  Englishman  ;  it  is  the  ap- 
pearance of  general  ease  in  the  condition  of  the  people  of  this 
country.  While  European  communities  are  more  or  less  cankered 
with  the  sore  of  pauperism,  for  which  their  ablest  statesmen  have  as 
yet  been  able  to  find  no  healing  balm,  there  are  here  no  paupers,  at 
least  not  in  the  Northern  and  Western  States,  which  have  protected 
themselves  from  the  leprosy  of  slavery.  If  a  few  individuals  are 
seen,  they  are  only  an  imperceptible  minority  of  dissolute  or  improv- 
ident persons,  commonly  people  of  colour,  or  some  newly  landed 
emigrants,  who  have  not  been  able  to  adopt  industrious  habits. 
Nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  live  and  to  live  well  by  labour.  Ob- 
jects of  the  first  necessity,  bread,  meat,  sugar,  tea,  coffee,  fuel,  are  in 
general  cheaper  here  than  in  France,  and  wages  are  double  or  triple. 
I  happened,  a  few  days  ago,  to  be  on  the  line  of  a  railroad  in  proc- 
ess of  construction,  where  they  were  throwing  up  some  embank- 
ments. This  sort  of  labour,  which  merely  requires  force,  without 
skill,  is  commonly  done  in  the  United  States  by  Irish  new-comers, 
who  have  no  resource  but  their  arm,  no  quality  but  muscular 
strength.  These  Irish  labourers  are  fed  and  lodged,  and  hear  their 
bill  of  fare  ;  three  meals  a  day,  and  at  each  meal  plenty  of  meat 
and  wheat  bread  ;  coffee  and  sugar  at  two  meals,  and  butter  once  a 
day  ;  in  the  course  of  the  day,  from  six  to  eight  glasses  of  whiskey 


LAliOk  CONDITIONS  IN  AMERICA  711 

are  given  them  according  to  the  state  of  the  weather.  Besides 
which  they  receive  in  money  40  cents  a  day  under  the  most  unfav- 
ourable circumstances,  often  from  60  to  75  cents.  In  France  the 
same  labour  is  worth  about  24  cents  a  day  the  labourers  finding 
themselves.  ... 

^  The  white  laborer  of  the  Northern  and  Eastern  vStates  is  ever 
stimulated  by  the  hope  of  amassing  sufficient  means  to  purchase 
land  from  the  government,  in  the  vast  territory'  of  the  west,  which 
he  is  always  sure  of  obtaining  at  a  very  low  price. 

The  influence  which  this  hope  of  one  day  becoming  a  proprietor 
exercises  on  the  working-classes  of  New  England  —  its  effect  on 
their  conduct,  their  labor,  and  their  personal  dignity  —  can  scarcely 
be  conceived  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Self-esteem  is  a  natural 
feeling  of  the  human  heart ;  and  if  it  is  less  strikingly  exhibited  in 
Europe  than  America,  it  is  because  its  manifestation  is  not  attended 
with  an  equal  degree  of  success.  In  Europe,  population  is  condensed 
within  a  narrow  space  ;  but  in  the  vast  territory  of  the  United  States 
there  will  be  an  abundance  of  land  for  centuries  to  come.  Only 
a  small  portion  of  this  territory  is  now  occupied  by  civilized  man. 

This  feeling  of  personal  dignity  and  independence  is  character- 
istic of  the  white  laborer  of  every  class  ;  of  the  mechanic  and  the 
artisan  ;  of  the  hired  laborer  on  the  farm  ;  and  of  the  most  numer- 
ous class  of  operatives  engaged  in  manufactures  ;  for,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  the  United  States  ranks  among  the  manufacturing 
nations  of  the  world  ;  and  for  industry,  economy,  and  the  quality 
of  its  fabrics,  it  will  soon  attain  a  level  with  the  most  renowned 
among  them.  But  by  virtue  of  the  very  conditions  we  have  indi- 
cated, th^e  does  not  exist,  properly  so  called,  a  specific  working 
class  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  class  in  which  the  habit  of  labor  is  trans- 
mitted from  father  to  son,  from  generation  to  generation,  with  the 
virtues  and  the  vices  peculiar  to  the  operative. 

In  New  England,  four-fifths  of  the  population  employed  in 
manufactories  are  young  girls,  who  leave  their  village  homes  with 
the  object  of  economizing  from  their  earnings  a  sum  sufficient  for 

1  Poussin,  The  United  States;  its  Power  and  Progress  [1S51],  pp.  472-474, 
474-475'  476,  480,  481- 


712         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

their  settlement  as  married  women  ;  for  in  the  United  States  mar- 
riage is  the  object  every  young  girl  seeks  to  attain.  After  this 
consummation,  she  is  rarely  seen  in  a  factory.  She  returns  to 
the  village  she  left,  resumes  her  domestic  duties,  and  becomes 
the  mother  of  a  respectable  family.     . 

The  majority  of  those  who  belong  to  the  working  class  settle  in 
life  quite  early.  A  great  number  of  young  men  marry  at  the  age 
of  from  twenty  to  twenty-five ;  young  women  at  the  age  of  from 
eighteen  to  twenty.  A  union  unsanctioned  by  marriage  is  for- 
bidden by  law,  and  therefore  very  rarely  seen. 

The  fact  is  that  concubinage  or  celibacy  can  never  become  a  nor- 
mal condition  among  the  working  classes  in  the  United  States  as 
it  is  in  Europe,  since  marriage  in  the  former  country  is  not  attended 
with  additional  charges,  but  is  rather  a  source  of  wealth  and  com- 
fort. The  married  working-man,  doubling  his  economy  and  income, 
soon  finds  himself  in  possession  of  sufficient  means  to  allow  him 
the  choice  of  continuing  to  improve  his  condition  in  his  native 
place  ;  or,  if  the  country  in  which  he  resides  does  not  present  in- 
ducements corresponding  to  his  ambition,  of  expatriating  himself 
towards  those  regions  where  his  industry  finds  inexhaustible  re- 
sources, and  where  his  energy  is  rewarded  by  ever-increasing 
prosperity. 

The  remaining  fifth  is  composed,  in  great  part,  of  young  men 
who  are  ambitious  to  learn  the  manufacturing  business,  and  by  this 
means  to  become  overseers,  clerks,  or  agents.  This  class  remain 
somewhat  permanently  in  one  position.  The  other  class  are  enter- 
ing and  leaving  the  manufactory  incessantly  —  in  one  respect  a 
great  disadvantage  to  the  proprietor.  But  what  he  loses  in  skill 
through  the  operatives  who  leave,  he  gains  in  the  application  and 
integrity  of  those  who  supply  their  place.  This  state  of  things  is 
highly  favorable  to  public  morals,  for  it  precludes  the  existence  of 
a  class,  without  character  and  morals,  wholly  dependent  on  the 
factory  for  its  support. 

Another  element  peculiar  to  the  manufacturing  system  of  New 
England  is  this  :  The  operatives  are  lodged  and  boarded  in  houses 
belonging  to  the  proprietor  of  the  factory,  which  are  rented  to  cer- 
tain individuals  for  that  specific  purpose.   The  internal  management 


i,.\r.()R  coN'DrriONs  in  amkrk  a  713 

as  well  as  clcanliiu'ss  ot  these  houses,  as  well  as  the  diet  of 
their  inmates,  are,  in  some  measure,  under  the  surxeillance  of 
the  projM'ietor  himself. 

Another  advantage  of  the  system  pursued  in  these  factories  is 
that  ver}'  few  children  are  admitted  into  them,  and  none  whcj  are 
under  twelve  years  of  age.  By  a  law  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
the  proprietor  is  forbidden  to  keep  children  under  fifteen  years 
of  age  employed  in  the  factory  for  more  than  nine  months  in 
the  year.  The  same  law  compels  him  to  send  them  to  school 
for  three  months  during  the  year. 

In  the  factories  at  Lowell,  where  nine  thousand  operatives  are 
employed,  there  are  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  children  under 
fifteen,  years  of  age.  .  .  . 

The  mechanic  is  paid  at  the  rate  of  from  one  dollar  and  forty  to 
two  dollars  and  eighty  cents  a-day.  Average  wages  one  dollar  and 
fifty  cents.    He  pays  his  own  board. 

The  wages  of  the  common  laborer  employed  on  farms,  or  at 
other  work,  are  from  eight  to  fourteen  dollars  per  month,  boarding 
and  lodging  included. 

These  wages  fluctuate  according  to  the  season,  or  to  the  demand 
for  labor.  But,  in  general,  we  may  state  the  mean  wages  per 
month  of  the  laborer  throughout  the  year  to  be  eleven  dollars  and 
fifty  cents.  Mean  wages  per  day  sixty  cents  ;  but,  during  harvest, 
or  at  seed  time,  ninety  cents  per  day.  Mean  price  of  board  per 
week  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents. 

These  statements  must  not  be  applied  to  that  condition  of  thing:: 
which  exists  on  the  seaboard,  where  the  laboring  class,  principally 
composed  of  emigrants  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  is  characterized 
by  manners  and  habits  imported  from  Europe.  In  these  cities,  the 
aspect  of  general  society,  as  well  as  that  of  the  working-classes, 
gives  no  idea  of  the  fundamental  character  of  American  society, 
as  it  is  exhibited  in  the  interior  of  the  country. 

What  I  have  just  said  of  the  working-classes  in  the  States  in 
which  slavery  no  longer  exists  must  be  considered  a  picture  of  the 
manners  and  habits  of  those  who  live  in  towns,  villages,  and  coun- 
try-places, far  from  daily  contact  with  emigrants  from  Europe,  and 
such  as  I  have  seen  it  in  the  countries  watered  by  the  Penobscot, 


7H 


ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 


the  Merrimack,  the  Connecticut,  the  Hudson,  the  Susquehannah, 
the  Muskingum,  the  Scioto,  and  the  Ohio.  Everywhere  on  the 
shores  of  these  streams  the  presence  of  the  laboring  man  was 
indicated  by  abundant  harvests,  and  elegant  mansions,  exhibiting 
the  taste,  the  care,  and  the  prosperity  of  their  industrious  inmates. 
Everywhere  comfort  appeared  side  by  side  with  industry ;  every- 
where did  man  appear  wealthy  through  his  labor ;  everywhere,  in 
fine,  was  the  working-man  the  proprietor  of  a  well-cultivated  field, 
and  a  comfortable  habitation,  at  which  it  was  often  my  fortune  to 
ask  and  receive  hospitality.   .   .   . 

...  A  collision  between  the  working  class  and  the  rest  of  so- 
ciety is  therefore  excessively  rare.  However,  I  have  once  or  twice 
witnessed  the  refusal  of  certain  members  of  this  class  to  work  for 
their  employers  unless  their  grievances  were  redressed.  On  the 
first  of  the  occasions  to  which  I  allude,  the  tailors  of  Philadelphia 
insisted  that  women  should  not  be  allowed  to  make  pantaloons,  in- 
asmuch as  they  considered  this  a  specific  branch  of  their  business, 
and  as  other  departments  of  labor  were  open  to  females.  On  the 
other,  certain  unpaid  laborers  employed  in  the  construction  of 
a  railway  acted  so  riotously  as  even  to  attempt  the  destruction 
of  the  road. 

In  the  first  instance,  an  amicable  arrangement  was  effected  be- 
tween the  employers  and  the  journeymen.  In  the  second,  justice 
was  rendered  to  the  laborers  as  far  as  their  claims  were  concerned 
against  the  contractor  of  the  road,  who  was  a  defaulter,  and  had 
fled  ;  but  justice  was  also  rendered  to  them  in  another  sense,  for 
they  were  compelled  to  pay  all  the  damages  they  had  occasioned 
to  the  property  of  the  company. 

In  general,  when  any  disagreement  or  collision  occurs  between 
the  laborer  and  the  employer,  it  is  compromised  and  amicably 
settled,  without  recourse  to  law,  unless  in  cases  of  violation  of  the 
public  peace.   .  .  . 

The  poorer  or  working  classes  cannot  find,  perhaps,  in  any  quar- 
ter of  the  globe,  resources  equal  to  those  assured  to  them  by  the 
vast  and  fertile  territory  of  the  LInion,  and  its  admirable  institu- 
tions. In  fact,  no  individual  in  the  United  States  can  be  so  poor 
as  to  be  unable  to  hope  that  at  some  future  day  he  may  become  a 


LABOR  CONDITIONS   IN  AMERICA  715 

proprietor  in  the  vast  solitudes  of  the  west.  The  price  of  govern- 
ment lands  is  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre.  Hence, 
for  one  or  two  hundred  dollars  he  can  purchase  an  excellent  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

A  laboring  man  may  easily  acquire  in  one  year  the  means  of 
obtaining  this  property.  He  takes  a  wife,  who  contributes,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  bring  about  this  result.  I""ull  of  confidence  and 
hope,  he  directs  his  steps  towards  the  west,  where  his  labor,  alwa\s 
in  demand,  is  amply  remunerated.  In  the  first  year  of  his  arrixal 
at  his  new  domains,  he  can  easily  buy  a  cow  and  hogs,  and  pro\ide 
support  for  his  family.  In  a  few  years,  everything  multiplies  around 
him.  Fowls,  hogs,  horses,  and  cattle,  in  great  number,  give  an  ap- 
pearance of  life  to  his  fields,  abundant  in  grain  and  other  products 
of  his  industr}\   .   .   . 

Such  is,  in  general,  the  moral  and  physical  condition  of  the 
working  class  in  the  United  States.  The  exceptions  to  this  rule 
are  found  only  in  the  great  cities  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  There 
the  principles,  the  habits,  and  the  manners  characteristic  of  the 
genuine  American  democrat  have  yet  only  inadequately  impressed 
the  emigrants  that  are  constantly  arriving  in  the  United  Stiites. 

Moreover,  it  is  unfortunately  too  true  that  emigrants,  in  seeking 
employment  on  American  soil,  are  often  so  destitute  of  resources 
that  they  find  it  impossible  to  reach  the  interior  of  the  United 
States,  where  their  labor  could  be  so  usefully  employed ;  while  in 
the  great  cities  in  which  they  are  obliged  to  remain  they  can  aban- 
don themselves  for  a  time,  even  with  more  facility  than  in  Europe, 
to  debauchery  and  idleness.  Soon,  however,  comes  the  sad  alterna- 
tive of  perishing  from  want  in  this  land  of  abundance,  or  of  re- 
turning to  Europe.  .  .  . 

^  Milwaukee  is  a  pleasant  town,  a  very  pleasant  town,  containing 
45,000  inhabitants.  ...  It  must  be  always  borne  in  mind  that 
10,000  or  40,000  inhabitants  in  an  American  town,  and  especially 
in  any  new  Western  town,  is  a  number  which  means  much  more 
than  would  be  implied  by  any  similar  number  as  to  an  old  town 
in  Europe.    Such  a  population  in  America  consumes  double  the 

1  Trollope,  North  America  [1S61],  I,  133-134,  136-13S,  13S-139. 


7l6         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

amount  of  beef  which  it  would  in  England,  wears  double  the 
amount  of  clothes,  and  demands  double  as  much  of  the  comforts 
of  life.  If  a  census  could  be  taken  of  the  watches,  it  would  be 
found,  I  take  it,  that  the  American  population  possessed  among 
them  nearly  double  as  many  as  would  the  English  ;  and  I  fear  also 
that  it  would  be  found  that  many  more  of  the  Americans  were 
readers  and  writers  by  habit.  In  any  large  town  in  England  it  is 
probable  that  a  higher  excellence  of  education  would  be  found  than 
in  Milwaukee,  and  also  a  style  of  life  into  which  more  of  refine- 
ment and  more  of  luxury  had  found  its  way.  But  the  general  level 
of  these  things,  of  material  and  intellectual  well-being  —  of  beef, 
that  is,  and  book  learning  —  is  no  doubt  infinitely  higher  in  a  new 
American  than  in  an  old  European  town.  Such  an  animal  as  a 
beggar  is  as  much  unknown  as  a  mastodon.  Men  out  of  work  and 
in  want  are  almost  unknown.  I  do  not  say  that  there  are  none  of 
the  hardships  of  life  —  and  to  them  I  will  come  by-and-by  —  but 
want  is  not  known  as  a  hardship  in  these  towns,  nor  is  that  dense 
ignorance  in  which  so  large  a  proportion  of  our  town  populations 
is  still  steeped.   .  .  . 

I  have  said  that  there  was  but  little  poverty  —  little  to  be  seen 
of  real  want  in  these  thriving  towns  —  but  that  they  who  labored 
in  them  had  nevertheless  their  own  hardships.  This  is  so.  I  would 
not  have  any  man  believe  that  he  can  take  himself  to  the  Western 
States  of  America  —  to  those  States  of  which  I  am  now  speaking 
—  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  or  Illinois,  and  there  by 
industry  escape  the  ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir.  The  laboring  Irish 
in  these  towns  eat  meat  seven  days  a  week,  but  I  have  met  many 
a  laboring  Irishman  among  them  who  has  wished  himself  back  in 
his  old  cabin.  Industry  is  a  good  thing,  and  there  is  no  bread  so 
sweet  as  that  which  is  eaten  in  the  sweat  of  a  man's  brow  ;  but 
labor  carried  to  excess  wearies  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body,  and 
the  sweat  that  is  ever  nmning  makes  the  bread  bitter.  There  is,  I 
think,  no  task-master  over  free  labor  so  exacting  as  an  American. 
He  knows  nothing  of  hours,  and  seems  to  have  that  idea  of  a  man 
which  a  lady  always  has  of  a  horse.  He  thinks  that  he  will  go  for- 
ever. I  wish  those  masons  in  London  who  strike  for  nine  hours' 
work  with  ten  hours'  pay  could  be  driven  to  the  labor  market  of 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  IN  AMERICA 


717 


Western  America  for  a  spell.  And  moreover,  which  astonished 
me,  I  have  seen  men  driven  and  hurried,  as  it  were  forced  forward 
at  their  work,  in  a  manner  which,  to  an  Ivnglish  workman,  would 
be  intolerable.  This  surprised  nie  much,  as  it  was  at  variance 
with  our  —  or  perhaps  I  should  say  with  my  —  preconceived  ideas 
as  to  American  freedom.  I  had  fancied  that  an  American  citizen 
would  not  submit  to  be  driven  ;  that  the  spirit  of  the  country,  if 
not  the  spirit  of  the  individual,  would  have  made  it  impossible.  I 
thought  that  the  shoe  would  have  pinched  quite  on  the  other  foot. 
But  1  found  that  such  drivinij;  did  exist,  and  American  masters  in 
the  West  with  whom  I  had  an  opportunity  of  discussing  the  sub- 
ject all  admitted  it.  "  Those  men  '11  never  half  move  unless  they  're 
driven,"  a  foreman  said  to  me  once  as  we  stood  together  over  some 
twenty  men  who  were  at  their  work.  "  They  kinder  look  for  it,  and 
don't  well  know  how  to  get  along  when  they  miss  it."  It  was  not 
his  business  at  this  moment  to  drive  —  nor  w'as  he  driving.  He 
was  standing  at  some  little  distance  from  the  scene  with  me,  and 
speculating  on  the  sight  before  him.  I  thought  the  men  were 
working  at  their  best ;  but  their  movements  did  not  satisfy  his 
practiced  eye,  and  he  saw  at  a  glance  that  there  was  no  one 
immediately  over  them. 

But  there  is  worse  even  than  this.  Wages  in  these  regions  are 
what  we  should  call  high.  An  agricultural  laborer  will  earn  per- 
haps fifteen  dollars  a  month  and  his  board,  and  a  town  laborer  w'ill 
earn  a  dollar  a  day.  A  dollar  may  be  taken  as  representing  four 
shillings,  though  it  is  in  fact  more.  Food  in  these  parts  is  much 
cheaper  than  in  England,  and  therefore  the  wages  must  be  consid- 
ered as  very  good.  In  making,  however,  a  just  calculation  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  clothing  is  dearer  than  in  England,  and 
that  much  more  of  it  is  necessary.  The  wages  nevertheless  are 
high,  and  will  enable  the  laborer  to  save  money,  if  only  he  can  get 
them  paid.  The  complaint  that  wages  are  held  back,  and  not  even 
ultimately  paid,  is  very  common.  There  is  no  fixed  rule  for  satis- 
fying all  such  claims  once  a  week,  and  thus  debts  to  laborers  are 
contracted,  and  when  contracted  are  ignored.  With  us  there  is  a 
feeling  that  it  is  pitiful,  mean  almost  beyond  expression,  to  wrong 
a  laborer  of  his  hire.    We  have  men  who  go  in  debt  to  tradesmen 


7i8         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

perhaps  without  a  thought  of  paying  them  ;  but  when  we  speak  of 
such  a  one  who  has  descended  into  the  lowest  mire  of  insolvency, 
we  say  that  he  has  not  paid  his  washerwoman.  Out  there  in  the 
West  the  washerwoman  is  as  fair  game  as  the  tailor,  the  domestic 
servant  as  the  wine  merchant.   .  .  . 

As  to  the  driving,  why  should  men  submit  to  it,  seeing  that 
labor  is  abundant,  and  that  in  all  newly-settled  countries  the  laborer 
is  the  true  hero  of  the  age  ?  In  answer  to  this  is  to  be  alleged  the 
fact  that  hired  labor  is  chiefly  done  by  fresh  comers,  by  Irish  and 
Germans,  who  have  not  as  yet  among  them  any  combination  suffi- 
cient to  protect  them  from  such  usage.  The  men  over  them  are 
new  as  masters,  masters  who  are  rough  themselves,  who  themselves 
have  been  roughly  driven,  and  who  have  not  learned  to  be  gracious 
to  those  below  them.  It  is  a  part  of  their  contract  that  very  hard 
work  shall  be  exacted,  and  the  driving  resolves  itself  into  this  :  that 
the  master,  looking  after  his  own  interest,  is  constantly  accusing  his 
laborer  of  a  breach  of  his  part  of  the  contract.  The  men  no  doubt  do 
become  used  to  it,  and  slacken  probably  in  their  endeavors  when  the 
tongue  of  the  master  or  foreman  is  not  heard.  But  as  to  that  mat- 
ter of  non-payment  of  wages,  the  men  must  live  ;  and  here,  as  else- 
where, the  master  who  omits  to  pay  once  will  hardly  find  laborers 
in  future.  The  matter  would  remedy  itself  elsewhere,  and  does  it 
not  do  so  here .-'  This  of  course  is  so,  and  it  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood that  labor  as  a  rule  is  defrauded  of  its  hire.  But  the  relation 
of  the  master  and  the  man  admit  of  such  fraud  here  much  more 
frequently  than  in  England.  In  England  the  laborer  who  did  not 
get  his  wages  on  the  Saturday,  could  not  go  on  for  the  next  week. 
To  him,  under  such  circumstances,  the  world  would  be  coming  to 
an  end.  But  in  the  Western  States  the  laborer  does  not  live  so 
completely  from  hand  to  mouth.  He  is  rarely  paid  by  the  week, 
is  accustomed  to  give  some  credit,  and,  till  hard  pressed  by  bad 
circumstances,  generally  has  something  by  him.  They  do  save 
money,  and  are  thus  fattened  up  to  a  state  which  admits  of 
victimization.  .  .  . 


THE  COMING  OF  Till':   IMMIGRANTS  719 

III.    THE    COMING   OF  THE    IMMIGRANTS 

^  One  of  the  commissioners  sent  by  the  Continentiil  Congress  to 
Europe,  Silas  Deane,  expressed  the  expecUition  that  if  the  colonies 
established  their  independence,  the  immigration  from  the  Old 
World  would  be  prodigiously  increased  ;  and  as  a  consequence, 
the  cultivated  lands  would  rise  in  value,  and  new  lands  would  be 
brought  into  market.  This  anticipation  has  been  strikingly  and 
abundantly  realized.  And  in  connexion  with  the  census  of  nativi- 
ties, the  records  of  immigration  have  a  special  importimce  as  indi- 
cating the  progressive  augmentation  of  the  immigrants  who  have 
sought  to  improve  their  fortunes  in  the  New  World. 

From  a  survey  of  the  irregular  data  previous  to  18 19,  by 
Dr.  Seybert,  Prof.  Tucker,  and  other  statists,  it  appears  that  from 
1790  to  1800,  about  50,000  Europeans,  or  "aliens,"  arrived  in 
this  country ;  in  the  next  ten  years  the  foreign  arrivals  were  about 
70,000,  and  in  the  ten  years  following,  1 14,000,  ending  with  1820. 
To  determine  the  actual  settlers,  a  deduction  of  14.5  per  cent,  from 
these  numbers  should  probably  be  made  for  transient  passengers, 
as  hereafter  described. 

Louisiana  was  purchased  from  I'Yance  in  1803.  The  portion  of 
this  territory  south  of  the  thirty-third  parallel,  according  to  the 
historian  Hildreth,  comprised  a  population  of  about  50,000,  more 
than  half  of  whom  were  slaves.  With  these  should  be  counted 
about  10,000  in  the  settlement  north  of  that  parallel,  augmented 
by  a  recent  immigration,  with  a  predominance  of  whites.  The 
foreign  population  acquired  with  the  whole  Louisiana  territor)'  ma)' 
thus  be  reckoned  at  60,000  ;  about  one  half  or  30,000  being  whites 
of  French,  Spanish,  and  British <  extraction  ;  and  the  other  30,000 
being  slaves  and  free  colored.  This  number  of  whites  should  evi- 
dently be  added  to  the  current/ immigration  by  sea  already  men- 
tioned, in  order  to  obtain  the  foreign  accession  to  the  white  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  during  that  period. 

Instead  of  scattered  notices  from  shipping  lists,  the  arrival  of 
passengers  has  been  officially  recorded  at  the  custom-houses,  since 
1 8 19,  by  act  of  Congress.    There  are  some  deficiencies  perhaps 

1  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Eighth  Census  [1S60J,  pp.  12-14,  '6,  17-19. 


720 


ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 


in  the  returns  of  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years,  but  the  subse- 
quent reports  are  considered  reliable.  While  the  classified  lists 
exhibit  the  whole  number  of  foreign  passengers,  the  great  major- 
ity of  whom  are  emigrants,  they  also  furnish  valuable  informa- 
tion not  otherwise  obtainable  respecting  the  statistical  history  of 
immigration. 

The  following  numbers,  registered  under  the  act  of  1819,  are 
copied  from  the  authentic  summary  of  Bromwell,  to  which  the 
numbers  for  the  last  five  years  have  been  added  from  the  annual 
reports  of  the  State  Department,  thus  bringing  the  continuation 
down  to  the  year  of  the  present  census. 


Statement  of  the  Number  of  Alien  Passengers  arriving  in 

THE  United  States  by  Sea  from  Foreign  Countries 

from  September  30,  18 19,  to  December  31,  i860 


Year  ending  September  30, 


Quarter  ending  December  31 
Year  ending  December  31, 


First  three  quarters  of 
Year  ending  September  30, 


820 
821 
822 
823 
824 
825 
826 
827 
828 
829 
830 

83' 
832 
832 
833 
834 
83s 
836 

837 
838 

839 
840 


843 
844 
845 
846 


8,385 
9,127 
6,911 

6.354 
7,912 
10,199 
10,837 
18,875 
27-382 
22,520 
23,322 
22,633 

53,179 

7,303 

58,640 

65,365 

45,374 
76,242 

79,340 
38,914 
68,069 
84,066 
80,289 

104,565 
52,496 
78,615 

[14,371 
[54,416 


THE  COMINC;  ()!■   Till',   IMMKik.WTS  72  I 

1847 234,96s 

1S4S 226,527 

1849 297,024 

Year  ending  September  30,      1850 310,004 

Quarter  ending  December  31,  1S50 59'<J76 

Year  ending  December  31,       1.S51 379,466 

185- 37 '.603 

1853 368,645 

1854 427.833 

185s 200,877 

1856 200,436 

1857 251,306 

1858 123.126 

1859 121,282 

i860 1 53.640 

Total 5,062,414 

The  following  aggregates  also  exhibit  the  number  of  arrivals  of 
passengers  from  foreign  countries  during  periods  of  nearly  ten  years 
each,  and  thus  indicate  the  accelerated  progress  of  immigration. 

p    .    ,  Passengers  of  American 

'  ^""°^  Foreign  Birth        and  Foreign 

In  the  10  years  ending  September  30,  1829  128,502  151,636 

In  the  loX  years  ending  December  31,  1839  538,381  572,716 

In  the  g^  years  ending  September  30,  1849  ',427, 337  1,479,478 

In  the  11^  years  ending  December  31,  i860  2,968,194  3.255,591 

In  the  4ij4^  years  ending  December  31,  i860  5,062,414  5,459,421 

Adjusting  the  returns  to  the  periods  of  the  decennial  census,  by 
the  aid  of  the  quarterly  reports,  we  find  very  nearly  the  following 
numbers  : 

Three  Census  Periods  Forei^%'irt°h 

In  the  10  years  previous  to  June  i,  1840 552,000 

Do.  Do.  1850 1,558,300 

Do.  Do.  i860 2,707,624 

To  arrive  at  the  true  immigration,  these  numbers  should  be 
largely  increased  for  those  who  have  come  by  way  of  Canada.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  should  be  dim.inlshed  for  return  emigrants, 
and  for  the  merchants,  factors,  and  visitors  who  go  and  come 
repeatedly,  and  are  thus  enumerated  twice  or  more  in  the  returns. 

For  an  example  of  the  former  class,  according  to  J^ritish  registry, 
17,798  emigrants  returned  from  the  United  States  to  (ireat  Britain 


72  2         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

in  the  year  i860.  How  numerous  has  been  the  latter  class  who 
have  been  counted  twice  or  more,  is  not  definitely  known  ;  to  make 
note  of  these  would  constitute  a  desirable  improvement  in  the 
future  official  reports.  .  .   . 

From  the  first  of  the  two  following  tables  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  most  numerous  class  among  the  passengers  is  that  of  laborers  ; 
the  next  in  order  are  fanners,  mechanics,  and  merchants.  The 
"  seamstresses  and  milliners,"  and  nearly  all  of  the  "  servants," 
are  females  ;  the  other  female  passengers,  with  few  exceptions, 
have  been  entered  under  the  category  of  "'  not  stated,"  and  com- 
prise about  five-sevenths  of  that  division.   .   .   . 

The  total  number  arriving  from  the  LTnited  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  on  our  shores  is  thus  stated  to  be  2,750,874. 
But  a  recent  statement  from  British  official  sources  gives  the 
number  emigrating  to  the  United  States  in  the  forty-six  years, 
181  5-1860,  as  3,048,206.  The  difference  of  the  two  returns  will 
be  explained  partly  by  those  who  emigrated  in  the  interval,  18 15- 
18 19,  before  our  registry  commenced,  being  about  55,000;  and 
chiefly  by  the  more  numerous  class  who  entered  the  United  States 
by  way  of  Canada,  and  so  were  not  included  in  our  custom-house 
returns. 

In  the  same  period  of  forty-six  years  it  is  also  stated  that 
1,196,521  persons  emigrated  from  the  United  Kingdom  to  the 
British  colonies  in  North  America.  A  large  portion  of  these  are 
known  to  have  eventually  settled  in  the  United  States,  Thus  it 
appears  safe  to  assume  that  since  the  close  of  the  last  war  with 
that  country,  in  18 14,  about  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of  the 
natives  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  "  a  population  for  a  kingdom," 
have  emigrated  to  this  country. 

Next  in  magnitude  is  the  migration  from  Germany,  amounting 
to  1,486,044  by  our  custom-house  returns;  the  next  is  that  from 
France,  208,063  ;  and  from  the  other  countries,  as  shown  in  the 
table.  A  large  share  of  the  German  emigrants  have  embarked 
from  the  port  of  Havre  ;  others  from  Bremen,  Hamburg,  Antwerp  ; 
many  have  also  crossed  over  and  taken  passage  from  British  ports. 

As  our  own  people,  following  "  the  star  of  empire,"  have  migrated 
to  the  west  in  vast  numbers,  their  places  have  been  supplied  by 


THE  COMING  OF  THK   I.MMIORWTS  723 

Europeans,  which  has  modified  the  character  of  the  population,  yet 
the  great  mass  of  the  immigrants  arc  found  to  cherish  true  ])atriot- 
ism  for  the  land  of  their  adoption. 

Occupation  ok  Passen(;ers  arrivino  in  the  United  States 

FROM    FOREION    COUNTRIES    DURING    THE    FORTY-ONE    YeARS 

ending  with    i860 

Occupation  1820  to  i860 

Merchants 231,852 

Farmers 764,837 

Mechanics 407,524 

Mariners 29,484 

Miners 39)9^7 

Laborers 872,317 

Shoemakers 3»474 

Tailors 3,634 

Seamstresses  and  milliners 5)246 

Actors 588 

Weavers  and  spinners ii>557 

Clergymen 4?326 

Clerks 3)882 

Lawyers 2,676 

Physicians 7)i09 

Engineers 2,016 

Artists 2,490 

Teachers i)528 

Musicians 729 

Printers 705 

Painters 647 

Masons 2,310 

Hatters 256 

Manufacturers 3) '20 

Millers 631 

Butchers 945 

Bakers i)272 

Servants 49)494 

Other  occupations 26,206 

Not  stated 2,978.599 

Total 5'459'42i 

Country  where  born 

Countries  1820  to  i860 

England 302,665 

Ireland 967,366 

Scotland 47,890 

Wales 7,935 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland 1.425.018 

Total  United  Kingdom 2,750,874 


724         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

Country  wheric  t.orn  [Continual) 

France 208,063 

Spain 16,248 

Portugal 2,614 

Belgium 9,862 

Prussia 60,432 

Germany 1,486,044 

Holland -''579 

Denmark 5-54° 

Norway  and  Sweden 36,129 

Poland 1 7659 

Russia I '374 

Switzerland       .     .     .     .  ' 37-733 

Italy • 1 1,202 

Sardinia -'O30 

liritish  America 117,142 

South  America 6,201 

Mexico 17,766 

West  Indies ^     .  40,487 

China 4 ''443 

Azores 3i-4- 

Not  stated 180,854 

All  others 3.896 

Total  Aliens .  5,062,414 

United  States 397,007 

'fotal 5'45942i 

^  Complaints  have  been  made  against  the  morals  and  character 
of  many  of  the  immigrants  ;  and  a  fear  has  arisen  that  they  will 
convert  North  America  into  a  sort  of  Botany  Bay.  It  is  true  that 
many  criminals,  idlers,  malcontents,  and  the  like,  seek  here  a  place 
of  refuge  ;  but  their  number  is  proportionably  very  small,  and  bitter 
experience  or  punishment  forces  them  to  begin  a  new  life  in  the 
new  world. 

The  United  States  proffer  to  immigrants  the  noblest  moral  and 
political  education  ;  and  he  who  rejects  it,  who  proudly  considers 
himself  above  it,  who  trusts  more  to  luck  than  to  prudence  and 
sagacity,  who  thinks  to  become  rich  without  exertion,  or  perhaps 
to  renovate  and  revolutionize  mature  America  with  superficial 
theories  —  will  soon  and  rightly  find  himself  deceived  in  his 
ffjolish  anticipations-. 

1  Von  Raumer,  America  and  the  American  People  [1S45],  PP-  I4'^~i47>  M^i  i49- 


THE  COMING  OK    11  IK  IMMIGRANTS  725 

On  the  whole  the  German  settlers  are  highly  commended  as 
industrious,  moral,  persevering,  and  averse  to  novelty  and  change. 
Hence  they  are  useful  as  a  restraining,  tranquillizing  counterpoise 
to  the  unquietness  of  other  inhabitants.  But  unhappily  there  are 
exceptions  to  this  rule  also.  One  German  traveller  relates  how  he 
was  deserted  and  cheated  by  some  of  his  countr)-men  to  whom  he  had 
shown  kindness  ;  and  another  mentions  that  a  (k'lnian  clergAinan 
in  America  said  to  him  :  "  The  (jcrman  teachers  here,  like  man)- 
of  their  countr\-men,  have  acted  like  complete  rogues.  One  ran 
away  with  a  foster-daughter  of  mine  ;  and  another,  a  music  teacher 
whom  1  had  recommended,  made  off,  after  cheating  a  number  of 
people  and  leaving  many  debts  behind  him  ;  so  that  one  is  almost 
ashamed  to  speak  German  or  to  bear  a  German  name." 

While  for  my  own  part  I  heard  no  complaints  against  the 
Germans  and  nothing  but  praises  of  them,  the  reproaches  cast 
upon  the  Irish  were  loud  and  frequent.  The  blending  of  this 
foreign  stock  with  the  (iermanic,  in  America  as  in  England,-  is 
certainly  very  difficult ;  still  even  those  who  dislike  them  cannot 
deny  that  on  the  whole  they  are  industrious  and  contented,  and  in 
the  second  generation  are  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  those 
of  a  different  origin.  Where,  too,  one  considers  what  an  immense 
leap  it  is  from  Irisli  bondage  to  American  citizenship,  one  ought 
to  hold  them  excusable,  if  in  excess  of  joy  at  their  newly  acquired 
freedom  they  fall  into  a  few  errors  and  extravagances.  It  is  com- 
plained that  they  suffer  themselves  to  be  led  and  dictated  to  by 
their  priests  ;  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  this  influence  is 
more  hurtful  than  that  of  many  other  demagogues.   .   .   . 

In  recent  times  a  party  has  been  formed,  chiefly  in  some  oi  the 
sea-port  towns,  which  takes  to  itself  the  name  of  Native  Americans. 
Their  object  is  to  throw  difficulties  in  the  way  of  immigration,  and 
they  wish  to  prevent  naturalization  until  after  a  residence  of  twenty- 
five  years  ;  because,  as  they  say,  no  immigrant  can  acciuire  the 
necessary  knowledge  in  a  shorter  time,  and  a  too  earl)-  qualification 
of  foreigners  abridges  and  undermines  the  rights  of  native  citizens. 

Even  granting  the  truth  of  the  loudl)'  proclaimed  and  probably 
too  well  founded  censure,  that  these  views  and  doctrines  proceed 
mostly  from  business  jealousy,  and  religious  intolerance  (towards 


726         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

the  Irish  cathohcs),  they  still  require  a  satisfactory  investigation,  and 
the  movement  might  more  properly  be  termed  a  European  than 
a  truly  American  one.  When  even  in  the  dangerous  times  of  the 
French  revolution,  the  Alien  Law  was  rejected  as  imprudent,  un- 
just, and  un-American,  how  can  it  now  be  sought,  in  quieter  times 
and  on  weaker  grounds,  not  merely  to  revive  it,  but  to  render  it 
more  severe  ?  In  comparison  with  the  immense  number  of  native 
votes,  those  of  the  foreigners  annually  admitted  to  the  rank  of  cit- 
izens are  wholly  insignificant  and  indecisive  ;  besides  which  most 
of  them  are  divided  amongst  the  different  political  parties.  ... 

If  all  the  immigrants  entertained  quite  other  views  on  important 
topics  (e.g.  nobility,  ecclesiastical  matters,  freedom  of  the  press,  and 
the  like),  if  they  rudely  opposed  themselves  as  a  body  to  the  Amer- 
icans, there  would  then  be  some  reason  for  complaints  and  counter 
measures  ;  but  since  they  every  where  join  the  Americans,  and  vote 
in  the  same  manner  as  millions  of  native  citizens,  how  can  these 
latter  lay  claim  to  a  sort  of  hereditary  wisdom,  and  denounce  for- 
eigners of  the  same  opinions  with  themselves  as  fools  and  knaves  .'' 
An  enthusiastic  desire  is  felt  for  the  acquisition  of  the  Oregon  ter- 
ritory, and  complaints  are  made  that  such  vast  tracts  of  land  should 
still  lie  uncultivated  ;  and  yet  this  Native  American  party  is  recom- 
mending measures  that  secure  to  the  bears  and  wolves  a  longer 
possession  of  them.  Now  what  inducements  would  there  be  to  im- 
migration, what  advantages  would  it  present,  if  political  rights  were 
refused,  the  feelings  of  honor  wounded,  and  every  new-comer  told 
that  he  must  content  himself  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  with  the 
worship  of  mammon  }  .  .   . 

1  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Irish  have  to  encounter  consider- 
able prejudices,  —  no  matter  from  what  causes  arising,  —  in  almost 
every  section  of  the  Union,  though  in  different  degrees.  In  some 
places  they  are  openly  and  even  violently  expressed  ;  in  others,  the 
feeling  is  slightly  visible  on  the  surface  of  common  intercourse  : 
but  there  is  no  observing  Irishman,  perhaps,  who  has  not  had,  on 
some  occasion  or  other,  cause  to  notice  the  annoying  fact.  It  must 
be  remarked,  that  some  of  the  different  portions  of  the  Union  are 

^  Grattan,  Civilized  America  [1859],  II,  28-29. 


THK  RISK  OF  CORPORATIONS  727 

much  more  congenial  than  others  to  the  hahits  and  feehngs  of 
Irishmen  ;  and  all  seem  to  agree,  that  New  England,  taken  on  the 
whole,  is  the  hardest  soil  for  an  Irishman  to  take  root  and  flourish 
in.  The  settled  habits  of  the  people,  the  untainted  English  descent 
of  the  great  majority,  discrepancies  of  religious  faith  and  forms,  and 
a  jealousy  of  foreign  intermixture  of  any  kind,  all  operate  against 
those  who  would  seek  to  engraft  themselves  on  the  Yankee  stem, 
in  the  hope  of  a  joint  stock  of  interest  or  happiness.  The  bulk  of 
Irish  emigration  to  the  Western  States  is  comprised  chiefly  of  ag- 
ricultural labourers.  Rigidly  excluded  in  former  times  from  improv- 
ing by  education  his  acknowledged  quickness  of  intellect,  the 
emigrant  of  this  class  has  been  hitherto  fitted  only  for  the  perform- 
ance of  offices  requiring  mere  muscular  exertion.  Without  any  of 
those  incentives  to  improvement  possessed  by  the  educated  man, 
the  beings  we  now  speak  of  were  doomed  to  a  hopeless  state  of 
social  inferiority.  Their  incapacity  to  perform  any  work  requiring 
the  application  of  intellectual  power  marked  them  out  as  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water.  The  high  wages  and  good  living, 
in  comparison  to  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  in  Europe, 
ought  to  have  given  them  more  comforts,  and  raised  them  in  the 
moral  scale.  But  the  pernicious  addiction  to  whiskey-drinking,  com- 
mon to  those  poor  people,  and  the  highly  reprehensible  habit  of 
allowing  it  to  them  in  large  quantities,  by  the  contractors  for  some 
of  the  public  works,  have,  until  lately,  kept  them  in  a  state  of  mere 
brute  enjoyment,  so  to  call  their  degraded  condition.  .  .  . 

IV.    THE    RISE    OF  CORPORATIONS 

^  Production  on  a  large  scale  is  greatly  promoted  by  the  practice 
of  forming  a  large  capital  by  the  combination  of  many  small  con- 
tributions ;  or,  in  other  words,  by  the  formation  of  joint  stock  com- 
panies. The  advantages  of  the  joint  stock  principle  arc  numerous 
and  important. 

In  the  first  place,  many  undertikings  require  an  amount  of  cap- 
ital beyond  the  means  of  the  richest  individual  or  private  partner- 
ship.   No  individual  could  have  made  a  railway  from  London  to 

1  Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  I,  182-183. 


728         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

Liverpool ;  it  is  doubtful  if  any  individual  could  even  work  the 
traffic  on  it,  now  when  it  is  made.  The  government  indeed  could 
have  done  both  ;  and  in  countries  where  the  practice  of  cooperation 
is  only  in  the  earlier  stages  of  its  growth,  the  government  can  alone 
be  looked  to  for  any  of  those  works  for  which  a  great  combination 
of  means  is  requisite  ;  because  it  can  obtain  those  means  by  com- 
pulsory taxation,  and  is  already  accustomed  to  the  conduct  of  large 
operations.  For  reasons,  however,  which  are  tolerably  well  known, 
and  of  which  we  shall  treat  fully  hereafter,  government  agency  for 
the  conduct  of  industrial  operations  is  generally  one  of  the  least 
eligible  of  resources,  when  any  other  is  available. 

Next,  there  are  undertakings,  which  individuals  are  not  abso- 
lutely incapable  of  performing,  but  which  they  cannot  perform  on 
the  scale  and  with  the  continuity  which  are  ever  more  and  more 
required  by  the  exigencies  of  a  society  in  an  advancing  state.  In- 
dividuals are  quite  capable  of  despatching  ships  from  England  to 
any  or  every  part  of  the  world,  to  carry  passengers  and  letters  ;  the 
thing  was  done  before  joint  stock  companies  for  the  purpose  were 
heard  of.  But  when,  from  the  increase  of  population  and  transac- 
tions, as  well  as  of  means  of  payment,  the  public  will  no  longer 
content  themselves  with  occasional  opportunities,  but  require  the 
certainty  that  packets  shall  start  regularly,  for  some  places  once 
or  even  twice  a  day,  for  others  once  a  week,  for  others  that  of  a 
steam  ship  of  great  size  and  expensive  construction  shall  depart  on 
fixed  days  twice  in  each  month,  it  is  evident  that  to  afford  an  assur- 
ance of  keeping  up  with  punctuality  such  a  circle  of  costly  operations, 
requires  a  much  larger  capital  and  a  much  larger  staff  of  qualified 
subordinates  than  can  be  commanded  by  an  individual  capitalist. 
There  are  other  cases,  again,  in  which  though  the  business  might 
be  perfecdy  well  transacted  with  small  or  moderate  capitals,  the 
guarantee  of  a  great  subscribed  stock  is  necessary  or  desirable  as  a 
security  to  the  public  for  the  fulfilment  of  pecuniary  engagements. 
This  is  especially  the  case  when  the  nature  of  the  business  requires 
that  numbers  of  persons  should  be  willing  to  trust  the  concern 
with  their  money :  as  in  the  business  of  banking,  and  that  of 
insurance  :  to  both  of  which  the  joint  stock'  principle  is  eminently 
adapted.  .  .  . 


rUK  RISK  OF  CORI'ORA  riONS  729 

^Action  in  concert  by  great  numbers  of  persons,  with  a  large 
amount  of  capital,  can  beattiiined  only  by  governments,  or  by  means 
of  associations  properly  organized,  with  numerous  officers  and 
agents,  whose  powers  and  duties,  and  the  rights  of  the  memlx-rs 
are  defined,  either  by  law,  or  by  articles  of  association,  which  may 
be  enforced  by  efficient  remedies.  Corporations,  joint  stock  com- 
panies, and  organized  associations  (except  of  a  political  character), 
were  wholly  unknown  in  ancient  times.  The  ancients  seem  to 
have  had  no  conceptions  of  the  modern  mode  of  uniting  together 
a  great  number  of  individuals  to  act  in  concert,  and  collecting  large 
amounts  of  capital,  by  means  of  corporations  and  organized  asso- 
ciations, to  effect  great  enterprises  and  objects  ;  and  hence  all  their 
roads,  great  improvements  and  enterprises,  were  made  by  govern- 
ments. The  avenues  and  modes  of  investing  a  surplus  income  in 
those  days,  in  order  to  make  it  productive  as  capital,  were  few-, 
compared  with  what  exist  at  this  time  in  the  United  States,  and 
in  many  countries  of  Europe.  Hence  in  those  days,  great  incomes 
were  generally  expended  in  keeping  a  large  retinue  of  servants  ; 
and  there  were  less  inducements  to  industry  and  economy,  to  save 
and  to  accumulate,  than  there  are  at  present. 

An  incorporated  trading  company  has  extended  the  dominion  of 
Great  Britain  over  a  large  proportion  of  the  richest  part  of  Asia ; 
and  a  similar  company  has  been  the  source  of  the  extensive  do- 
minion of  the  Dutch  in  the  East  Indies.  Nearly  all  the  railroads 
and  turnpike  roads,  and  many  of  the  canals  in  the  United  States 
—  all  the  canals,  turnpike  roads,  and  railroads  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  and  many  of  those  in  other  countries  of  Europe,  have 
been  made  by  incorporated  companies,  with  capitals  collected  in 
most  instances  in  small  sums,  from  great  numbers  of  stockholders, 
the  result  of  little  savings  from  their  monthly  and  annual  incomes. 
Numerous  colleges,  universities,  lyceums,  library  associations,  and 
other  institutions  to  diffuse  knowledge  among  men,  and  to  spread 
Christianity  and  civilization,  are  established  and  managed,  and  the 
means  of  sustaining  them  are  collected  in  like  manner.  Nearly  all 
the  great  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  United  States  were 
established,  and  are  carried  on  by  means  of  corporations. 

1  Seaman,  Essays  on  Uie  Progress  of  Nations  [1852],  pp.  517-518. 


730         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

The  union  and  organization  of  Christian  societies  and  the  Roman 
laws  regulating  their  government  and  the  management  of  their 
property,  probably  suggested  the  idea  of  municipal  corporations, 
of  charters  for  colleges,  for  trading  and  mining  corporations,  and 
other  great  objects  of  private  enterprise.  Corporations  have  fur- 
nished the  means  of  uniting  individuals,  and  of  combining  and 
managing  capital  to  carry  on  great  enterprises  and  undertakings, 
which  are  beyond  the  power  of  individuals.  They  have  thus  opened 
new  fields  of  employment  for  both-  labor  and  capital,  contributed 
to  increase  the  productiveness  of  capital,  to  increase  the  demand 
for  it,  and  to  raise  the  rate  of  interest.  They  have  increased  the 
demand  for  labor,  encouraged  industry,  economy,  frugality,  saving, 
and  enterprise,  and  contributed  greatly  to  promote  the  progress 
and  welfare  of  many  modern  nations.  They  are  among  the  great 
characteristics  which  mark  the  distinction  between  ancient  and 
modern  times.  There  are  very  few,  however,  except  ecclesiastical 
corporations,  in  Catholic  countries,  and  none  among  Mahometan 
and  Pagan  nations.  .  .  . 

^ .  .  .  Americans  of  all  ages,  all  conditions,  and  all  disposi- 
tions, constantly  form  associations.  They  have  not  only  commer- 
cial and  manufacturing  companies,  in  which  all  take  part,  but 
associations  of  a  thousand  other  kinds,  —  religious,  moral,  serious, 
futile,  general  or  restricted,  enormous  or  diminutive.  The  Ameri- 
cans make  associations  to  give  entertainments,  to  found  seminaries, 
to  build  inns,  to  construct  churches,  to  diffuse  books,  to  send  mis- 
sionaries to  the  antipodes  ;  they  found  in  this  manner  hospitals, 
prisons,  and  schools.  If  it  be  proposed  to  inculcate  some  truth,  or 
to  foster  some  feeling,  by  the  encouragement  of  a  great  example, 
they  form  a  society.  Wherever,  at  the  head  of  some  new  under- 
taking, you  see  the  government  in  France,  or  a  man  of  rank 
in  England,  in  the  United  States  you  will  be  sure  to  find  an 
association. 

I  met  with  several  kinds  of  associations  in  America  of  which  I 
confess  I  had  no  previous  notion  ;  and  I  have  often  admired  the 

1  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1841],  Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  pp.  129- 
131,3-- 


THE  RISE  OF  CORPORATIONS  731 

extreme  skill  with  which  the  iiiliahilanis  of  the  United  States  suc- 
ceed in  proposing  a  common  object  to  the  exertit^ns  of  a  great 
many  men,  and  in  inducing  them  voluntarily  to  pursue  it. 

I  have  since  travelled  over  England,  whence  the  Americans 
have  taken  some  of  their  laws  and  many  of  their  customs  ;  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  i:)rinciple  of  association  was  by  no  means 
so  constantly  or  adroitly  used  in  that  country.  The  English  often 
perform  great  things  singly,  whereas  the  Americans  form  associa- 
tions for  the  smallest  undertakings.  It  is  evident  that  the  former 
people  consider  association  as  a  powerful  means  of  action,  but  the 
latter  seem  to  regard  it  as  the  only  means  they  have  of  acting. 

Thus,  the  most  democratic  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth  is 
that  in  which  men  have,  in  our  time,  carried  to  the  highest  per- 
fection the  art  of  pursuing  in  common  the  object  of  their  common 
desires,  and  have  applied  this  new  science  to  the  greatest  number 
of  purposes.  Is  this  the  result  of  accident  ?  or  is  there  in  reality 
any  necessary  connection  between  the  right  principle  of  association 
and  that  of  equality  ? 

Aristocratic  communities  always  contain,  amongst  a  multitude 
of  persons  who  by  themselves  are  powerless,  a  small  number  of 
powerful  and  wealthy  citizens,  each  of  whom  can  achieve  great 
undertakings  single-handed.  In  aristocratic  societies,  men  do  not 
need  to  combine  in  order  to  act,  because  they  are  strongly  held 
together.  Ever)'  wealthy  and  powerful  citizen  constitutes  the  head 
of  a  permanent  and  compulsory  association,  composed  of  all  those 
who  are  dependent  upon  him,  or  whom  he  makes  subservient  to 
the  execution  of  his  designs. 

Amongst  democratic  nations,  on  the  contrary,  all  the  citizens 
are  independent  and  feeble  ;  they  can  do  hardly  anything  b\-  them- 
selves, and  none  of  them  can  oblige  his  fellow-men  to  lend  him 
their  assistance.  They  all,  therefore,  become  powerless,  if  they  do 
not  learn  voluntarily  to  help  each  other.  If  men  living  in  demo- 
cratic countries  had  no  right  and  no  inclination  to  associate  for 
political  purposes,  their  independence  would  be  in  great  jeopardy ; 
but  they  might  long  preserve  their  wealth  and  their  cultivation  : 
whereas,  if  they  never  acquired  the  habit  of  forming  associations 
in  ordinary  life,  civilization  itself  would  be  endangered.    A  people 


732         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

amongst  whom  individuals  should  lose  the  power  of  achieving  great 
things  single-handed,  without  acquiring  the  means  of  producing 
them  by  united  exertions,  would  soon  relapse  into  barbarism. 

Unhappily,  the  same  social  condition  which  renders  associations 
so  necessary  to  democratic  nations,  renders  their  formation  more 
difficult  amongst  those  nations  than  amongst  all  other.  When  sev- 
eral members  of  an  aristocracy  agree  to  combine,  they  easily  succeed 
in  doing  so  :  as  each  of  them  brings  great  strength  to  the  partner- 
ship, the  number  of  its  members  may  be  very  limited  ;  and  when  the 
members  of  an  association  are  limited  in  number,  they  may  easily 
become  mutually  acquainted,  understand  each  other,  and  establish 
fixed  regulations.  The  same  opportunities  do  not  occur  amongst 
democratic  nations,  where  the  associated  members  must  always 
be  very  numerous  for  their  association  to  have  any  power.  .  .   . 

A  government  might  perform  the  part  of  some  of  the  largest 
American  companies  ;  and  several  States,  members  of  the  Union, 
have  already  attempted  it ;  but  what  political  power  could  ever  carry 
on  the  vast  multitude  of  lesser  undertakings  which  the  American 
citizens  perform  every  day,  with  the  assistance  of  the  principle  of 
association  ?  It  is  easy  to  foresee  that  the  time  is  drawing  near 
when  man  will  be  less  and  less  able  to  produce,  of  himself  alone, 
the  commonest  necessaries  of  life.  The  task  of  the  governing 
power  will  therefore  perpetually  increase,  and  its  very  efforts  will 
extend  it  every  day.  The  more  it  stands  in  the  place  of  associations, 
the  more  will  individuals,  losing  the  notion  of  combining  together, 
require  its  assistance  :  these  are  causes  and  effects  which  unceas- 
ingly create  each  other.  Will  the  administration  of  the  country  ul- 
timately assume  the  management  of  all  the  manufactures  which  no 
single  citizen  is  able  to  carry  on  ?  And  if  a  time  at  length  arrives 
when,  in  consequence  of  the  extreme  subdivision  of  landed  prop- 
erty, the  soil  is  split  into  an  indefinite  number  of  parcels,  so  that  it 
can  only  be  cultivated  by  companies  of  husbandmen,  will  it  be  nec- 
essary that  the  head  of  the  government  should  leave  the  helm  of 
state  to  follow  the  plough  .-'  The  morals  and  the  intelligence  of  a 
democratic  people  would  be  as  much  endangered  as  its  business 
and  manufactures,  if  the  government  ever  wholly  usurped  the  place 
of  private  companies.  .  .  . 


Till",   \<\SK  oi"  CORPORATIONS  733 

^.  .  .  In  most  cixilizcd  countries,  the  bulk  of  the  pojjulation  are 
poor,  their  daily  wages  hardly  sufficing  to  buy  their  daily  bread. 
Their  savings,  if  it  is  possible  for  them  to  make  any,  must  be  in 
very  small  sums  ;  and  the  inducement  for  them  to  be  frugal  must 
depend  on  the  possibility  of  immediately  investing  such  small  sums 
to  advantage,  (^ne  of  the  great  improvements  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion consists  in  the  means  afforded,  the  machinery  contrived,  for 
collecting  these  driblets  of  wealth,  and  bringing  them  together  into 
large  reservoirs,  whence  they  issue  in  abundant  streams,  giving 
efficiency  and  fertility  to  labor  throughout  the  land.  The  water 
which  falls  in  drops  upon  the  desert,  sinks  through  the  sand,  and 
leaves  the  ground  arid  and  barren  as  before  ;  but  when  collected  in 
great  tanks  and  cistens,  it  turns  a  given  portion  of  that  desert  into 
a  garden.  A  centurv'  or  two  ago,  if  the  laboring  part  of  the  popu- 
lation made  any  savings,  they  were  in  the  form  of  little,  hoards  of 
silver  or  gold,  hid  in  an  old  stocking,  or  buried  in  the  garden. 
But  because  the  money  thus  stored  was  unproductive,  and  yielded 
no  interest,  and  because  it  was  always  at  hand  when  the  owner 
was  for  a  moment  tempted  to  some  indulgence  and  consequent 
expense,  the  number  and  ainount  of  such  hoards  were  always 
small.  Now,  through  the  multiplication  of  the  branches  of  retail 
trade,  and  the  lesser  mechanic  arts,  and  through  joint-stock  corpora- 
tions and  savings'  banks,  the  first  half-eagle  which  the  laboring  man 
or  woman  saves  from  the  month's  wages  is  profitably  invested,  and, 
by  the  end  of  the  year,  is  increased  by  the  twentieth  part  of  itself. 
When  this  saving  has  reached  a  very  moderate  amount,  it  can  be 
made  to  accumulate  at  compound  interest,  and  thus  to  double  itself 
in  twelve  years.  In  many  cases,  it  soon  comes  to  be  used  by  the 
owner  himself  as  capital  ;  that  is,  it  is  invested  in  the  purchase  of 
tools  or  machinery,  or  a  small  stock  in  trade  ;  and  it  may  then  ac- 
cumulate at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  per  cent  a  year,  —  that  is,  it 
may  double  itself  every  six  or  seven  years.  The  result  is,  that  he 
who  began  life  as  a  common  laborer,  often  drives  about  in  his  own 
carriage  before  its  close.   .   .   . 

Many  kinds  of  production  can  be  successfully  kept  up  onl\'  upon 
a  large  scale  ;  for  the  larger  the  enterprise,  the  further  the  division 
1  Bowen,  Principles  of  Political  Economy  [1S56],  pp.  109-110,  129-130. 


734         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

of  labor  may  be  carried.  In  order  to  keep  such  enterprises  in 
motion,  capital  must  be  aggregated  in  large  masses.  In  England, 
the  great  inequality  of  the  distribution  of  wealth  allows  such  enter- 
prises to  be  managed  by  individuals  ;  in  most  cases,  a  large  man- 
ufacturing establishment  is  owned  either  by  one  person,  or  by  a 
firm  which  embraces  but  a  few  partners.  In  the  United  States, 
from  the  comparative  paucity  of  large  private  fortunes,  such  an 
establishment  is  generally  formed  and  conducted  by  a  joint-stock 
company,  —  which  is  comparatively  a  modern  invention,  but  one 
that,  from  its  democratic  character,  is  peculiarly  suited  to  this 
countr)^,  and  to  the  wants  of  the  age.  Many  small  capitalists,  by 
clubbing  their  means,  can  successfully  compete  with  men  of  vast 
fortune,  —  an  undertaking  which  would  othenvise  be  a  hopeless 
one,  as  the  great  capitidist  can  live  through  reverses  of  trade,  com- 
mercial crises,  and  casualties,  which  would  ruin  one  who  had  little 
or  nothing  in  reserve-.  So  consonant  are  these  joint-stock  compa- 
nies to  the  genius  of  our  institutions  and  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  country,  that  they  have  multiplied  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
They  have  survived  even  the  necessity  which  called  them  forth  ; 
for  as  large  private  fortunes  have  sprung  up  with  the  growth  of 
national  opulence,  the  owners  of  them  have  preferred  to  distribute 
their  capital  by  taking  stock  in  many  of  these  associations,  rather 
than  to  concentrate  it  upon  one  undertaking.  The  risk  of  a  sweep- 
ing calamity  is  thus  materially  diminished.  I  know  of  nothing  more 
irrational  than  the  common  prejudice  against  such  corporations. 
They  are  true  savings'  banks,  in  which  the  common  laborer  not 
infrequently  invests  his  modest  savings,  and  shares  the  gains  of 
his  wealthy  employer,  instead  of  being  crushed  by  competition  with 
him.  It  is  not  unusual,  I  believe,  for  operatives  to  hold  stock  in 
the  very  manufactories  in  which  they  work  for  wages.  At  any  rate, 
the  savings'  bank,  to  which  they  first  confide  the  fruits  of  their 
economy,  often  invests  them  in  such  stock.  These  corporations 
allow  persons  of  very  moderate  means  to  participate  in  enterprises 
which,  in  other  countries,  are  conducted  exclusively  by  the  rich. 
The  occasional  failure  of  one  of  them  does  not  bankrupt  many  of 
the  stockholders,  whose  property,  invested  in  other  ways,  is  left 
untouched ;  and  as  this  seems  a  hardship  to  the  creditor  who  has 


THE  RISE  OF  CORPORATIONS  735 

lost  a  portion  of  his  debt,  he  is  apt  to  (k-flaiin  aL;ainst  those  who 
are  rich,  and  still  do  not  pay  what  thoy  owe.  Hut  his  accusation  is 
unjust ;  he  who  allows  such  an  institution  to  become  indebted  to 
him,  trusts  it  on  account  of  the  largeness  of  its  capital,  and  its  sup- 
posed solvency.  It  is  the  same  thing  for  him,  whether  he  trusts 
an  individual  or  a  corporation,  the  ground  of  his  confidence,  in 
either  case,  being  his  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  person  or  the 
corporation  began  business,  perhaps,  with  half  a  million  of  capital, 
and  he  knows  not  that  this  capital  has  been  wasted  or  lost.  If  he 
prefers,  he  may  trust  an  individual  who  is  supposed  to  be  worth 
only  $50,000,  instead  of  a  corporation  reckoned  at  ten  times  that 
sum.  If  he  chooses  the  latter  course,  he  trusts  the  corporation,  not 
the  stockholders  ;  he  deliberately  prefers  the  joint-stock  security 
to  the  security  offered  by  individuals  :  and,  consequently,  has  no 
reason  to  complain  if  the  latter  do  not  pay  him.  .   .  . 

1  In  political  economy,  corporations  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes.  First,  political  corporations  created  in  furtherance  of  civil 
government,  for  the  more  perfect  administration  of  the  laws,  and 
for  the  protection  of  social  and  civil  rights.  This  class  embraces 
nations,  as  contra-distinguished  from  the  individuals  of  whom  they 
are  composed.  It  also  includes  all  the  subdivisions  of  a  nation 
into  states,  counties,  cities,  and  towns,  and  the  more  perfect  and 
complete  this  subdivision  is,  the  more  perfect  is  the  form  of  ci\-il 
government.  The  very  great  advantage  of  dividing  a  nation  into 
small  corporations  of  this  description,  is  most  strikingly  manifested 
in  New  England.  .  .   . 

The  second  class  of  corporations  may  be  denominated  money 
corporations,  and  their  influence  on  national  wealth,  is  more  direct 
and  immediate  than  the  first  class. 

This  class  embraces  banking  companies,  insurance  companies, 
road  companies,  trading  companies,  and  every  description  of  asso- 
ciations, incorporated  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  fortunes 
of  the  members  of  the  corporation.   .   .   . 

The  object  of  a  money  co?poration,  is  to  give  to  the  members 
an  artificial  power,  which  they  would  not  otherwise  possess,  or  to 

*  Raymond,  Elements  of  Political  Economy  [1819J,  Vol.  II,  part  ii,  ch.  vi. 


736         ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 

exempt  them  from  some  liability,  to  which  they  would  be  subject, 
but  for  the  act  of  incorporation. 

The  very  object  then  of  the  act  of  incorporation  is  to  produce 
inequalit\%  either  in  rights,  or  in  the  division  of  property.  Prima 
facie,  therefore,  all  money  corporations,  are  detrimentil  to  the  na- 
tional wealth.  They  are  always  created  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich, 
and  never  for  the  poor.  As  the  poor  have  no  money  to  vest,  they 
can  derive  no  direct  advantage  from  them.  The  rich  not  being 
satisfied  with  the  power  which  money  itself  confers  upon  them, 
in  their  private  individual  capacities,  seek  for  an  artificial  com- 
bination, or  amalgamation  of  their  power,  that  its  force  may  be 
augmented.   .   .   . 

Why  do  a  parcel  of  rich  men  wish  to  combine  their  capital  and 
form  a  bank,  or  an  insurance  company }  For  no  other  purpose  but 
to  augment  the  artificial  power,  which  money  gives  them,  in  ac- 
cumulating more.  Can  the  poor  derive  any  direct  advantage  from 
such  an  institution  .''  Can  they  hope  to  own  any  part  of  its  stock } 
Can  those  who  have  no  money,  hope  to  enter  into  competition 
with  those  who  have,  in  buying  the  stock  ?  Such  a  hope  must 
be  remote  indeed. 

Every  money  corporation,  therefore,  \%  prima  facie,  injurious  to 
national  wealth,  and  ought  to  be  looked  upon  by  those  who  have 
no  money,  with  jealousy  and  suspicion.  They  are,  and  ought  to  be 
considered,  as  artificial  engines  of  power,  contrived  by  the  rich,  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  their  already  too  great  ascendency,  and 
calculated  to  destroy  that  natural  equality  among  men,  which  no 
government  ought  to  lend  its  power  in  destroying.  The  tendency 
of  such  institutions  is  to  cause  a  more  unequal  division  of  prop- 
erty, and  a  greater  inequality  among  men,  than  would  otherwise 
take  place  ;  which  necessarily  bring  in  their  train,  as  has  already 
been  shown,  poverty,  pauperism,  and  misery  on  some  portion  of 
the  community. 

I  do  not  say,  that  corporations  of  this  description,  ought  never 
to  be  created,  but  only  that  they  should  be  created  with  caution. 
Too  great  an  equality  in  the  division  of  property  is  as  prejudicial 
to  national  industry  and  wealth,  as  too  unequal  a  division.  There 
must  be  some  high  prizes  in  the  lottery,  in  order  to  encourage 


TIIK  RISK  OF  CORI'ORA'I'ION'S  ^ 2>1 

people  to  venture  their  fortunes  in  them.  There  must  be  rewards 
for  industry,  enterprise,  and  talents,  in  order  to  stimulate  their 
exertion. 

A  money  corporation  should  be  clothed  with  as  few  privileges 
as  possible.  It  should  be  encumbered  with  as  many  restrictions,  as 
shall  be  necessary  to  keep  the  stock  always  as  low  as  par.  When- 
ever it  rises  above  par,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that  the  company  has  gained 
an  advantage  of  the  public,  equal  to  the  excess  above  the  par  value. 
The  private  property  of  the  stockholders  should  never  be  exempted 
from  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  the  bank,  nor  from  taxation. 

Corporations  also  for  the  purpose  of  building  roads,  canals,  and 
making  other  permanent  improvements,  may  be  very  beneficial  to 
a  country.  But  in  incorporating  all  such  companies,  it  should  be 
a  universal  principle,  never  to  incorporate  them  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  the  individuals  an  artificial  power  to  increase  their  own  for- 
tunes. Wealth,  of  itself,  gives  the  possessor  artificial  and  unnatural 
power  enough,  when  exerted  singly  and  individually,  and  quite  too 
much,  when  combined  and  clothed  with  artificial  advantage. 

People  are  not  usually  aware  of  the  immense  advantage,  a  com- 
pany of  monied  men  acquire  in  consequence  of  an  act  of  incorpo- 
ration. It  gives  them  a  much  greater  influence  and  power,  than 
the  same  amount  of  property  would  do,  divided  among  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  the  corporation.  It  enables  them  to  control  in 
a  great  degree,  the  operations  and  industry  of  a  whole  community. 

By  possessing  such  an  immense  engine  of  power,  a  bank  can 
often  so  far  control  the  operations  of  private  indi\iduals  in  every 
branch  of  business,  as  to  be  able  to  put  almost  any  man  down,  who 
shall  attempt  to  do  business  without  their  agency,  or  who  refuses 
to  submit  to  their  domination.  The  young,  the  ardent,  and  enter- 
prising, are  encouraged  to  engage  in  business,  by  the  facility  of 
obtaining  the  means  through  the  agency  of  banks.  They  have, 
perhaps,  a  few  thousand  dollars  of  their  own,  and  some  friend  is 
persuaded  to  become  their  endorser  at  bank,  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  more,  and  after  a  few  years  of  laborious  industry  the\'  find 
that  all  their  own  money,  and  the  proceeds  of  their  labour,  have  been 
swallowed  up  by  the  banks,  and  they  may  think  themselves  well  off, 
if  a  part  of  their  friend's  property  has  not  gone  the  same  way.  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   ECONOMICS   OF   SLAVERY 

INTRODUCTION 

There  are  three  inquiries  regarding  slavery  which  concern  students  of 
American  history.  First,  what  caused  it  to  be  so  widely  established  in  the  New 
World,  and  why  did  it  continue  to  spread  in  the  United  States  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  when  it  was  declining  almost  everywhere  else  ?  Second,  what 
was  the  basis  of  its  strength  in  the  South,  and  how  far  was  that  basis  perma- 
nent or  only  temporary  ?  And  finally,  what  effect  did  it  have  upon  the  social 
evolution  of  the  South  ?  To  answer  these  questions  satisfactorily  would  re- 
quire a  volume,  and  as  yet  no  one  has  attempted  to  write  that  volume.  It  is 
the  purpose  of  the  following  selections  to  bring  together  such  materials  bearing 
on  these  questions  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  leading  writers  upon  the  subject. 
It  may  perhaps  help  to  make  clearer  their  significance  if  we  state  briefly  a  few 
of  the  conclusions  which  seem  to  be  substantiated  by  facts. 

In  the  first  place,  negro  slavery  appears  to  have  played  a  necessary  part  in 
the  settlement  of  the  New  World  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries. There  were  dui'ing  that  time  no  other  means  of  securing  the  labor  required 
to  produce  the  great  staples  which  Europe  wanted  from  America,  and  the  pro- 
duction of  which  furnished  the  chief  motive  for  colonization.  Not  only  was 
slavery  necessary  to  the  colonies  that  produced  these  staples,  but  it  was  scarcely 
less  important  to  those  that  did  not ;  for  it  supplied  the  principal  markets  which 
insured  their  prosperity.  New  England  and  the  middle  colonies  would  have 
been  founded,  no  doubt,  without  the  markets  which  slavery  provided  in  the 
West  Indies,  but  they  could  not  have  grown  rich  and  prosperous  without  those 
markets.  Under  the  circumstances,  then,  slavery  seems  to  have  been  neces- 
sary to  the  settlement  of  the  New  World.  Without  it  colonial  history  would 
have  been  completely  changed. 

On  the  other  hand,  slavery  in  the  United  States  in  the  nineteenth  century 
played  a  very  different  part.  There  was  no  such  necessity  for  its  use  in  the 
settlement  of  the  southwest  and  the  exploitation  of  the  natural  resources  of  that 
region  as  existed  in  the  West  Indies  in  colonial  times.  Cotton  could  be  culti- 
vated by  white  men  almost  everywhere  in  the  South,  and  a  great  population  in 
the  back  country  of  the  southern  states  was  ready  and  anxious  to  undertake 
its  production.  But  they  would  labor  in  the  cotton  fields  only  as  independent 
farmers.  So  long  as  they  were  in  contact  with  vast  areas  of  unoccupied  land 
they  could  not  be  induced  to  work  for  wages.    Under  these  conditions  the 

738 


INTRODL'C'riOX  739 

only  way  that  cotton  could  be  produced  on  a  large  scale,  and  the  only  way 
that  a  capitalist  could  engage  in  its  cultivation,  was  by  the  use  of  slave  labor. 
It  was  inevitable,  then,  that  there  should  be  a  struggle  between  the  white 
farmers  and  the  slave  planters  who  represented  the  capitalist  class  for  the 
possession  of  the  best  lands  upon  which  cotton  could  be  grown.  This  struggle 
began  at  once  on  the  introduction  of  cotton  culture  into  the  back  country  of 
South  Carolina  and  spread  from  there  to  every  part  of  the  southwest.  Every- 
where the  planter  was  successful  in  securing  possession  of  the  best  lands.  He 
was  able  to  pay  more  for  it  than  it  was  worth  to  the  farmer  and  was  able  to 
induce  the  latter  to  sell  out  his  holdings  and  mo\'e  away  to  the  cheaper  lands 
in  the  West.  When  the  farmer  did  not  do  this,  he  bought  slaves  and  became 
a  planter  himself.  In  cither  case  it  represented  a  supplanting  of  free  labor  by 
slavery  in  the  cotton  fields.  The  growth  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  then, 
was  due  to  the  difiiculty  of  organizing  free  labor  in  the  cotton  industry.  The 
economies  of  large  scale  production  in  this  industry  were  more  than  sufficient 
to  counterbalance  the  inefficiency  of  slave  as  compared  with  free  labor,  and 
enabled  the  former  to  win  in  competition  with  the  latter. 

As  to  the  strength  of  slavery  as  an  institution  in  southern  society  after  it 
had  been  thoroughly  established,  its  basis  was  partly  economic  and  partly 
social.  On  the  economic  side  it  was  the  profitableness  of  slaves  to  their 
owners,  and  on  the  social  side  the  evils  sure  to  result  from  having  a  great 
body  of  free  negroes  in  their  midst,  that  recommended  slavery  to  the  southern 
people.  The  first  affected  only  a  small  part  of  the  population,  probably  less 
than  one  fourth  of  it.  As  time  went  on  this  element  of  strength  must  have 
become  still  less  important ;  for  the  value  of  slaves  in  all  but  the  Gulf  States 
depended  upon  the  demand  for  them  to  open  up  new  plantations  in  the  south- 
west. The  labor  of  slaves  in  Virginia  and  the  border  states  was  not  profitable 
enough  to  maintain  their  value.  It  was  only  the  fact  that  they  could  be  sold  to 
the  southwest  or  be  taken  there  by  their  owners  to  establish  cotton  plantations 
that  made  them  valuable  property.  When  the  extension  of  the  cotton  belt 
ceased,  as  it  must  have  done  soon  after  i860,  this  use  of  slaves  would  have 
come  to  an  end,  and  slavery  over  a  large  part  of  the  South  would  have  re- 
turned to  its  condition  in  Virginia  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  Its  economic 
basis  in  this  region  would  have  altogether  disappeared.  The  social  basis  of 
slavery,  on  the  other  hand,  was  much  stronger  and  more  permanent.  It  affected 
a  far  larger  portion  of  the  population.  I'ractically  every  one  in  the  South  was 
impressed  by  the  dangers  that  would  arise  from  liberating  the  slaves  and  leav- 
ing them  as  a  part  of  southern  society.  Even  such  thoughtful  observers  from 
the  outside  as  De  Toqueville,  Lyeill,  and  Olmsted  fully  shared  these  apprehen- 
sions. This  fact  was  not  sufficient  to  make  all  southerners  pro-slai'cry  in  the 
sense  that  they  regarded  slavery  as  a  good  in  itself.  It  never  did  cause  many 
of  them  to  take  this  extreme  view  of  it ;  but  it  was  quite  sufficient  to  make 
them  anti-aboIHio7t  and  to  keep  them  so  for  an  indefinite  period.  With  the 
disappearance  of  the  economic  basis  of  slavery  the  South  would  have  become 


740  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

less  pro-slavery  in  its  sentiment,  but  the  real  evils  of  abolition  would  have  con- 
tinued as  impressive  as  ever.  Its  position  would  ultimately  have  come  to  be 
that  of  the  man  holding  the  wolf  by  the  ears :  dangerous  to  hang  on,  but  still 
more  dangerous  to  let  go. 

The  influence  which  slavery  exerted  upon  southern  society  is  much  more 
difficult  to  trace  than  the  forces  which  established  and  maintained  it.  There  is 
little  of  value  in  the  standard  writers  on  the  subject,  who  do  little  more  than 
offer  the  usual  superficial  explanation  for  the  poverty  and  social  backwardness 
of  the  South  as  compared  with  the  North.  Slavery  was  supposed  to  have 
caused  this  by  rendering  manual  labor  dishonorable  and  degrading  in  the  eyes 
of  the  masses  of  southern  white  people..  As  a  result,  they  were  shiftless,  un- 
enterprising, and  inefficient  in  their  industry.  There  are  very  good  reasons  for 
regarding  this  explanation  as  quite  inadequate  for  the  economic  differences  be- 
tween the  two  sections.  Slavery  as  the  principal  system  of  labor  never  really 
occupied  more  than  a  fraction  of  southern  territory ;  there  were  vast  regions 
where  it  either  did  not  exist  at  all,  or  where  the  slaves  constituted  only  from  a 
fourth  to  a  tenth  of  the  population,  and  were  more  like  the  hired  men  of  the 
northern  farmers  than  the  slaves  of  southern  planters.  Indeed,  in  such  regions 
the  planter  class  could  not  be  said  to  exist  at  all.  The  slaveholder  was  a  farmer 
and  with  his  sons  worked  in  the  fields  beside  his  slaves.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose 
that  under  such  conditions  all  manual  labor  was  regarded  as  servile,  and  hence 
degrading.  Some  other  explanation  of  the  economic  influence  of  slavery  on  the 
South  must  be  found  than  this  psychological  effect.  That  no  doubt  was  a  fac- 
tor, especially  where  the  slaves  were  numerous,  but  it  was  not  the  most  impor- 
tant influence  even  there,  and  was  altogether  insignificant  over  a  large  part  of 
the  South  where  the  mass  of  the  population  was  white  and  the  slaves  were  less 
than  a  quarter  or  a  third  of  it. 

The  most  important  injury  which  the  South  sustained  from  slavery  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  it  prevented  the  accumulation  of  capital,  and  thereby 
deprived  southern  society  to  a  large  extent  of  what  has  always  been  the  chief 
means  of  economic  and  social  progress.  Capital  is  the  great  instrument  of  prog- 
ress in  all  communities,  and  southern  industry  was  always  starved  for  capital. 
There  was  never  enough  of  it  to  supply  ordinary  needs.  The  foreign  and 
internal  trade  of  the  South  was  carried  on  by  northern  capital.  The  shipping 
to  which  this  commerce  gave  employment  was  supplied  from  the  same  source. 
Private  individuals  could  not  supply  the  banks  that  were  needed,  and  state 
bonds  had  to  be  issued  to  attract  capital  from  the  North  and  Europe  for  this 
purpose.  The  same  was  true  of  its  transportation  system,  and  when  its  navi- 
gable streams  became  inadequate  for  this  purpose  after  1850,  it  resorted  to  the 
policy  of  state  aid  to  railroads  on  a  large  scale,  although  that  policy  had  been 
discredited  and  abandoned  in  the  rest  of  the  country.  With  the  supply  of  capi- 
tal deficient  in  the  old  industries  no  new  ones  could  be  started  or  developed. 
With  all  kinds  of  advantages  for  manufactures  none  arose,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  domestic  manufactures  had  always  been  common  among  the  people 


INTRODl  criON  741 

and  an  excellent  market  for  them  existed  among  the  planter  class.  It  was  not 
lack  of  labor  or  enterprise  that  prevented  their  rise,  but  a  lack  of  capital  with 
which  to  start  them.  Nor  was  this  scarcity  of  capital  wholly  economic  in  its 
effect;  it  was  social  as  well.  It  perpetuated  that  rude  backwoods,  frontier  state 
of  society  with  which  all  new  countries  begin.  The  people  lived  for  genera- 
tions under  those  conditions,  and  it  was  this  experience  chiefly  which  rendered 
them  shiftless,  unenterprising,  and  inefficient,  and  degraded  them  in  so  far  as 
they  were  degraded. 

How  can  slavery  be  connected  with  this  scarcity  of  capital.''  How  did  it  pre- 
vent the  accumulation  of  capital  in  the  South.?  Mill  says,  "The  accumulation 
of  capital  in  a  community  depends  upon  the  fund  from  which  savings  can  be 
made,"  —  in  other  words,  upon  its  ability  to  produce  wealth,  —  "and  second, 
upon  the  disposition  of  the  people  to  save."  The  South  certainly  had  the  ability 
to  produce  wealth.  In  cotton  it  possessed  the  most  profitable  industry  in  the 
country,  and  this  was  supplemented  by  rice,  sugar,  and  tobacco.  Why,  then,  did  it 
not  save  and  accumulate  capital  t  The  reason  is  to  be  found  in  its  lack  of  dis- 
position to  save  —  in  the  weakness  of  its  "effective  desire  of  accumulation,"  and 
this  was  the  result  of  slavery.  The  chief  sources  of  southern  wealth  had  been 
placed  by  slavery  in  the  hands  of  the  planter  class,  and  the  social  conditions 
which  slavery  fostered  caused  this  class  to  expend  that  wealth  in  maintaining 
a  luxurious  and  expensive  style  of  living,  instead  of  saving  and  accumulating 
capital.  The  small  slaveholding  farmer  saved  in  order  that  he  might  buy  more 
slaves  and  become  a  great  planter.  The  planters,  however,  as  a  class  con- 
sumed nearly  all  the  wealth  their  slaves  produced  except  what  had  to  be  sent  to 
the  older  states  to  pay  for  slaves  purchased  there.  They  furnished  little  capital 
for  commercial  enterprises  either  foreign  or  domestic,  for  starting  manufactur- 
ing industries,  for  establishing  banks  and  insurance  companies,  or  for  con- 
structing canals  and  railroads.  Their  prosperity  had  little  effect,  therefore,  upon 
the  masses  of  the  white  people  in  the  same  communities. 

Here  we  have  by  far  the  most  important  effect  of  slavery  in  producing  that 
lack  of  economic  progress  and  social  development  which  was  so  prominent  a 
characteristic  of  the  old  South.  The  enormous  demand  for  cotton  in  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world,  coupled  with  the  natural  advantages  for  its  production  in  the 
South,  was  from  an  economic  point  of  view  precisely  like  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  California  or  Australia.  It  conferred  upon  that  section  a  great  economic 
prize.  What  slavery  did  was  to  prevent  that  great  economic  advantage  from 
being  diffused  and  extended  to  the  whole  white  population.  It  was  absorbed 
by  the  planters  and  their  slaves.  The  wealth  which  it  brought  went  to  main- 
tain the  luxury  and  idleness  of  the  one,  and  to  rear  an  increasing  number  of 
the  other.  The  mass  of  the  people  hardly  felt  its  influence  at  all  except  as  it 
furnished  opportunity  for  the  most  able  individuals  among  them  to  advance  to 
the  planter  class.  It  did  not  improve  the  condition  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 
Over  a  large  part  of  the  South  they  remained  in  that  rude,  backward  social 
condition  which  characterizes  the  frontier,  which  has  neither  a  good  market  for 


742  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

its  produce,  nor  the  assistance  of  capital  for  the  development  of  new  industries. 
Had  such  an  economic  advantage  come  to  the  North  it  would  have  affected  the 
whole  population,  just  as  the  discovery  of  rich  gold  mines  brings  prosperity  to 
every  one  in  the  community  where  it  occurs  and  not  alone  to  those  engaged  in 
mining.  The  increasing  demand  for  food  from  the  South,  the  northeastern 
states,  and  Europe  had,  in  fact,  a  similar  effect  upon  the  northwest.  The  pros- 
perity of  the  farmers  of  this  region  soon  resulted  in  saving  of  capital  for  the 
development  of  all  other  branches  of  industry.  Commerce  expanded,  manu- 
factures were  established,  canals  and  railroads  were  constructed.  The  same 
thing  would  have  occurred  in  the  South,  had  the  economic  advantage  which 
the  cotton  industry  brought  to  it  reached  the  masses  of  the  white  people.  In 
our  own  time  the  process  is,  in  fact,  working  itself  out  there  as  it  did  a  genera- 
tion earlier  in  the  North.  The  "  New  South  "  is  in  its  economic  development 
only  the  old  northwest  over  again. 

I.    THE   ORIGIN    OF   SLAVERY    IN   THE    NEW  WORLD 

^  It  is  strange  that  it  should  never  have  come  into  the  head  of 
philosopher  or  philanthropist  to  ascertain  the  causes  of  the  revival 
of  slavery  by  all  the  nations  of  modern  Europe  which  have  engaged 
in  colonization.  Political  economists  were  bound  to  make  this  in- 
quiry ;  for  without  it  their  science  is  incomplete  at  the  very  foun- 
dation :  for  slavery  is  a  question  of  labour,  " '  the  original  purchase 
of  all  things," 

Philanthropists,  however,  have  treated  it  as  a  moral  and  religious 
question,  attributing  slavery  at  all  times  and  places,  but  especially 
in  modern  times  and  in  America,  to  the  wickedness  of  the  human 
heart.  So  universal,  indeed,  is  the  doctrine,  that  we  find  it  in  the 
most  improbable  of  places ;  in  the  latest  and  wisest  of  treatises  on 
political  economy,  whose  author  speaks  of  "  the  infernal  spirit  of 
the  slave-master."  The  infernal  spirit  of  Abraham  and  Joshua  ; 
of  Socrates  and  Plato  ;  of  Cicero  and  Seneca  ;  of  Alfred  the  Great ; 
of  Las  Casas,  who  laid  the  foundation  of  negro  slavery  in  Amer- 
ica ;  of  Baltimore,  Penn,  and  Washington  !  These  names  alone  show 
that  the  spirit  of  the  slave-master  is  not  that  love  of  oppression 
and  cruelty,  which  the  exercise  of  unlimited  power  over  his  fellow- 
creatures  is  apt  to  beget  in  man  :  that  infernal  spirit  is,  and  not 
universally,  a  mere  effect  of  keeping  slaves.  The  universal  spirit  of 
the  slave-master  is  his  motive  ;  the  state  of  mind  that  induces  him 
1  Wakefield,  A  View  of  the  Art  of  Colonization  [1851],  pp.  322-330. 


ORIGIN  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  NEW  WOklJ)       743 

to  keep  slaves  ;  the  spirit  which,  operating  on  individuals  and  com- 
munities, has  ever  been  the  immediate  cause  of  slavery.  It  is  not 
a  wicked  or  infernal  spirit.  Neither  communities  nor  individuals 
keep  slaves  in  order  to  indulge  in  oppression  and  cruelty.  Those 
British  colonies — and  they  are  many — which  would  get  slaves  to- 
morrow if  we  would  let  them,  are  not  more  wicked  than  we  are  : 
they  are  only  placed  in  circumstances  which  induce  us  to  long 
for  the  possession  of  slaves  notwithstanding  the  objections  to  it. 
These  circumstances,  by  producing  the  state  of  mind  in  which 
slavery  becomes  desirable  for  masters,  have  ever  been  the  origi- 
nating cause  of  slavery. 

They  are  not  moral,  but  economical  circumstances  :  they  relate 
not  to  vice  and  virtue,  but  to  production.  They  are  the  circum- 
stances, in  which  one  man  finds  it  difficult  or  impossible  to  get 
other  men  to  work  under  his  direction  for  wages.  They  are  the 
circumstances,  referring  to  a  former  letter,  w^hich  stand  in  the  way 
of  combination  and  constancy  of  labour,  and  which  all  civilized  na- 
tions, in  a  certain  stage  of  their  advance  from  barbarism,  have  en- 
deavoured to  counteract,  and  have  in  some  measure  counteracted, 
by  means  of  some  kind  of  slavery.  Hitherto  in  this  world,  labour 
has  never  been  employed  on  any  considerable  scale,  with  constancy 
and  in  combination,  except  by  one  or  other  of  two  means  ;  either 
by  hiring,  or  by  slavery  of  some  kind.  What  the  principle  of  as- 
sociation may  do  in  the  production  of  wealth,  and  for  the  labouring 
classes,  without  either  slaver}^  or  hiring,  remains  to  be  seen  ;  but 
at  present  w^e  cannot  rely  upon  it.  Recurring,  therefore,  to  hiring 
and  slavery  as  the  only  known  means  of  rendering  industry  very 
productive,  let  us  now  consider  what  relation  these  two  social 
arrangements  bear  to  each  other. 

Slavery  is  evidently  a  make-shift  for  hiring ;  a  proceeding  to 
which  recourse  is  had,  only  when  hiring  is  impossible  or  difficult. 
Slave  labour  is  on  the  whole  much  more  costly  than  the  labour  of 
hired  freemen  ;  and  slavery  is  also  full  of  moral  and  political  evils, 
from  which  the  method  of  hired  labour  is  exempt.  Slaver)-,  there- 
fore, is  not  preferred  to  the  method  of  hiring  :  the  method  of 
hiring  would  be  preferred  if  there  were  a  choice  :  but  when  slavery 
is  adopted,  there  is  no  choice  :  it  is  adopted  because  at  the  time 


744  'i^HE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

and  under  the  circumstances  there  is  no  other  way  of  getting 
labourers  to  work  with  constancy  and  in  combination.  What,  then, 
are  the  circumstances  under  which  this  happens  ? 

It  happens  wherever  population  is  scanty  in  proportion  to  land, 
Slaveiy,  except  in  some  mild  form,  as  the  fading  continuation  of  a 
habit,  and  with  some  advantage  to  the  nominal  slaves  but  real  de- 
pendents, whom  at  least  it  sheltered  from  the  evils  of  competition, 
has  been  confined  to  countries  of  a  scanty  population,  has  never 
existed  in  veiy  populous  countries,  and  has  gradually  ceased  in  the 
countries  whose  population  gradually  increased  to  the  point  of 
density.  And  the  reason  is  plain  enough.  Property  in  land  is  the 
object  of  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  general  of  human  desires. 
Excluding  the  owners  of  land,  in  whom  the  desire  is  gratified,  few 
indeed  are  those  who  do  not  long  to  call  a  piece  of  the  earth  their 
own.  Landowners  and  persons  who  would  be  glad  to  be  landowners, 
comprise  the  bulk  of  mankind.  In  populous  countries,  the  desire 
to  own  land  is  not  easily  gratified,  because  the  land  is  scarce  and 
dear :  the  plentifulness  and  cheapness  of  land  in  thinly-peopled 
countries  enables  almost  everybody  who  wishes  it  to  become  a  land- 
owner. In  thinly-peopled  countries,  accordingly,  the  great  majority 
of  free  people  are  landowners  who  cultivate  their  own  land ;  and 
labour  for  hire  is  necessarily  scarce  :  in  densely-peopled  countries, 
on  the  contrary,  the  great  majority  of  the  people  cannot  obtain 
land,  and  there  is  plenty  of  labour  for  hire.  Of  plentifulness  of 
labour  for  hire,  the  cause  is  dearness  of  land  :  cheapness  of  land 
is  the  cause  of  scarcity  of  labour  for  hire. 

Test  these  conclusions  by  reference  to  universal  history.  Abra- 
ham, the  slave-master,  said  unto  Lot,  who  was  another,  "  is  not  the 
whole  land  before  thee  .'*  "  The  ancient  Greeks  were  themselves 
colonists,  the  occupiers  of  a  new  territory,  in  which  for  a  time  every 
freeman  could  obtain  as  much  land  as  he  desired  :  for  a  time  they 
needed  slaves ;  and  the  custom  of  slavery  was  established.  They 
sent  forth  colonies,  which  consisted  in  part  of  slaves,  removed  to  a 
waste  territory  for  the  express  purpose  of  cultivating  it  with  con- 
stancy and  combination  of  labour.  The  Romans,  in  the  earlier  stages 
of  their  history,  were  robbers  of  land,  and  had  more  than  they  could 
cultivate  without  slaves  :  it  was  partly  by  means  of  slavery,  that 


(miGIN  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  NEW  WOKIJ) 


745 


they  at  last  grew  to  be  so  populous  at  Rome  as  no  longer  to  need 
slavery,  but  to  ask  for  an  agrarian  law.  The  Roman  world  was  in- 
deed so  devastated  by  wars,  that  exeept  at  the  scat  of  cmjjire,  popu- 
lation never  perhaps  attained  the  jM'oportion  to  land  in  which  real 
slavery  naturally  disajDpears.  The  serfdom  of  the  middle-ages  was 
for  all  Europe,  what  it  is  for  Poland  and  Russia  still,  a  kind  of 
slavery  required  by  the  small  proportion  of  people  to  land  ;  a  substi- 
tute for  hired  labour,  which  gradually  expired  with  the  increase  of 
population,  as  it  will  expire  in  Poland  and  I'lussia  when  land  shall,  in 
those  countries,  become  as  scarce  and  dear  as  it  became  in  Plngland 
some  time  after  the  Conquest.  Next  comes  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  America  by  the  colonies  of  nations  which  liad  abolished  serfdom 
at  home  ;  colonies  in  whose  history,  whether  we  read  it  in  Raynal, 
or  Edwards,  or  Grahame,  we  find  the  effect  and  the  cause  invariably 
close  together ;  the  slavery  in  various  forms  of  bondage,  growing 
out  of  superabundance  of  land.    • 

The  operation  of  superabundance  of  land  in  causing  a  scarcity 
of  free  labour  and  a  desire  for  slaves,  is  very  distinctly  seen  in  a 
process  by  which  modern  colonists  always  have  endeavoured  to  ob- 
tain free  labour.  P>ee  labour,  when  it  can  be  got  and  kept  in  a 
colony,  is  so  much  more  productive  than  forced,  that  the  colonial 
capitalist  is  always  ready  to  pay  for  it,  in  the  form  of  wages,  more 
than  slave  labour  would  cost,  and  far  more  than  the  usual  rate  of 
wages  in  an  old  country.  It  is  perfectly  worth  his  while  to  pay,  be- 
sides these  high  wages,  the  cost  of  the  passage  of  free  labour  from 
the  old  country  to  the  colony.  Innumerable  are  the  cases  in  which 
a  colonial  capitalist  has  done  this,  confident  of  the  prudence  of  the 
outlay.  It  was  commonly  done  by  the  founders  of  our  early  colo- 
nies in  America,  and  has  been  done  by  many  capitalists  in  Canada, 
South  Africa,  the  Australias,  and  New  Zealand.  To  do  this  appears 
such  a  natural,  suitable,  easy  way  of  obtaining  labour  for  hire,  that 
every  emigrant  capitalist  thinks  of  doing  it ;  and  thousands  (I  speak 
within  compass)  have  tried  the  experiment.  It  is  an  experiment 
which  always  fails  :  if  it  always  or  generally  succeeded,  scarcit}'  of 
labour  for  hire  would  not  be  a  colonial  evil.  I  have  never  missed 
the  opportunity  of  tracing  one  of  these  experiments  to  its  results  ; 
and  I  assure  you  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  discover  a  single 


746  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

case  of  success.  The  invariable  failure  is  produced  by  the  impos- 
sibility of  keeping  the  labour,  for  the  passage  of  which  to  the  colony 
the  capitalist  has  paid  :  and  it  happens  as  follows. 

Under  this  voluntary  method  of  importing  labour,  all  capitalists 
do  not  pay  alike  :  some  pay  ;  some  do  not.  Those  who  do  not  pay 
for  the  importation  of  labour,  can  afford  to  pay  for  the  use  of  it 
more  than  those  who  pay  for  the  importation.  These  non-import- 
ing capitalists,  therefore,  offer  to  the  newly-arrived  labourers  higher 
wages  than  the  employer  who  imported  them  has  engaged  or  can 
afford  to  pay.  The  offer  of  higher  wages  is  a  temptation  which 
poor  emigrants  are  incapable  of  resisting.  When  the  non-import- 
ing capitalist  is  not  rogue  enough  to  make  the  offer  to  the  labour- 
ers whom  his  neighbour  has  imported,  still  the  labourers  know  that 
such  higher  wages  can  be  obtained  from  persons  who  have  not 
imported  labourers  :  they  quit  the  service  of  their  importer,  and, 
being  now  out  of  employment,  are  engaged  by  somebody  who  can 
afford  to  pay  the  higher  wages.  The  importer,  I  repeat,  never 
keeps  the  labour  which  he  has  imported. 

Nor  does  the  non-importing  capitalist  keep  it  long.  With  these 
high  wages,  the  imported  labourers  soon  save  the  means  of  acquir- 
ing and  cultivating  land.  In  every  colony,  land  is  so  cheap  that 
emigrant  labourers  who  save  at  all,  are  soon  able  to  establish  them- 
selves as  landowners,  working  on  their  own  account ;  and  this, 
most  of  them  do  as  soon  as  possible.  If  the  land  of  the  colony 
were  of  limited  extent,  a  great  importation  of  people  would  raise 
its  price,  and  compel  some  people  to  work  for  wages  ;  but  the  land 
of  colonies  is  practically  of  unlimited  extent.  The  immigration  of 
labour,  therefore,  has  no  effect  on  the  supply  in  the  market :  yes, 
it  has  an  effect ;  it  increases  the  demand  without  increasing  the 
supply,  and  therefore  renders  the  demand  more  intense  :  for  the 
great  bulk  of  imported  labourers  become  landowners  anxious  to 
obtain  labour  for  hire.  The  more  labourers  are  imported,  the 
greater  becomes,  after  a  while,  the  scarcity  of  labour  in  proportion 
to  the  demand  :  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  mischief  is  the 
cheapness  of  land. 

It  was  cheapness  of  land  that  caused  Las  Casas  (the  Clarkson  or 
Wilberforce  of  his  time  as  respects  the  Red  Indians  of  America) 


ORIGIN  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  NEW  WORLD       747 

to  invent  the  African  slave  trade.  It  was  the  cheapness  of  land 
that  brought  African  slaves  to  Antigua  and  Barbadoes  ;  and  it  is 
a  comparative  dearness  of  land,  arising  from  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation in  those  small  islands,  which  has  made  them  an  exception 
from  the  general  rule  of  West-Indian  impoverishment  in  conse- 
quence of  the  abolition  of  slavery  before  land  was  made  dear.  It 
was  cheapness  of  land  that  caused  the  introduction  of  negro  slaves 
into  Virginia,  and  produced  the  various  forms  of  bondage  practised 
by  all  the  old  English  colonies  in  America.  It  was  cheapness  of 
land  in  Brazil,  Porto  Rico,  and  Cuba,  which  causes  our  African 
squadron,  and  not  only  prevents  it  from  serving  its  purpose,  but 
causes  it  to  be  a  means  of  aggravating  the  horrors  of  the  African 
slave  trade. 

The  cause  is  always  the  same,  in  form  as  well  as  in  substance  : 
the  effect  takes  various  forms.  Amongst  the  effects,  there  is  the 
prodigious  importance  of  Irish  labour  to  the  United  States  —  the 
extreme  "  convenience  of  the  nuisance  "  of  an  immigration  of 
people  whose  position  as  aliens,  and  whose  want  of  ambition  and 
thrift,  commonly  prevent  them  from  acquiring  land,  however  cheap 
it  may  be  ;  there  is  the  oft-repeated  prayer  of  our  West-India 
planters  (not  residing  in  Barbadoes  or  Antigua)  to  the  imperial 
government,  for  some  plan  for  establishing  a  great  emigration  of 
free  labour  from  Africa  to  the  West  Indies  ;  there  is  the  regret  of 
New  South  Wales  at  the  stoppage  of  convict  emigration  to  that 
colony ;  there  are  the  petitions  which  several  colonies  have  addressed 
to  the  home  government,  praying  for  convict  emigration  :  and, 
lastly,  there  is  the  whole  batch  of  economical  colonial  evils,  which 
I  have  before  described  under  the  head  of  scarcity  of  labour  for 
hire,  and  which  operate  as  one  of  the  most  formidable  impediments 
to  the  emigration  of  the  most  valuable  class  of  settlers. 

If  all  the  political  impediments  to  colonization  were  removed, 
this  economical  one  would  still  be  sufificient  to  prevent  the  emigra- 
tion of  capitalists  or  capital  on  any  great  scale.  Indeed,  so  long  as 
it  shall  last,  no  considerable  capitalists  will  emigrate,  hoping  to 
prosper,  except  under  a  delusion  which  will  be  dissipated  by  six 
months'  experience  in  the  colony  :  and  this  delusion,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  increasing  spread  of  true  information  about  colonial 


748  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

life,  is  likely  to  have  fewer  victims  than  heretofore.  I  am  looking 
forward  to  almost  a  stoppage  of  emigration  as  respects  all  but  the 
very  needy  or  desperate  classes ;  provided  always,  however,  that 
the  cause  of  scarcity  of  labour  in  the  colonies  cannot  by  any  means 
be  removed,  and  prevented  from  returning.  My  own  notion  of  the 
means  by  which  the  scarcity  of  labour  might  be  effectually  removed 
and  prevented  from  returning,  must  now  be  explained.  .  .  .1 

2  At  the  epoch  of  the  discovery  of  America,  the  population  of 
Europe  was  small,  and  it  could  only  make  scanty  contributions  of 
people  to  the  New  World  ;  and  as  it  was  itself  just  emerging  from 
a  state  of  barbarism,  it  could  not  extend  to  new  regions  any  elevated 
or  enlightened  civilization. 

Slavery  was  one  of  the  established  systems  of  that  period,  and 
the  holding  of  heathen  slaves  enjoyed  the  full  sanction  of  the 
church.  And  it  had  so  happened,  that  the  value  of  the  negro  in 
the  condition  of  servitude  had  been  long  tried,  especially  in  Spain 
and  Portugal,  and  was  well  understood. 

What  has  occurred  in  America,  was,  under  all  the  circumstances, 
inevitable.  Incalculable  resources  existed  in  the  mine  and  in  the 
soil,  but  by  whose  hands  could  they  be  developed  ?  Where  it  was 
practicable  to  enslave  the  native  people  of  the  country,  their  physical 
organization  was  unequal  to  the  forced  labors  imposed  upon  them, 
and  they  perished  speedily  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Europe  was 
itself  sparsely  populated.  A  few,  under  the  stimulus  of  religious 
zeal,  or  adventurous  spirit,  tried  the  voyage  (then  one  of  months 
instead  of  weeks)  across  the  Atlantic  ;  while  others,  but  still  few, 
submitted  to  the  expatriation  as  the  commuted  punishment  of  their 
crimes.  The  people  who  could  subdue  and  cultivate  the  New 
World,  existed  only  in  Africa.  Their  number  was  indefinitely 
large ;  and  not  only  did  no  existing  moral  and  religious  scruples 
forbid  their  coerced  appropriation  to  that  work,  but  it  was  con- 
sidered rather  to  be  in  the  safe  line  of  religious  duty,  to  subject 
the  negro  heathen  to  Christian  baptism  and  Christian  masters. 

1  Consult  also  the  extracts  under  The  Labor  Problem  of  New  Countries,  in 
Chapter  XIV,  pp.  695-701. 

2  Weston,  The  Progress  of  Slavery  [1857],  pp.  153-155,  155-156. 


ORIGIN  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  NEW  WORLD       749 

It  is  oftentimes  loosely  said,  that  America  has  been  settled  by 
the  European  races,  and  different  i^ortions  arc  distinguished,  as 
settled  by  the  I^Inglish,  I^'rench,  Sjxmish,  and  PortU[(uese.  The 
truth  really  is.  that  America,  including-  its  islands,  has  been  settled 
chiefly  from  Africa,  and  by  negroes  ;  and  it  is  only  in  our  own 
immediate  times,  that  its  colonization  by  Europeans  has  been  com- 
menced upon  a  scale  of  any  magnitude.  Prior  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  present  century,  the  number  of  negroes  brought  hither 
had  probably  exceeded  the  whole  number  of  Europeans  of  all 
nationalities,  who  had  emigrated  hither,  twenty-fold,  or  even  more  ; 
and  down  to  within  less  than  twenty  years  ago,  the  African  slave 
trade  still  brought  in  more  people  than  did  voluntary  white 
immigration. 

Writing  in  1751,  Dr.  Benjamin  Eranklin  says  that  the  then 
computed  number  of  English  in  North  America  was  one  million, 
and  that  the  immigration  from  England  was  thought  to  have 
amounted  to  eighty  thousands.  If  Dr.  Franklin  had  exclusive 
reference  to  the  "  English,"  as  his  language  implies,  there  should 
be  added  to  the  estimate  a  proportionate  amount  for  the  immigra- 
tion of  other  nationalities,  which  would  not  greatly  augment  it. 
The  immigration  down  to  the  period  of  the  Revolutionar)'  War 
may  possibly  have  been  larger,  but  still  could  not  have  been 
great.   .  .   . 

In  1792,  according  to  the  report  made  to  the  King  of  Spain  by 
the  Conde  de  Revillagigudo,  Mexico,  exclusive  of  the  Intendan- 
cies  of  Vera  Cruz  and  Guadalaxara,  contiiined  a  total  population 
of  4,483,529,  of  whom  7,904  were  Europeans,  and  677,458  were 
Creoles  of  European  blood.  The  excluded  Intendancies  contained, 
in  1803,  a  total  population  of  786,500,  and  probably  a  greater 
proportion  of  European  stock.  These  results  correspond  substan- 
tially with  those  arrived  at  in  1803  by  Humboldt.  They  imply  a 
very  small  European  immigration  into  Mexico. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  the  general  state- 
ment commonly  made  by  geographers  was,  that  the  number  of 
whites  in  Mexico  equalled  the  number  of  whites  in  the  whole  of 
South  America.  As  late  as  1 8 19,  Bonnycastle  computed  the  whites 
in  Brazil  at  only  500,000,  and  the  negroes  at  four  times  as  many. 


750  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

In  1 76 1,  more  than  two  centuries  after  the  settlement  of  Brazil  by 
the  Portuguese,  Edmund  Burke,  in  his  "Settlements  in  America," 
says  that  the  negroes  there  outnumbered  the  whites  ten  to  one. 

Upon  the  whole,  it  would  not  appear  that  the  total  European 
emigration  to  America,  during  the  first  three  centuries  after  its 
discoveiy,  exceeded  half  a  million. 

In  reference  to  the  number  of  negroes  taken  in  Africa  for  trans- 
portation to  America,  the  Encyclopedia  Auicricaiia  (185  i)  says  it 
has  been  "  calculated  to  amount  during  the  last  three  centuries  to 
above  forty  millions,  of  whom  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent,  die  on 
the  passage." 

In  1840,  the  estimates  of  the  number  taken  for  transportation 
ranged  from  150,000  to  250,000.   ... 

In  short,  considering  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America,  the 
inviting  fields  for  labor  presented  in  it,  and  the  difficulty,  if  not 
impossibility,  of  supplying  this  labor,  except  from  Africa,  the  slave 
trade  to  this  continent  was  an  inevitable  fact.  It  was  sustained  by 
interests  wide  and  strong,  and  has  yielded  only  slowly  and  reluc- 
tantly to  the  changed  opinions  of  mankind.  In  an  order  and  prog- 
ress of  things,  dictated  by  irresistible  causes,  it  was  the  mission  of 
the  negro  to  furnish  the  chief  labor  of  the  New  World,  until,  in 
the  fullness  of  time,  its  different  portions  have  been  and  shall  be 
enabled  to  pass  successively  to  the  higher  and  nobler  civilization 
of  freedom. 

We  are  now  [1857],  at  length,  in  the  midst  of  a  new  and  better 
epoch.  The  population  in  America  of  European  extraction  has 
grown  so  large,  and  the  accessions  to  it  by  immigration  are  so  vast, 
that  we  can  begin  to  see  that  the  mission  of  the  negro  here  is 
nearly  completed,  and  that  the  limits  of  his  possible  expansion' 
may  be  computed.  In  fifty  years,  the  white  races  now  in  the  United 
States,  and  their  descendants,  will  number  more  than  one  hundred 
millions.  While  it  is  impossible  to  predict  exactly  the  march  of 
this  great  multitude,  or  to  define  precisely  the  regions  it  will  occupy, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  negro  in  North  America  must  be  pressed 
into  narrow  bounds.  And  it  is  in  North  America  only  that  he  is 
formidable,  because  it  is  here  only  that  his  numbers  are  increas- 
ing ;  the  African  race  in  South  America  and  in  the  West  Indies 


ORIGIN  OF  SLAVERY   1\  'I'lII-,  M:\\'   WoRLD        751 

being  either  stationary  or  declining,  except  so  far  as  it  is  kept  up 
by  the  slave  trade,  which  is  reduced  now  to  a  single  island,  re- 
strained even  there  within  close  limits,  and  menaced  constantly  by 
that  complete  extinction  wliich  it  cannot  long  escape,   ,   .   .^ 

^In  an  economical  point  of  view  —  which  I  will  not  omit  — 
Slavery  presents  some  difificulties.  As  a  general  rule,  I  agree  it 
must  be  admitted,  that  free  labor  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor,  '  It 
is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  ours  is  unpaid  labor.  The  slave  him- 
self must  be  paid  for,  and  thus  his  labor  is  all  purchased  at  once, 
and  for  no  trifling  sum.  .  .  .  But  besides  the  first  cost  of  the  slave, 
he  must  be  fed  and  clothed,  well  fed  and  well  clothed,  if  not  for 
humanity's  sake,  that  he  may  do  good  work,  retain  health  and  life, 
and  rear  a  family  to  supply  his  place.  When  old  or  sick,  he  is  a 
clear  expense,  and  so  is  the  helpless  portion  of  his  family.  No 
poor  law  provides  for  him  when  unable  to  work,  or  brings  up  his 
children  for  our  service  when  we  need  them.  These  are  all  heavy 
charges  on  slave  labor.  Hence,  in  all  countries  where  the  dense- 
ness  of  the  population  has  reduced  it  to  a  matter  of  perfect  cer- 
tainty, that  labor  can  be  obtained,  whenever  wanted,  and  the 
laborer  be  forced,  by  sheer  necessity,  to  hire  for  the  smallest  pit- 
tance that  will  keep  soul  and  body  together,  and  rags  upon  his 
back  while  in  actual  employment —  dependent  at  all  other  times  on 
alms  or  poor  rates  —  in  all  such  countries  it  is  found  cheaper  to  pay 
this  pittance,  than  to  clothe,  feed,  nurse,  support  through  child- 
hood, and  pension  in  old  age,  a  race  of  slaves.  Indeed,  the  ad- 
vantage is  so  great  as  speedily  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of  the 
value  of  the  slave.  And  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  if  I 
could  cultivate  my  lands  on  these  terms,  I  would,  without  a  word, 
resign  my  slaves,  provided  they  could  be  properly  disposed  of. 
But  the  question  is,  whether  free  or  slave  labor  is  cheapest  to  us 
in  this  country,  at  this  time,  situated  as  we  are.  And  it  is  decided 
at  once  by  the  fact  that  we  cannot  avail  ourselves  of  an\'  other 

1  For  an  excellent  discussion  of  the  causes  and  results  of  the  African  slave 
trade,  consult  Lucas's  Historical  Geography  of  the  British  Colonies,  III,  70-95. 

2  Hammond,  Letters  [to  Clarkson]  on  Slavery,  1S45,  in  I'ro-Slavery  Argument, 
pp.  121-122. 


752  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

than  slave  labor.  We  neither  have,  nor  can  we  procure,  other 
labor  to  any  extent,  or  on  anything  like  the  terms  mentioned. 
We  must,  therefore,  content  ourselves  with  our  dear  labor,  under 
the  consoling  reflection  that  what  is  lost  to  us,  is  gained  to  human- 
ity ;  and  that,  inasmuch  as  our  slave  costs  us  more  than  your  free 
man  costs  you,  by  so  much  is  he  better  off.  You  will  promptly 
say,  emancipate  your  slaves,  and  then  you  will  have  free  labor  on 
suitable  terms.  That  might  be  if  there  were  five  hundred  where 
there  now  is  one,  and  the  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  was  as  densely  populated  as  your  Island.  But  until  that 
comes  to  pass,  no  labor  can  be  procured  in  America  on  the  terms 
you  have  it.  .  .  . 

II.    ECONOMIC  ADVANTAGES  AND    DISADVANTAGES 
OF   SLAVERY 

1  The  economic  advantages  of  slavery  are  easily  stated  :  they  are 
all  comprised  in  the  fact  that  the  employer  of  slaves  has  absolute 
power  over  his  workmen,  and  enjoys  the  disposal  of  the  whole 
fruit  of  their  labours.  Slave  labour,  therefore,  admits  of  the  most 
complete  organization,  that  is  to  say,  it  may  be  combined  on  an 
extensive  scale,  and  directed  by  a  controlling  mind  to  a  single  end, 
and  its  cost  can  never  rise  above  that  which  is  necessary  to  main- 
tain the  slave  in  health  and  strength. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  economical  defects  of  slave  labour  are 
very  serious.  They  may  be  summed  up  under  the  three  following 
heads  :  —  it  is  given  reluctantly  ;  it  is  unskillful ;  it  is  wanting  in 
versatility. 

It  is  given  reluctantly,  and  consequently  the  industry  of  the 
slave  can  only  be  depended  on  so  long  as  he  is  watched.  The 
moment  the  master's  eye  is  withdrawn,  the  slave  relaxes  his  efforts. 
The  cost  of  slave  labour  will  therefore,  in  great  measure,  depend 
on  the  degree  in  which  the  work  to  be  performed  admits  of  the 
workmen  being  employed  in  close  proximity  to  each  other.  If  the 
work  be  such  that  a  large  gang  can  be  employed  with  efficiency 
within  a  small  space,  and  be  thus  brought  under  the  eye  of  a  single 

1  Cairnes,  The  Slave  Power  [i86i],  pp.  3S-39,  40-45. 


ADVANTAGES  AND  DISADVANTAGES  OF  SLA\'KRV    753 

overseer,  the  expense  of  superintendence  will  be  slight ;  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  nature  of  the  work  requires. that  the  workmen 
should  be  dispersed  over  an  extended  area,  the  number  of  over- 
seers, and  therefore,  the  cost  of  the  labour  which  requires  this 
supervision,  will  be  proportionately  increased.  The  cost  of  slave- 
labour  thus  varies  directly  with  the  degree  in  which  the  work  to  be 
done  requires  dispersion  of  the  labourers,  and  inversely  as  it  admits 
of  their  concentration.   .   .   . 

But  further,  slave  labour  is  eminently  defective  in  point  of  ver- 
satility. The  difficulty  of  teaching  the  slave  anything  is  so  great, 
that  the  only  chance  of  turning  his  labour  to  profit  is,  when  he  has 
once  learned  a  lesson,  to  keep  him  to  that  lesson  for  life.  Where 
slaves,  therefore,  are  employed  there  can  be  no  variety  of  produc- 
tion. If  tobacco  be  cultivated,  tobacco  becomes  the  sole  staple, 
and  tobacco  is  produced  whatever  be  the  state  of  the  market,  and 
whatever  be  the  condition  of  the  soil.  This  peculiarity  of  slave 
labour,  as  we  shall  see,  involves  some  very  important  consequences. 

Such  being  the  character  of  slave  labour,  as  an  industrial  instru- 
ment, let  us  now  consider  the  qualities  of  the  agency  with  which, 
in  the  colonization  of  North  America,  it  was  brought  into  compe- 
tition. This  was  the  labour  of  peasant  proprietors,  a  productive 
instrument,  in  its  merits  and  defects,  the  exact  reverse  of  that  with 
which  it  was  called  upon  to  compete.  Thus,  the  great  and  almost 
the  sole  excellence  of  slave  labour  is,  as  we  have  seen,  its  capacity 
for  organization  ;  and  this  is  precisely  the  circumstance  with 
respect  to  which  the  labour  of  peasant  proprietors  is  especially 
defective.  In  a  community  of  peasant  proprietors,  each  workman 
labours  on  his  own  account,  without  much  reference  to  what  his 
fellow-workmen  are  doing.  There  is  no  commanding  mind  to 
whose  guidance  the  whole  labour  force  will  yield  obedience,  and 
under  whose  control  it  may  be  directed  by  skillful  combinations  to 
the  result  which  is  desired.  Nor  does  this  system  afford  room  for 
classification  and  economical  distribu.tion  of  a  labour  force  in  the 
same  degree  as  the  system  of  slavery.  Under  the  latter,  for 
example,  occupation  may  be  found  for  a  whole  family  of  slaves, 
according  to  the  capacity  of  each  member,  in  performing  the  dif- 
ferent operations  connected  with  certain  branches  of  industr)-  — 


754  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

say,  the  culture  of  tobacco,  in  which  the  women  and  children  may 
be  employed  in  picking  the  worms  off  the  plants,  or  gathering  the 
leaves  as  they  become  ripe,  while  the  men  are  engaged  in  the  more 
laborious  tasks  ;  but  a  small  proprietor,  whose  children  are  at 
school,  and  whose  wife  finds  enough  to  occupy  her  in  her  domestic 
duties,  can  command  for  all  operations,  however  important  or  how- 
ever insignificant,  no  other  labour  than  his  own,  or  that  of  his 
grown-up  sons  —  labour  which  would  be  greatly  misapplied  in  per- 
forming such  manual  operations  as  I  have  described.  His  team  of 
horses  might  be  standing  idle  in  the  stable,  while  he  was  gather- 
ing tobacco  leaves  or  picking  worms,  an  arrangement  which  would 
render  his  work  exceedingly  costly.  The  system  of  peasant  pro- 
prietorship, therefore,  does  not  admit  of  combination  and  classifi- 
cation of  labour  in  the  same  degree  as  that  of  slavery.  But  if  in 
this  respect  it  lies  under  a  disadvantage  as  compared  with  its  rival, 
in  every  other  respect  it  enjoys  an  immense  superiority.  The  peas- 
ant proprietor,  appropriating  the  whole  produce  of  his  toil,  needs 
no  other  stimulus  to  exertion.  Superintendence  is  here  completely 
dispensed  with.  The  labourer  is  under  the  strongest  conceivable 
inducement  to  put  forth,  in  the  furtherance  of  his  task,  the  full 
powers  of  his  mind  and  body  ;  and  his  mind,  instead  of  being 
purposely  stinted  and  stupefied,  is  enlightened  by  education,  and 
aroused  by  the  prospect  of  reward. 

Such  are  the  two  productive  agencies  which  came  into  compe- 
tition on  the  soil  of  North  America.  If  we  now  turn  to  the  exter- 
nal conditions  under  which  the  competition  took  place,  we  shall, 
I  think,  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding  the  success  of  each 
respectively  in  that  portion  of  the  Continent  in  which  it  did  in 
fact  succeed. 

The  line  dividing  the  Slave  from  the  Free  States  marks  also  an 
important  division  in  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  North  Amer- 
ica. North  of  this  line,  the  products  for  which  the  soil  and  climate 
are  best  adapted  are  cereal  crops,  while  south  of  it  the  prevailing 
crops  are  tobacco,  rice,  cotton,  and  sugar ;  and  these  two  classes 
of  crops  are  broadly  distinguished  in  the  methods  of  culture  suit- 
able to  each.  The  cultivation  of  the  one  class,  of  which  cotton 
may  be  taken  as  the  type,  requires  for  its  efficient  conduct  that 


ADVANTAGES  AND  DISADVAN  lAGl'lS  Ol-"  SLAVKRY    755 

labour  should  be  combined  and  organized  on  an  extensive  scale. 
( )n  the  other  hand,  for  the  raising  of  cereal  crops  this  condition 
is  not  so  essential.  Even  where  labour  is  abundant  and  that  labour 
free,  the  large  capitalist  does  not  in  this  mode  of  farming  appear 
on  the  whole  to  have  any  preponderating  advantage  over  the  small 
proprietor,  who,  with  his  family,  cultivates  his  own  farm,  as  the 
example  of  the  best  cultivated  states  in  I'^urope  pro\es.  Whatever 
superiority  he  may  have  in  the  j)o\ver  of  combining  and  directing 
labour  seems  to  be  compensated  by  the  greater  energy  and  spirit 
which  the  sense  of  property  gives  to  the  exertions  of  the  small 
proprietor.  But  there  is  another  essential  circumstance  in  which 
these  two  classes  of  crops  differ.  A  single  labourer,  Mr.  Russell 
tells  us,  can  cultivate  twent)'  acres  of  wheat  or  Indian  corn,  while 
he  cannot  manage  more  than  two  of  tobacco,  or  three  of  cotton. 
It  appears  from  this  that  tobacco  and  cotton  fulfil  that  condition 
which  we  saw  was  essential  to  the  economical  emplo)'ment  of 
slaves  —  the  possibility  of  working  large  numbers  within  a  limited 
space  ;  while  wheat  and  Indian  corn,  in  the  cultivation  of  which 
the  labourers  are  dispersed  over  a  wide  surface,  fail  in  this  respect. 
We  thus  find  that  cotton,  and  the  class  of  crops  of  which  cotton 
may  be  taken  as  the  type,  favour  the  employment  of  slaves  in  the 
competition  with  peasant  proprietors  in  two  leading  ways  :  first, 
they  need  extensive  combination  and  organization  of  labour  —  re- 
quirements which  slavery  is  eminently  calculated  to  supply,  but  in 
respect  to  which  the  labour  of  peasant  proprietors  is  defective ; 
and  secondly,  they  allow  of  labour  being  concentrated,  and  thus 
minimize  the  cardinal  evil  of  skue  labour  —  the  reluctance  with 
which  it  is  yielded.  On  the  other  hand,  the  culti\ation  of  cereal 
crops,  in  which  extensive  combination  of  labour  is  not  important, 
and  in  which  the  operations  of  industr)'  are  widely  diffused,  offers 
none  of  these  advantages  for  the  employment  of  slaves,  while  it 
is  remarkably  fitted  to  bring  out  in  the  highest  degree  the  espe- 
cial excellencies  of  the  industry'  of  free  {proprietors.  Owing  to  these 
causes  it  has  happened  that  slavery  has  been  maintained  in  the 
Southern  States,  which  favour  the  growth  of  tobacco,  cotton,  and 
analogous  products,  while,  in  the  Northern  States,  of  which  cereal 
crops  are  the  great  staple,  it  from  an  early  period  declined  and  has 


756  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

ultimately  died  out.  And  in  confirmation  of  this  view  it  may  be 
added  that  wherever  in  the  Southern  States  the  external  conditions 
are  especially  favourable  to  cereal  crops,  as  in  parts  of  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  and  along  the  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies, 
there  slavery  has  always  failed  to  maintain  itself.  It  is  owing  to 
this  cause  that  there  now  exists  in  some  parts  of  the  South  a  con- 
siderable element  of  free  labouring  population. 

These  considerations  appear  to  explain  the  permanence  of 
slavery  in  one  division  of  North  America,  and  its  disappearance 
from  the  other ;  but  there  are  other  conditions  essential  to  the 
economic  success  of  the  institution  besides  those  which  have  been 
brought  into  view  in  the  above  comparison,  to  which  it  is  necessary 
to  advert  in  order  to  a  right  understanding  of  its  true  basis.  These 
are  high  fertility  in  the  soil,  and  a  practically  unlimited  extent  of  it. 

The  necessity  of  these  conditions  to  slaveiy  will  be  apparent 
by  reflecting  on  the  unskillfulness  and  want  of  versatility  in  slave 
labour  to  which  we  have  already  referred. 

When  the  soils  are  not  of  good  quality  cultivation  needs  to  be 
elaborate  ;  a  larger  capital  is  expended  ;  and  with  the  increase  of 
capital  the  processes  become  more  varied,  and  the  agricultural 
implements  of  a  finer  and  more  delicate  construction.  With  such 
implements  slaves  cannot  be  trusted,  and  for  such  processes  they 
are  unfit.  It  is  only,  therefore,  where  the  natural  fertility  of  the 
soil  is  so  great  as  to  compensate  for  the  inferiority  of  the  cultiva- 
tion, where  nature  does  so  much  as  to  leave  little  for  art,  and  to 
supersede  the  necessity  of  the  more  difficult  contrivances  of  in- 
dustry, that  slave  labour  can  be  turned  to  profitable  account. 

Further,  slavery,  as  a  permanent  system,  has  need  not  merely 
of  a  fertile  soil,  but  of  a  practically  unlimited  extent  of  it.  This 
arises  from  the  defect  of  slave  labour  in  point  of  versatility.  As 
has  been  already  remarked,  the  difficulty  of  teaching  the  slave 
anything  is  so  great  —  the  result  of  the  compulsory  ignorance  in 
which  he  is  kept,  combined  with  want  of  intelligent  interest  in  his 
work  —  that  the  only  chance  of  rendering  his  labour  profitable  is, 
when  he  has  once  learned  a  lesson,  to  keep  him  to  that  lesson  for 
life.  Accordingly  where  agricultural  operations  are  carried  on  by 
slaves  the  business  of  each  gang  is  always  restricted  to  the  raising 


ADVANTAGES  AND  DISADVAX'l'AGKS  OF  SLAVERY    757 

of  a  single  product.  \Vhatc\cr  crop  be  best  suited  to  the  character 
of  the  soil  and  the  nature  of  slave  industry,  whether  cotton,  tobacco, 
sugar,  or  rice,  that  crop  is  cultivated,  and  that  crop  only.  Rotation 
of  crops  is  thus  precluded  by  the  conditions  ol  die  case.  The  soil 
is  tasked  again  and  again  to  yield  the  same  product,  and  the  inevi- 
table result  follows.  After  a  short  series  of  years  its  fertility  is 
completely  exhausted,  the  planter  abandons  the  ground  which  he 
has  rendered  worthless,  and  passes  on  to  seek  in  new  soils  for  that 
fertility  under  which  alone  the  agencies  at  his  disposal  can  be 
profitably  employed.  .  .  . 

^  All  enterprises  of  industry,  whether  agricultural,  mechanical 
or  mercantile,  require  a  certain  amount  of  capital  for  their  success- 
ful prosecution.  Every  thing  which  enables  these  enterprises  to  be 
carried  on  with  a  less  amount  of  capital,  contributes  to  the  increase 
of  national  wealth  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  every  thing  which 
causes  a  greater  amount  of  capital  to  be  rec|uired,  is  an  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  all  new  undertakings. 

In  free  communities,  wliere  the  laborers  have  their  own  labor  at 
their  own  disposal,  and  where  in  consequence,  they  are  ready  to 
sell  it,  either  by  the  day,  the  year,  or  the  hour,  in  any  quantities, 
that  is,  in  which  it  may  be  needed,  besides  the  fixed  capital  invested 
in  lands,  workshops,  tools,  ships,  steamboats,  &c.,  there  are  required 
two  separate  portions  of  floating  capital,  one  to  be  invested  in  the 
stock  to  be  operated  upon,  and  the  other  to  be  employed  in  paying 
the  w'ages  of  labor.  But  no  more  labor  need  be  paid  for  than  is 
actually  employed.  Whenever  a  smaller  quantity  will  answer,  a 
portion  of  the  laborers  may  be  dismissed;  whenever  more  is  needed, 
more  laborers  may  be  employed. 

But  in  a  slave-holding  conmiunity,  in  addition  to  these  three 
portions  of  capital,  another  and  a  very  large  portion  is  rec|uired, 
in  order  to  commence  any  industrious  enterprise  whatever  ;  for 
though  in  such  a  community  there  is  no  payment  of  wages,  yet 
a  corresponding  quantity  of  capital  is  necessary  to  furnish  food, 
clothing,  and  medicines  for  the  slaves.  A  fourth  and  additional 
portion  of  capital  is  also  required,  to  be  invested  in  tJic  purchase 
1  Ilildreth,  Despotism  in  America  [1854J,  p]).  i  19-122. 


758  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

of  the  laborers  tJiemselvcs,  —  a  necessity  which  constitutes  a  great 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  all  industrious  enterprises. 

Take  the  business  of  agriculture  for  example.  In  the  new  cotton- 
growing  states,  a  very  small  sum  of  money  will  suffice  to  purchase 
a  plantation  of  several  hundred  acres  ;  but  a  very  large  sum  of 
money  is  needed  to  purchase  the  laborers  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
cultivation  of  it.  Could  laborers  be  hired  by  the  month  or  the  day, 
as  in  free  communities,  a  moderate  capital  would  enable  the  planter 
to  command  the  labor  he  would  need,  whereas,  under  existing 
circumstances,  no  person  can  start  a  new  plantation  in  Alabama 
or  Mississippi,  who  is  not  already  possessed  of  a  large  capitiil,  or 
able  to  command  it  in  the  shape  of  loans. 

We  shall  fall,  probably,  much  under  the  mark,  if  we  assume 
that  a  capital  of  five  thousand  dollars  invested  in  hired  labor,  would 
enable  as  many  acres  to  be  cultivated,  as  a  capital  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  invested  in  slave  labor.  The  consequence  of  this  state  of 
things  is  obvious.  It  gives  a  monopoly  of  the  command  of  labor 
to  those  who  are  already  possessed  of  large  means,  either  in  the 
shape  of  property  or  of  credit.  Persons  of  small  capital  have  no 
chance  to  compete  with  persons  of  large  capital,  because  by  this 
system,  a  large  capital  is  rendered  absolutely  necessary  to  obtain 
that  command  of  labor  without  which  no  industrious  enterprise  can 
be  carried  on.  This  single  fact  is  sufficient  to  explain  that  tendency 
of  the  wealth  of  a  slave  community  to  concentrate  in  a  few  hands, 
which  has  been  stated  in  a  preceding  chapter. 

This  system  not  only  gives  a  monopoly  of  the  command  of  labor 
to  those  who  arc  already  rich,  but  it  is  also  a  very  wasteful  and 
extravagant  system.  It  compels  the  operator  to  purchase  and  to 
support  a  much  larger  number  of  laborers  than  he  ordinarily  has 
occasion  for.  He  is  obliged  constantly  to  own  and  to  feed  the  largest 
number  ever  necessary  in  his  business,  or  else  to  submit,  occasion- 
ally, to  severe  loss,  for  want  of  a  sufficiency  of  labor.  In  the  cotton 
planting  business,  for  instance,  a  given  number  of  slaves  can  cultivate 
a  considerably  larger  quantity  of  cotton  than  they  can  gather  in  ;  so 
that  the  planter  is  either  obliged  to  submit  to  an  annual  loss  of  a 
portion  of  the  crop  which  he  has  brought  to  maturity,  or  else  to  culti- 
vate less  than  he  otherwise  might,  for  the  sake  of  gathering  all. 


ADV.w  r.\(;i«:s  and  disadvan  rA(;i':s  oi'  si.wf.rv  759 

The  cotton  crop,  however,  as  it  extends  the  labor  (jf  cultivation 
and  gathering  in,  through  almost  the  entire  year,  is  less  surely 
attended  with  this  sort  of  loss,  than  arc  the  grain  crops  and  farm 
cultivation  of  the  more  northern  slave-holding  stiites.  In  those 
states,  during  the  winter,  there  is  comparatively  little  occasion  for 
labor  on  the  farms.  During  all  that  time,  the  capital  invested  in 
the  ownership  of  slaves,  is  unproductive,  and  the  slave-master  is 
saddled  in  addition  with  the  expense  of  supporting  laborers,  for 
whose  services  he  has  no  occasion. 

What  a  great  discouragement  to  the  poor,  that  is,  to  the  great 
mass  of  the  free  population,  this  system  presents,  will  be  evident 
from  a  few  considerations.  In  those  parts  of  the  slave  states  in 
which  slaver)'  predominates,  it  is  impossible  to  hire  free  laborers. 
To  work  at  all,  even  on  one's  own  little  tract  of  land,  is  considered 
a  sufficient  degradation ;  but  to  work  for  another  person,  to  put 
one's  self  under  his  direction,  seems  to  approach  too  near  to  the 
condition  of  slavery,  to  be  at  all  endurable.  If  a  person,  therefore, 
wishes  to  employ  any  other  labor  than  his  own,  he  must  have 
recourse  to  slave  labor.  Hut  the  employment  of  the  labor  of  other 
peojjle  is  in  general  absolutely  essential  to  the  accumulation  of 
wealth.  Where  a  man  merely  hoards  up  the  profits  of  his  own 
labor,  his  wealth  increases  only  as  money  does  when  placed  at 
simple  interest,  and  the  industry  and  economy  of  a  long  life  will 
accumulate  but  a  moderate  sum.  1-5 ut  if  those  profits  are  invested 
in  the  employment  of  the  labor  of  other  people,  his  wealth  then 
increases  like  money  at  compound  interest. 

But  when  to  employ  other  labor  than  one's  own,  it  is  necessary 
to  buy  the  laborers,  a  considerable  sum  must  be  first  accumulated, 
before  it  can  be  employed  at  all  ;  and  as  has  been  shown  in  anotlier 
place,  so  long  as  the  number  of  slaves  which  a  person  possesses, 
is  small,  the  investment  is  exceedingly  precarious. 

The  necessity  of  a  great  capital,  and  the  wastefulness  with  which 
that  capital  is  employed,  sufficient!)  explain  the  fact,  why  in  all 
those  occupations  in  which  the  industry  of  the  free  states  has  come 
into  competition  with  the  labor  of  slaves,  the  free  states  have  been 
able  to  undersell  their  rivals.  Slave  labor  is  only  profitably  em- 
ployed in  those  kinds  of  business,  such  as  the  cultivation  of  cotton, 


76o  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

rice,  and  sugar,  in  which  the  chmate  and  soil  of  the  northern  states 
prevent  the  people  of  those  states  from  engaging.  In  the  cultiva- 
tion of  grain,  the  raising  of  stock,  and  all  the  operations  of  farm- 
ing agriculture,  the  profits  of  the  slave-holding  cultivators  are 
notoriously  small,  and  many  a  large  slave-holder  grows  poor  in 
that  same  pursuit,  which  enriches  the  farmer  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
and  New  York,  who  begins  life  with  no  other  resource  than  his 
own  capacity  to  labor.  Hence  that  heavy  drain  of  emigration, 
hence  that  fatal  domestic  slave  trade,  which  aggravates  the  poverty 
of  the  older  of  the  slave  states,  by  carrying  off  that  labor,  which 
constitutes  the  principal  means  of  economical  prosperity.   .  .  . 

III.    COMPETITION    OF  THE    PLANTERS   AND    FARMERS 
FOR  THE    COTTON    FIELDS 

^  It  has  been  proved  to  be  true  in  the  history  of  this  country, 
that  where  those  who  own  and  cultivate  the  soil  by  slave  labor  are 
confronted  by  those  who,  bred  in  the  habits  and  with  the  education 
of  free  communities,  own  and  cultivate  the  soil  with  their  own 
hands,  the  planter  retires  before  the  farmer,  slowly,  perhaps,  but 
invariably.  The  fact  is  noticeable  along  the  whole  line  which 
separates  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  from  the  free  States. 
Without  intending  at  present  to  comment  upon  all  the  causes 
which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  this  fact,  it  is  sufficient  to  observe,  that 
the  system  of  small  freeholds  and  of  free  labor  gives  a  value  to 
land,  which  puts  it  out  of  the  reach  of  the  slave-owner,  or  induces 
him  to  dispose  of  what  he  possesses.^  The  disproportion  in  the 
price  of  land  in  the  free  and  slave  States  is  enormous.  Undoubt- 
edly, it  is  an  objection  (though  greatly  overrated)  to  the  holding  of 

1  Weston,  The  Progress  of  Slavery  [1857],  pp.  15-1S,  42-44. 

2  This  is  not  the  case  if  the  crops  raised  on  the  land  happen  to  be  those  whose 
production  requires  combination  of  labor  or  production  on  a  large  scale.  In  the 
production  of  such  crops  the  organized  slave  labor  will  be  able  to  make  a  more 
profitable  use  of  the  land  than  the  small  farmer  or  peasant  proprietor,  and  hence 
the  planter  will  be  able  to  pay  more  for  the  land  than  the  small  farmer.  The 
latter  will  sell  out  to  the  former,  especially  if  he  finds  it  easy  to  procure  other 
land  by  moving  a  little  way  into  the  interior.  This  was  the  sort  of  thing  that 
went  on  all  over  the  South.  The  ease  with  which  the  white  farmers  could  secure 
public  lands  by  moving  west  rendered  it  easy  for  the  planter  to  buy  out  the  farmers 
in  the  older  settled   regions,  and  everywhere  this  was  done. 


COMPKTITION   OF  TIIK.   PLAX'I'KRS  AND    l-'ARMKRS     761 

slaves  in  the  border  counties  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  that  they 
have  opportunities  to  escape.  But  if  slaves  were  ever  so  seciu'e,  the 
high  and  advancing  price  of  land  must  be  a  constant  inducement 
to  the  slaveholder  occupying  it,  to  dispose  of  his  interest  in  the 
soil  to  those  who  are  enabled,  by  a  different  economical  system,  to 
pay  more  for  it  than  it  is  worth  to  him.  The  slaveholder  yields  to 
this  inducement,  and  withdraws  to  localities  where  the  valuation 
of  lands  and  slaves  enables  them  to  be  worked  in  combination  with 
profit.  If  slavery  was  again  legalized  in  Pennsylvania,  it  could  not 
possess  itself  of  the  agriculture  of  that  State.  The  high  prices  of 
farming  land  could  effectually  repel  it.   .   .   . 

It  is  an  essential  condition,  however,  of  the  triumph  of  free 
labor  over  slave  labor,  in  a  contest  for  the  possession  of  the  soil, 
that  the  free  labor  should  have  had  the  training  of  free  communi- 
ties. In  such  a  contest,  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  who  as 
a  class  (of  course,  with  many  exceptions)  are  shiftless,  thriftless, 
ignorant,  and  degraded,  are  no  match  for  the  slaveholders.  In  the 
old  slave  States,  they  do  not  enter  upon  such  a  contest  at  all,  and 
aspire  as  little  to  the  ownership  of  acres  as  they  do  to  the  owner- 
ship of  slaves.  If,  escaping  into  the  new  slave  States,  they  enjoy  a 
temporary  freedom,  and  even  attain  the  dignity  of  freeholders,  they 
are  soon  followed  by  their  old  masters,  and  reduced  to  their  ancient 
condition.  These  observations  are,  of  course,  to  be  applied  only  to 
the  non-slaveholders  of  those  portions  of  the  South  in  which  slav- 
ery is  dominant.  There  are  other  portions  of  the  South  in  which 
slavery  scarcely  exists,  and  which  are  substantially  free  communi- 
ties, with  a  sturdy  and  vigorous  yeomanry.  .   .  . 

A  form  of  society,  under  which  the  physical  vigor  of  the  negro 
is  directed  and  controlled  by  the  intelligence  of  the  white  man, 
considered  simply  as  an  economical  system  for  the  production  of 
wealth,  and  without  reference  to  the  morality  of  enslaving  one  set 
of  men  for  the  benefit  of  another,  has  some  obvious  advantages. 
But  the  theoretical  perfection  of  such,  a  system  requires  that  the 
proportion  of  whites  should  be  no  greater  than  is  necessary  for 
directing  and  coercing  the  blacks  ;  and  any  excess  of  whites  above 
that  proportion  is  worse  than  superfluous,  making  a  class  of  idlers, 
or  worse  than  idlers,  who,  in  various  ways,  destroy  or  diminish  the 


762  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

profits  of  the  industry  of  others.  The  system,  in  this  state  of  per- 
fection, (everything  good  and  bad  has  a  possible  perfection  of 
its  own,)  has  existed  in  many  of  the  European  colonies  in  South 
America  and  the  West  Indies,  but  never  in  the  United  States. 
•Here,  the  incongruous  element  of  poor  whites,  having  no  connection 
with  slavery,  and  entirely  out  of  place  in  the  machinery  of  slave 
labor,  has  always  been  large,  and  would  inevitably  explode  the  whole 
system  but  for  the  vent  for  them  afforded  by  our  ample  Territories. 

It  is  not  intended  to  be  said,  of  course,  that  all  the  non-slave- 
holding  whites  of  the  slave  States  are  of  the  class  and  condition 
here  described.  The  truth  is,  that  although  slaveiy  may  legally 
exist  in  eveiy  part  of  the  slave  States,  it  does  not  in  fact  exist,  or 
only  to  an  extent  scarcely  appreciable,  in  considerable  portions  of 
them.i  In  such  portions,  we  find  a  class  corresponding,  in  habits 
and  personal  independence,  with  the  yeomanry  of  the  free  States, 
although  with  less  advantages  of  education.  It  is  not  in  such 
quarters,  however,  where  slavery  does  not  exist,  that  we  should 
expect  to  find  its  effects. 

A  plantation  requires  no  white  people,  except  the  proprietor, 
the  overseer,  possibly  a  physician,  and  their  families.  Its  economy 
does  not  require  the  hiring  of  labor,  white,  or  black  ;  and  the  inter- 
course of  poor  white  neighbors  with  the  planter  is  limited  to 
stealing  from  him,  and  carrying  on  illicit  trade  in  rum  and  other 
prohibited  indulgences  with  his  negroes.  If  a  State  could  be  sup- 
posed to  be  made  up  of  continuous  plantations,  the  white  race 
would  be  not  merely  starved  out,  but  literally  squeezed  out ;  and 
just  so  far  as  the  system  falls  short  of  this,  it  falls  short  of  attain- 
ing its  perfect  development.  To  this  point  it  continually  tends, 
although  it  may  never  reach  it.  Some  soils  will  not  support  slav- 
ery, by  reason  of  sterility,  or  because  they  require  methods  of  culti- 
vation and  modes  of  occupation  to  which  slave  labor  is  not  adapted. 
Of  some  spots,  free  labor  gets  the  first  possession,  and  is  able  to 
hold  it,  either  by  its  own  strength,  or  because  slavery  is  drawn 
in  other  directions  by  more  powerful  inducements.  Commercial 
and  manufacturing  interests,  necessitating  free  labor,  arise  also  in 
the  slave  States,  although  slowly  ;  and,  so  far  and  so  fast  as  this 

1  Consult  the  map  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 


COMPETITION  OF  THE  PLANTERS  AM)   I  ARMERS    763 

happens,  a  white  i)(ii)ulati()n  finds  cmploNiiicnt  and  a  Icj^dtimatc 
position.  But  such  a  population  is  extrinsic  to  sla\er\-,  and  forms 
no  part  of  the  economy  of  slave  labor. 

The  destruction  and  expulsion  of  the  white  race  are  the  lej^iti- 
mate  effects  of  the  plantation  system,  and  are  in  fact  produced  by 
it,  just  in  proportion  as  that  system  is  developed.  In  South  Caro- 
lina, in  1850,  there  were  384,984  slaves  to  274,563  whites,  whereas 
in  1790  there  were  107,094  slaves  to  140,178  whites.  This 
advance  of  the  black  race  upon  the  white  has  occurred  in  spite 
of  the  fact,  that  the  western  part  of  the  State  is  mountainous,  and 
not  adapted  to  slavery. 

1  Between  the  evacuation  of  Charlestown  by  the  British  in  1783 
and  the  year  1808,  the  difference  in  the  condition  of  South-Carolina 
is  immense.  When  the  revolutionary  contest  ended  the  country  was 
full  of  widows  and  orphans  made  so  by  the  war,  and  a  deadly  hatred 
growing  out  of  it  continued  to  rage  between  the  tories  and  whigs. 
The  possessions  of  the  planters  were  laid  waste,  their  laborers  were 
carried  off  or  greatly  reduced  by  deaths  and  desertion.  The  morality 
of  the  inhabitants  had  been  prostrated  by  laws  violating  private 
rights  on  the  plea  of  political  necessity —  by  the  suspension  of  the 
courts  of  justice  —  by  that  disregard  for  the  institutions  of  religion 
which  is  a  never-failing  attendant  on  military  operations  —  by  the 
destruction  or  dilapidation  of  churches  and  the  consequent  omis- 
sion of  public  worship  addressed  to  the  deity.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  By  degrees  the  wounds  inflicted  by  war  on  the  morality 
and  religion  of  the  inhabitants  began  to  heal.  Their  losses  of  prop- 
erty were  made  up  from  the  returns  of  a  fruitful  soil,  amply  re- 
warding the  labors  of  its  cultivators.  These  promising  appearances 
were  strengthened  by  improvements  on  their  civil  institutions,  .  .  . 
To  these  sources  of  moral  improvement  a  powerful  auxiliar}^  was 
added  by  the  introduction  of  cotton.  The  cultivation  of  the  former 
great  staples,  particularly  rice  and  indigo,  required  large  capitals. 
They  could  not  be  raised  to  any  considerable  purpose  but  by  ne- 
groes. In  this  state  of  things  poor  white  men  were  of  little  account 
otherwise  than  as  overseers,    I'here  were  comparatively  few  of  that 

^  Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina  [1808],  II,  445-446,  446-447,  44S-449. 


764  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

intermediate  and  generally  most  virtuous  class  which  is  neither  poor 
nor  rich.  By  the  introduction  of  the  new  staple  the  poor  became 
of  value,  for  they  generally  were  or  at  least  might  be  elevated  to 
this  middle  grade  of  society.  Land  suitable  for  cotton  was  easily 
attained,  and  in  tracts  of  every  size  either  to  purchase  or  rent.  The 
culture  of  it  entailed  no  diseases ;  might  be  carried  on  profitably 
by  individuals  or  white  families  without  slaves,  and  afforded  employ- 
ment for  children,  whose  labor  was  of  little  or  no  account  on  rice 
or  indigo  plantations.  The  poor  having  the  means  of  acquiring 
property  without  the  degradation  of  working  with  slaves,  had  new 
and  strong  incitements  to  industry.  From  the  acquisition  of  prop- 
erty the  transition  was  easy  to  that  decent  pride  of  character  which 
secures  from  low  vice,  and  stimulates  to  seek  distinction  by  deserv- 
ing it.  As  they  became  more  easy  in  their  circumstances,  they  be- 
came more  orderly  in  their  conduct.  The  vices  which  grew  out  of 
poverty  and  idleness  were  diminished.  In  estimating  the  value 
of  cotton,  its  capacity  to  excite  industry  among  the  lower  classes 
of  people,  and  to  fill  the  country  with  an  independent  industrious 
yeomaniy,  is  of  high  importance.  It  has  had  a  large  share  in  mor- 
alizing the  poor  white  people  of  the  country.  From  the  combined 
influence  of  these  causes,  the  moral  improvement  of  Carolina  ever 
since  the  year  1783,  has  been  in  a  constant  state  of  progression  ; 
and  particularly  so  since  1792,  when  cotton  became  a  considerable 
article  for  exportation.   .  .  .  ^ 

^The  culture  of  cotton,  infinitely  more  lucrative  than  that  of 
wheat  or  tobacco,  is,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  most  practised  in 

1  This  extract  is  important  as  showing  that  at  the  beginning  cotton  was  ex- 
pected to  be  produced  by  free  labor  on  small  farms,  and  was,  in  fact,  so  produced. 
All  over  the  South  a  struggle  took  place  between  the  small  white  farmer  and  the 
planter  with  his  slaves  for  the  possession  of  the  best  lands  upon  which  to  raise 
cotton.  The  result  of  it  was  that  the  farmer  sold  out  to  the  planter  and  moved 
to  the  West  to  take  up  new  land.  The  new  cotton  lands  of  the  West  were  usually 
taken  up  by  small  farmers  with  few  or  no  slaves,  and  as  time  went  on  the  planter 
with  his  numerous  gang  of  slaves  moved  in  and  bought  the  small  farmer.  This 
movement  may  be  shown  statistically  by  comparing  the  relative  numbers  of 
whites  and  negroes  in  the  important  cotton  counties  in  the  various  States  from 
their  early  settlement  to  i860.     Thomas  Dabney  was  a  typical  case  (see  p.  642). 

2  Michaux,  Travels  to  the  Westward  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  [1802], 
pp.  294-295. 


coMPicrnioN  OF  the  PLAN'n':RS  and  farmers 


7(35 


West  Tennessee.  There  is  scarcel)"  an  emi<j,rant  who  does  not 
begin  to  engage  in  it  by  the  third  year  after  his  estiibhshment. 
Those  who  have  no  negroes,  eultivate  it  with  the  plough,  nearly 
like  maize,  only  taking  particular  care  to  weed  and  hoe  it  several 
times  in  the  season.  The  others  dispose  their  fields  in  parallel 
ridges,  made  with  the  hoe,  and  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  in  height. 
It  is  calculated  that  one  man,  who  has  no  other  employment,  is 
able  to  cultivate  eight  or  nine  acres  ;  but  tiie  opening  of  the  ca])- 
sules  taking  place  very  rapidly,  when  it  is  ripe,  it  would  not  be 
possible  for  him  to  pick  it  by  himself.  A  man  and  woman,  with 
two  or  three  children,  may,  however,  easily  cultivate  four  acres, 
independently  of  the  maize  necessary  for  their  subsistence,  and, 
reckoning  on  a  crop  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  weight,  per 
acre,  which,  considering  the  extreme  fertility  of  the  soil,  is  veiy 
moderate,  there  will  be  a  product  of  fourteen  hundred  pounds 
weight  of  cotton,  freed  from  the  seed.  Valuing  it  at  the  rate  of 
eighteen  piasters  the  quintal,  the  lowest  price  to  which  it  fell,  at 
the  time  of  the  last  peace,  when  I  was  in  the  country,  it  gives  two 
hundred  and  fifty-two  piasters,  from  which,  deducting  forty  piasters 
for  the  expense  of  culture,  there  is  a  net  produce  of  two  hundred 
and  twelve  piasters.  .  .  .  This  slight  sketch  will  show  with  what 
facility  the  poorest  family  may  quickly  acquire  a  ceitain  degree  of 
afifluence  in  West  Tennessee,  particularly,  if  after  being  five  or  six 
years  established,  they  are  enabled  to  purchase  one  or  two  negroes, 
and  to  increase  the  number  gradually.   .   .   . 

^  Notwithstanding  the  youth  of  the  State  [Alabama],  there  is  a  con- 
stant and  extensive  emigration  from  it,  as  well  as  immigration  to  it. 
"Large  planters,  as  their  stock  increases,  are  always  anxious  to  enlarge 
the  area  of  their  land,  and  will  often  pay  a  high  price  for  that  of  any 
poor  neighbor,  who,  embarrassed  by  debt,  can  be  tempted  to  move  on. 
There  is  a  rapid  tendency  in  Alabama,  as  in  the  older  Slave  States, 
to  the  enlargement  of  plantations.  The  poorer  class  are  steadily 
driven  to  occupy  poor  land,  or  move  fonvard  on  to  the  frontier. 

In  an  Address  before  the  Chunnenuggee  Horticultural  Society, 
by  H3n.  C.  C.  Clay,  Jr.,  reported  by  the  author  in  De  Bow's  Rcviezv, 

1  Olmsted,  Seaboard  Slave  States  [1856],  pp.  576-577. 


766  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

December,  1855,  I  find  the  following  passage.  I  need  not  add  a 
word  to  it  to  show  how  the  political  experiment  of  old  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  is  being  repeated  to  the  same  cursed 
result  in  young  Alabama.  The  author,  it  is  fair  to  say,  is  devoted 
to  the  sustentation  of  Slavery,  and  would  not,  for  the  world,  be 
suspected  of  favoring  any  scheme  for  arresting  this  havoc  of 
wealth,  further  than  by  chemical  science  : 

"  I  can  show  you,  with  sorrow,  in  the  older  portions  of  Ala- 
bama, and  in  my  native  county  of  Madison,  the  sad  memorials  of 
the  artless  and  exhausting  culture  of  cotton.  Our  small  planters, 
after  taking  the  cream  off  their  lands,  unable  to  restore  them  by 
rest,  manures,  or  otherwise,  are  going  further  west  and  south,  in 
search  of  other  virgin  lands,  which  they  may  despoil  and  im- 
poverish in  like  manner.  Our  wealthier  planters,  with  greater 
means  and  no  more  skill,  are  buying  out  their  poorer  neighbors, 
extending  their  plantations,  and  adding  to  their  slave  force.  The 
wealthy  few,  who  are  able  to  live  on  smaller  profits,  and  to  give 
their  blasted  fields  some  rest,  are  thus  pushing  off  the  many,  who 
are  merely  independent. 

"  Of  the  twenty  millions  of  dollars  annually  realized  from  the 
sales  of  the  cotton  crop  of  Alabama,  nearly  all  not  expended  in 
supporting  the  producers  is  reinvested  in  land  and  negroes.  Thus 
the  white  population  has  decreased,  and  the  slave  increased,  almost 
pari  passu  in  several  counties  of  our  State.  In  1825,  Madison 
county  cast  about  3,000  votes  ;  now  she  cannot  cast  exceeding 
2,300.  In  traversing  that  county  one  will  discover  numerous  farm- 
houses, once  the  abode  of  industrious  and  intelligent  freemen,  now 
occupied  by  slaves,  or  tenantless,  deserted,  and  dilapidated  ;  he 
will  observe  fields,  once  fertile,  now  unfenced,  abandoned,  and 
covered  with  those  evil  harbingers  —  fox-tail  and  broom-sedge  ; 
he  will  see  the  moss  growing  on  the  mouldering  walls  of  once 
thrifty  villages  ;  and  will  find  '  one  only  master  grasps  the  whole 
domain  '  that  once  furnished  happy  homes  for  a  dozen  white 
families.  Indeed,  a  country  in  its  infancy,  where,  fifty  years  ago, 
scarce  a  forest  tree  had  been  felled  by  the  axe  of  the  pioneer,  is 
already  exhibiting  the  painful  signs  of  senility  and  decay,  apparent 
in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas ;  the  freshness  of  its  agricultural 


COMPETITION  OF  'I'lIE  I'LAN'I'KKS  AND  FARMERS     767 

glory  is  gone  ;  the  vigor  of  its  youth   is   extinct,  and   the  spirit 
of  desolation  seems  brooding  over  it." 

^The  following  description  of  the  social  construction  of  the 
western  cotton  districts  I  find  among  the  selected  matter  of  a 
country  newspaper.  The  author  is  unknown  to  me,  but  it  is  ap- 
parent from  the  context  that  he  writes  from  ]5ersonal  observa- 
tion. I  quote  it,  not  so  much  for  the  additional  testimony  it 
offers  as  for  the  clearer  statement  it  affords  of  the  tendency  I 
have  asserted  to  exist  throughout  the  rich  cotton  districts. 

"  The  cotton-growing  portion  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
very  garden  of  the  Union,  is  year  by  year  being  wrested  from  the 
hands  of  the  small  farmer  and  delivered  over  to  the  great  capital- 
ists. The  white  yeoman,  the  class  which  has  contributed  more  of 
the  blood  and  devotion,  and  good  sense  and  enterprise  which  have 
made  this  country  what  it  is  than  any  other,  are  either  forced  into 
the  sandy  pine-hills  or  are  driven  west  to  clear  and  prepare  the 
soil  for  the  army  of  negroes  and  negro-drivers  which  forever  presses 
on  their  heels,  to  make  their  industry  unprofitable,  and  their  life 
intolerable. 

"All  the  great  cotton  lands  were  first  opened  up  by  industrious 
settlers,  with  small  means  ^nd  much  energy.  No  sooner  is  their 
clearing  made,  and  their  homestead  growing  into  comfort,  than  the 
great  planter  comes  up  from  the  east,  with  his  black  horde,  settles 
down  on  the  district,  and  absorbs  and  overruns  everything.  This 
is  precisely  the  process  which  is  going  on,  day  by  day,  over  the 
greater  portion  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  The  small  farmers, 
that  is  to  say,  the  mass  of  the  white  population,  are  fast  disappear- 
ing. The  rich  bottom  lands  of  that  glorious  valley  are  being  con- 
centrated in  the  hands  of  large  planters,  with  from  one  hundred  to 
one  thousand  negroes.  The  average  number  of  negroes  and  average 
quantity  of  land  belonging  to  single  proprietors  is  yearly  increasing. 
The  wealthier  the  proprietor  himself,  the  less  does  he  reside  on  his 
property,  and  the  more  disposed  is  he  to  commit  it  to  the  care  of 
overseers.  In  some  counties  in  Mississippi  the  negroes  are  twenty 
times  more  numerous  than  the  citizens.    Whole  districts  are  solely 

1  Olmsted,  A  Journey  in  the  Back  Country  [1S60J,  pp.  3-9-330. 


768  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

peopled  by  black  '  merchandise,'  and  some  half  dozen  white  drovers. 
The  real  '  people  '  are  thus  not  only  deprived  of  the  patrimony  which 
our  abolition  of  the  laws  of  entail  and  primogeniture  was  especially 
intended  to  secure  them  ;  are  not  only  driven  off  the  fairest  por- 
tions of  the  soil,  like  the  Scotch  Highlanders  and  the  Irish  peas- 
antry, but  literature  and  religion  are  fast  disappearing  in  that  por- 
tion of  this  continent  on  which  Providence  seems  to  have  intended 
them  to  flourish  most." 


IV.    INFLUENCE    OF   SLAVERY   ON   SOUTHERN    SOCIETY 

^  Those  who  watch  the  enormous  export  of  cotton  from  the 
South,  and  who  are  accustomed  to  reckon  up  its  value,  as  it  goes 
forward,  million  on  million,  hundred  million  on  hundred  million, 
year  after  year,  say  that  it  is  incomprehensible,  if  it  be  not  incred- 
ible, that  the  people  of  the  South  are  not  rich  and  living  in  luxury 
unknown  elsewhere.  It  is  asking  too  much  that  such  statements 
as  I  have  made  should  be  received  without  any  explanation.  I  have 
found  this  to  be  so,  and  so  far  as  the  explanation  appears  in  the 
attendant  social  phenomena  of  the  country,  I  shall  endeavour  to 
set  it  forth,  sustaining  the  accuracy  of  my  report  by  the  evidence 
of  competent  Southern  witnesses.   .   .   .' 

The  present  system  of  American  slavery,  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  advantages  of  wealth  which  the  cotton  monopoly  is  sup- 
posed to  offer,  prevents  the  people  at  large  from  having  "  comfort- 
able homesj"  ("  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  usual  luxuries  of  country 
life,  viz. :  church,  school,  music,  and  lectures,  as  well  as  bread, 
cleanliness  ").  For  nine-tenths  of  the  citizens,  comfortable  homes, 
as  the  words  would  be  understood  by  the  mass  of  the  citizens  of 
the  North  and  of  England,  are,  under  the  present  arrangements, 
out  of  the  question. 

Examine  almost  any  rural  district  of  the  South,  study  its  history, 
and  this  will  be  evident.  .  .  .  How  is  it  in  a  district  of  entirely 
rich  soil  ?  Suppose  it  to  be  of  twenty  square  miles,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  six  hundred,  all  told,  and  with  an  ordinarily  convenient 

1  Olmsted,  The  t^otton  Kingdom  [iS6i],  II,  2S6,  28S-292,  294-295,  299-301, 
304,  305- 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLyWERY  ON  SOimiFRN  SOCIETY  769 

access  by  river  navigation  to  market.  'J'he  whole  of  the  available 
cotton  land  in  this  case  will  j^robably  be  owned  by  three  or  four 
men,  and  on  these  men  the  demand  for  cotton  will  have  had,  let 
us  suppose,  its  full  effect.  Their  tillage  land  will  be  comparatively 
well  cultivated.  Their  houses  will  be  comfortable,  their  furniture 
and  their  food  luxurious.  They  will,  moreover,  not  only  have  se- 
cured the  best  land  on  which  to  apply  their  labour,  but  the  best 
brute  force,  the  best  tools,  and  the  best  machinery  for  ginning  and 
pressing,  all  superintended  by  the  best  class  of  overseers.  The 
cotton  of  each  will  be  shipped  at  the  best  season,  perhaps  all  at 
once,  on  a  boat,  or  by  trains  expressly  engaged  at  the  lowest  rates 
of  freight.  It  will  everywhere  receive  special  attention  and  care, 
because  it  forms  together  a  parcel  of  great  value.  The  merchants 
will  watch  the  markets  closely  to  get  the  best  prices  for  it,  and 
when  sold  the  cash  returns  to  each  proprietor  will  be  enormously 
large.  As  the  expenses  of  raising  and  marketing  cotton  are  in 
inverse  ratio  to  the  number  of  hands  employed,  planters  nearly 
always  immediately  reinvest  their  surplus  funds  in  slaves  ;  and  as 
there  is  a  sufficient  number  of  large  capitalists  engaged  in  cotton- 
growing  to  make  a  strong  competition  for  the  limited  number  of 
slaves  which  the  breeding  States  can  supply,  it  is  evident  that  the 
price  of  a  slave  will  always  be  as  high  as  the  product  of  his  labour, 
under  the  best  management,  on  the  most  valuable  land,  and  with 
every  economical  advantage  which  money  can  procure,  will  warrant. 
But  suppose  that  there  are  in  the  district  besides  these  three  or 
four  large  planters,  their  families  and  their  slaves,  a  certain  number 
of  whites,  who  do  not  own  slaves.  The  fact  of  their  being  non-slave- 
holders is  evidence  that  they  arc  as  yet  without  capital.  In  this 
case  one  of  two  tendencies  must  soon  be  developed.  Either  being 
stimulated  by  the  high  price  of  cotton  they  will  grow  industrious, 
will  accumulate  capital  and  purchase  slaves,  and  owning  slaves  will 
require  a  larger  amount  of  land  upon  which  to  work  them  than 
they  require  for  their  own  labour  alone,  thus  being  led  to  buy  out 
one  of  the  other  planters,  or  to  move  elsewhere  themselves  before 
they  have  acquired  an  established  improvement  of  character  from 
their  prosperity ;  or,  secondly,  they  will  not  purchase  slaves,  but 
either  expend  currently  for  their  own  comfort,  or  hoard  the  results 


770  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

of  their  labour.  If  they  hoard  they  will  acquire  no  increase  of  com- 
fort or  improvement  of  character  on  account  of  the  demand.  If 
they  spend  all  their  earnings,  these  will  not  be  sufficient,  however 
profitable  their  cotton  culture  may  be  supposed,  to  purchase  luxu- 
ries much  superior  to  those  furnished  to  the  slaves  of  the  planters, 
because  the  local  demand,  being  limited  to  some  fifty  white  fami- 
lies, in  the  whole  district  of  twenty  square  miles,  is  not  enough  to 
draw  luxuries  to  the  neighbourhood,  unless  they  are  brought  by 
special  order,  and  at  great  expense  from  the  nearest  shipping  port. 
Nor  is  it  possible  for  such  a  small  number  of  whites  to  maintain  a 
church  or  a  newspaper,  nor  yet  a  school,  unless  it  is  one  established 
by  a  planter,  or  two  or  three  planters,  and  really  of  a  private  and 
very  expensive  character. 

Suppose,  again,  another  district  in  which  either  the  land  is  gen- 
erally less  productive  or  the  market  less  easy  of  access  than  in  the 
last,  or  that  both  is  the  case.  The  stimulus  of  the  cotton  demand 
is,  of  course,  proportionately  lessened.  In  this  case,  equally  with 
the  last,  the  richest  soils,  and  those  most  convenient  to  the  river 
or  the  railroad,  if  there  happens  to  be  much  choice  in  this  respect, 
will  assuredly  be  possessed  by  the  largest  capitalists,  that  is,  the 
largest  slaveholders,  who  may  nevertheless  be  men  of  but  moderate 
wealth  and  limited  information.  If  so,  their  standard  of  comfort 
will  yet  be  low,  and  their  demand  will  consequently  take  effect  very 
slowly  in  increasing  the  means  of  comfort,  and  rendering  facilities 
for  obtaining  instruction  more  accessible  to  their  neighbours.  But 
suppose,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  of  the  district  in  its 
distance  from  market,  that  their  sales  of  cotton,  the  sole  export  of 
the  district,  are  very  profitable,  and  that  the  demand  for  cotton  is 
constantly  increasing.  A  similar  condition  with  regard  to  the  chief 
export  of  a  free  labour  community  would  inevitably  tend  to  foster 
the  intelligence  and  industiy  of  a  large  number  of  people.  It  has 
this  effect  with  only  a  very  limited  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  a 
plantation  district  consisting  in  large  part  as  they  must  of  slaves. 
These  labourers  may  be  driven  tD  work  harder,  and  may  be  fur- 
nished with  better  tools  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  value  of 
cotton  which  is  to  be  exchanged  for  the  luxuries  which  the  planter 
is  learning  to  demand  for  himself,  but  it  is  for  himself  and  for  his 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  OX   SOirilERN   SOCIETY    771 

family  alone  that  these  luxuries  will  be  demanded.  The  wages  — 
or  means  of  demanding  home  comfort  — of  the  workmen  are  not 
at  all  influenced  by  the  cotton  demand  :  the  effect,  therefore,  in 
enlarging  and  cheapening  the  local  supply  of  the  means  of  home 
comfort  will  be  almost  inappreciable,  while  the  impulse  generated 
in  the  planter's  mind  is  almost  wholly  directed  tcjward  increasing 
the  cotton  crop  through  the  labour  of  his  slaves  alone.  His  de- 
mand upon  the  whites  of  the  district  is  not  materially  enlarged  in 
any  way.  The  slave  population  of  the  district  will  be  increased  in 
number,  and  its  labour  more  energetically  directed,  and  soon  the 
planters  will  find  the  soil  they  possess  growing  less  productive 
from  their  increasing  drafts  upon  it.  There  is  plenty  of  rich  unoc- 
cupied land  to  be  had  for  a  dollar  an  acre  a  few  hundred  miles  to 
the  west,  still  it  is  no  trifling  matter  to  move  all  the  stock,  human, 
equine,  and  bovine,  and  all  the  implements  and  machinery  of  a 
large  plantation.  Hence,  at  the  same  time,  perhaps,  with  an  im- 
portation from  Virginia  of  purchased  slaves,  there  will  be  an  active 
demand  among  the  slaveholders  for  all  the  remaining  land  in  the 
district  on  which  cotton  can  be  profitably  grow^n.  Then  sooner 
or  later,  and  with  a  rapidity  proportionate  to  the  effect  of  the  cot- 
ton demand,  the  white  population  of  the  district  divides,  one  part, 
consisting  of  a  few  slaveholders,  obtains  possession  of  all  the  valu- 
able cotton  land,  and  monopolizes  for  a  few  w^hite  families  all  the 
advantages  of  the  cotton  demand.  A  second  part  removes  with  its 
slaves,  if  it  possess  any,  from  the  district,  while  a  third  continues 
to  occupy  the  sand  hills,  or  sometimes  perhaps  takes  possession  of 
the  exhausted  land  which  has  been  vacated  by  the  large  planters, 
because  they,  with  all  their  superior  skill  and  advantages  of  capital, 
could  not  cultivate  it  longer  with  profit. 

The  population  of  the  district,  then,  will  consist  of  the  large 
landowners  and  slaveowners,  who  are  now  so  few  in  number  as  to 
be  unnoticeable  either  as  producers  or  consumers  ;  of  their  slaves, 
who  are  producers  but  not  consum.ers  (to  any  important  extent), 
and  of  this  forlorn  hope  of  poor  whites,  who  are,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
commercial  world,  neither  producers  nor  consumers.   .   .  . 

South  Carolina  affords  the  fairest  example  of  the  tendency  of 
the   Southern  policy,  because  it  is  the  oldest   cotton  State,  and 


7/2  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

because  slavery  has  been  longest  and  most  strongly  and  completely 
established  there.  But  the  same  laws  are  seen  in  operation  leading 
to  the  same  sure  results  everywhere. 

As  to  the  extent  to  which  the  process  is  carried,  Mr.  Gregg  says  : 

I  think  it  would  be  within  bounds  to  assume  that  the  planting  capital  with- 
drawn within  that  period  [the  last  twenty-five  years]  would,  judiciously  applied, 
have  drained  every  acre  of  swamp  land  in  South  Carolina,  besides  resuscitating 
the  old,  worn-out  land,  and  doubling  the  crops  —  thus  more  than  quadrupling 
the  productive  power  of  the  agriculture  of  the  State. 

It  would  be  consoling  to  hope  that  this  planters'  capital  in  the 
new  region  to  which  it  is  driven  were  used  to  better  results.  Does 
the  average  condition  of  the  people  of  western  Louisiana  and  Texas, 
as  I  have  exhibited  it  to  the  reader  in  a  former  chapter,  justify  such 
a  hope  ?  When  we  consider  the  form  in  which  this  capital  exists, 
and  the  change  in  the  mode  of  its  investment  which  is  accom- 
plished when  it  is  transferred  from  South  Carolina,  we  perceive 
why  it  does  not. 

If  we  are  told  that  the  value  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
has  been  recently  transferred  from  Massachusetts  to  a  certain  town- 
ship of  Illinois,  we  reasonably  infer  that  the  people  of  this  town  will 
be  considerably  benefited  thereby. 

We  think  what  an  excellent  saw  mill  and  grist  mill,  what  an 
assortment  of  wares,  what  a  good  inn,  what  a  good  school,  what 
fine  breeding  stock,  what  excellent  seeds  and  fruit  trees,  what  su- 
perior machineiy  and  implements,  they  will  be  able  to  obtain  there 
now ;  and  we  know  that  some  of  these  or  other  sources  of  profit, 
convenience,  and  comfort  to  a  neighbourhood,  are  almost  certain  to 
exist  in  all  capital  so  transferred.  In  the  capital  transferred  from 
South  Carolina,  there  is  no  such  virtue  —  none  of  consequence. 
In  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  it  there  will  not  be  found  a  single 
mill,  nor  a  waggon  load  of  "store  goods";  it  will  hardly  introduce 
to  the  .neighbourhood  whither  it  goes  a  single  improvement,  con- 
venience, or  comfort.  At  least  ninety  thousand  dollars  of  it  will 
consist  in  slaves,  and  if  their  owners  go  with  them  it  is  hard  to  see 
in  what  respect  their  real  home  comfort  is  greater. 

We  must  admit,  it  is  true,  that  they  are  generally  better  satisfied, 
else  this  transfer  would  not  be  so  unremitting  as  it  is.    The  motive 


INFLUENCE  OK  SLAVER\'  ON  SOUTHERN  SOCIETY    773 

is  the  same  at  the  North  as  at  the  South,  the  prospect  of  a  better 
interest  from  the  capital,  and  if  this  did  not  exist  it  would  not  be 
transferred.  Let  us  suppose  that,  at  starting,  the  ends  of  the  cap- 
italist are  obtained  equally  in  both  cases,  that  a  sale  of  produce  is 
made,  bringing  in  cash  twenty  thousand  dollars  ;  suppose  that  five 
thousand  dollars  of  this  is  used  in  each  case  for  the  home  comfort 
of  the  owners,  and  that  as  much  immediate  comfort  is  attainable 
with  it  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  What,  then,  is  done  with 
the  fifteen  thousand  dollars  ?  At  the  South,  it  goes  to  pay  for  a 
further  transfer  of  slaves  i)urchased  in  the  East,  a  trifle  also  for  new 
tools.  At  the  North,  nearly  all  of  it  will  go  to  imi)rovement  of 
machinery  of  some  kind,  machinery  of  transfer  or  trade,  if  not  of 
manufacture,  to  the  iniproxemcnt  of  the  productive  value  of  what- 
ever the  original  capital  had  been  invested  in,  much  of  it  to  the 
remuneration  of  talent,  which  is  thus  enabled  to  be  employed  for 
the  benefit  of  many  people  other  than  these  capitalists  —  for  the 
home  comfort  of  many  people.  If  five  thousand  dollars  pur- 
chased no  more  comfort  in  the  one  case  than  the  other,  at  startinsr 
in  a  few  years  it  will  purchase  double  as  much.  For  the  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  which  has  gone  East  in  the  one  case  to  pay  for 
more  labour,  will,  in  the  other,  have  procured  good  roads  and  cheap 
transportation  of  comforts,  or  shops  and  machinerv',  and  thus  the 
cheap  manufacture  of  comforts  on  the  spot  where  they  are  de- 
manded. But  they  who  sell  the  reinforcement  of  slaves,  and  to 
whom  comes  the  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  do  they  have  no  increase 
of  home  comfort  ?  Taking  into  consideration  the  gradual  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  elements  of  home  comfort  which  the  rearing  and 
holding  of  those  slaves  has  occasioned  in  the  district  from  which 
they  are  sold,  it  may  be  doubtful  if,  in  the  end,  they  do.  Whither, 
then,  does  this  capital  go  ?  The  money  comes  to  the  country  from 
those  who  buy  cotton,  and  somebody  must  have  a  benefit  of  it. 
Who.?  Every  one  at  the  South  sa\s,  when  you  ask  this,  it  is  tlu' 
Northern  merchant,  who,  in  the  end,  gets  it  into  his  own  hands, 
and  it  is  only  him  and  his  whom  it  benefits.   .   .   . 

How  comes  this  capital,  the  leturn  made  b)-  the  world  for  the 
cotton  of  the  South,  to  be  so  largeh'  in  the  hands  of  Northern 
men.'*    The  true  answer  is,  that  what  these  get  is  simply  their  fair 


774  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

commercial  remuneration  for  the  trouble  of  transporting  cotton, 
transporting  money,  transporting  the  total  amount  of  home  com- 
fort, little  as  it  is,  which  the  South  gets  for  its  cotton,  from  one  part 
of  the  country  to  the  other  (chiefly  cotton  to  the  coast,  and  goods 
returned  instead  of  money  from  the  coast  to  the  plantations),  and 
for  the  enormous  risks  and  advances  of  capital  which  are  required 
in  dealing  with  the  South.  Is  this  service  overpaid  ?  If  so,  why  do 
not  the  planters  transfer  capital  and  energy  to  it  from  the  planta- 
tions ?  It  is  not  so.  Dispersed  and  costly  labour  makes  the  cost  of 
trade  or  transfer  enormous  (as  it  does  the  cost  of  cotton  producing). 
It  is  only  when  this  wealth  is  transferred  to  the  Free  States  or  to 
Europe  that  it  gives  great  results  to  human  comfort  and  becomes 
of  great  value.  The  South,  as  a  whole,  has  at  present  no  advan- 
tage from  cotton,  even  planters  but  little.  The  chief  result  of  the 
demand  for  it,  as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  is  to  give  a  fictitious 
value  to  slaves. 

Throughout  the  South-west  I  found  men,  who  either  told  me 
themselves,  or  of  whom  it  was  said  by  others,  that  they  settled 
where  I  found  them,  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  with  scarcely  any 
property  beyond  half  a  dozen  negroes,  who  were  then  indeed  heavily 
in  debt,  but  who  were  now  quite  rich  men,  having  from  twenty  to 
fifty  negroes.  Nor  is  this  at  all  surprising,  when  it  is  considered 
that  cotton  costs  nothing  but  labour,  the  value  of  the  land,  however 
rich,  being  too  inconsiderable  to  be  taken  into  account,  and  that 
the  price  of  cotton  has  doubled  in  ten  years.  But  in  what  else  be- 
side negroes  were  these  rich  men  better  off  than  when  they  called 
themselves  poor .''  Their  real  comfort,  unless  in  the  sense  of  secu- 
rity against  extreme  want,  or  immunity  from  the  necessity  of  per- 
sonal labour  to  sustain  life,  could  scarcely  have  been  increased  in 
the  least.  There  was,  at  any  rate,  the  same  bacon  and  corn,  the 
same  slough  of  a  waggon  channel  through  the  forest,  the  same 
bare  walls  in  their  dwellings,  the  same  absence  of  taste  and  art  and 
literature,  the  same  distance  from  schools  and  churches  and  edu- 
cated advisers,  and  —  on  account  of  the  distance  of  tolerable  me- 
chanics, and  the  difficulty  of  moving  without  destruction,  through 
such  a  rough  country,  anything  elaborate  or  finely  finished — the 
same  make-shift  furniture.    There  were,  to  be  sure,  ploughs  and 


INFLUENCE  ()I<    SLAVERY  ON  SOUTHERN  SOCIF/IA'    775 

hoes,  and  gins  and  presses,  and  there  were  scores  of  very  "  likely 
negroes."  Whoever  sold  such  of  these  negroes  as  had  been  ix)Ught 
must  have  been  the  richer,  it  will  be  said.   ... 

A  large  proportion  of  the  negroes  sold  to  these  South-western 
planters,  then,  had  probably  been  bought  by  traders  at  forced  sales 
in  the  older  States,  sales  forced  by  merchants  who  had  supplied 
the  previous  owners  of  the  negroes,  and  who  had  given  them 
credit,  not  on  account  of  the  productive  value  of  their  property  as 
then  situated,  but  in  view  of  its  cash  value  for  sale,  that  is,  of  the 
value  which  it  would  realize  when  applied  to  cotton  on  the  new 
soils  of  the  South-west. 

The  planters  of  the  South-west  are  then,  in  fact,  supplying  the 
deficit  of  Eastern  production,  taking  their  pay  almost  entirely  in 
negroes.  The  free  West  fills  the  deficit  of  the  free  l^Lastcrn  cereal 
production,  but  takes  its  pay  in  the  manufactured  goods,  the  fish, 
the  oil,  the  butter,  and  the  importiitions  of  the  free  East.   .   .   . 

Of  course  it  cannot  be  maintained  that  no  one,  while  living  at 
the  South,  is  actually  richer  from  the  effects  of  the  cotton  demand. 
There  are  a  great  many  very  wealthy  men  at  the  South,  and  of 
planters,  as  well  as  land  dealers,  negro  dealers,  and  general  mer- 
chants, but,  except  in  or  near  those  towns  which  arc,  practically, 
colonies  of  free  labour,  having  constant  direct  communication  and 
intimate  relationship  with  free  countries,  the  wealth  of  these  more 
fortunate  people  secures  to  them  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  belong  to  the  same  nominal  wealth  anywhere  in 
the  Free  States,  while  their  number  is  so  small  that  they  must  be 
held  of  no  account  at  all  in  estimating  the  condition  of  the  people, 
when  it  is  compared  with  the  number  of  those  who  are  exceedingly 
destitute,  and  at  whose  expense,  quite  as  much  as  at  the  expense  of 
their  slaves,  the  wealth  of  the  richer  class  has  been  accumulated.  .  .  . 

^  Many  of  the  comforts  demanded  by  people  in  a  moderate  state 
of  civilization  are  necessarily  purchased  at  a  greater  cost,  in  a  newly- 
settled  region,  than  in  the  midst  of  a  long-established  community. 
We  cannot  expect  to  find  a  grist-mill,  much  less  a  baker's  shop, 
still  less  a  printing-ofiice  or  a  bookseller's   shop,   in    an    actual 

1  Olmsted,  A  Journey  through  Texas  [1857],  pp.  viii-xii. 


776  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

wilderness.  The  cost  of  good  bread,  therefore,  or  of  intellectual 
sustenance,  will  be  greater  than  where  the  constant  demand  to  be 
expected  from  a  numerous  population  has  induced  labor  (or  capital, 
which  represents  labor)  to  establish  such  conveniences. 

For  the  same  reason,  the  usual  means  of  civilized  education, 
both  for  young  and  for  mature  minds,  will  be  procured  with  diffi- 
culty in  the  early  days  of  any  country.  Consequently,  though  we 
may  perceive  some  compensations,  certain  fallings-short  from  the 
standard  of  comfort  and  of  character  in  older  communities  are 
inevitable. 

The  prosperity  of  a  young  country  or  state  is  to  be  measured  by 
the  rapidity  with  which  these  deficiencies  are  supplied,  and  the 
completeness  with  which  the  opportunity  for  profitable  labor  is 
retained. 

An  illustration  will  best  enable  me  to  explain  how  slavery  pro- 
longs, in  a  young  community,  the  evils  which  properly  belong  only 
to  a  frontier.  Let  us  suppose  two  recent  immigrants,  one  in  Texas, 
the  other  in  the  young  free  State  of  Iowa,  to  have  both,  at  the  same 
time,  a  considerable  sum  of  money  —  say  five  thousand  dollars  — 
at  disposal.  Land  has  been  previously  purchased,  a  hasty  dwelling 
of  logs  constructed,  and  ample  crops  for  sustenance  harvested.  Each 
has  found  communication  with  his  market  interrupted  during  a  por- 
tion of  the  year  by  floods  ;  each  needs  an  ampler  and  better- house  ; 
each  desires  to  engage  a  larger  part  of  his  land  in  profitable  pro- 
duction ;  each  needs  some  agricultural  machinery  or  implements  ; 
in  the  neighborhood  of  each,  a  church,  a  school,  a  grist-mill,  and 
a  branch  railroad  are  proposed. 

Each  may  be  supposed  to  have  previously  obtained  the  necessary 
materials  for  his  desired  constructions  :  and  to  need  immediately 
the  services  of  a  carpenter.  The  Texan,  unable  to  hire  one  in  the 
neighborhood,  orders  his  agent  in  Houston  or  New  Orleans  to  buy 
him  one  :  when  he  arrives,  he  has  cost  no  less  than  two  of  the  five 
thousand  dollars.  The  lowan,  in  the  same  predicament,  writes  to  a 
friend  in  the  East  or  advertises  in  the  newspapers,  that  he  is  ready 
to  pay  better  wages  than  carpenters  can  get  in  the  older  settlements ; 
and  a  young  man,  whose  only  capital  is  in  his  hands  and  his  wits, 
glad  to  come  where  there  is  a  glut  of  food  and  a  dearth  of  labor. 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  ON  SOUTMERN   SOCIETV     777 

soon  presents  himself.  To  construct  a  causeway  and  a  bridge,  and 
to  clear,  fence,  and  break  up  the  land  he  desires  to  bring  into  cul- 
tivation, the  Texan  will  need  three  more  slaves  —  and  he  gets  them 
as  before,  thereby  investing  all  his  money.  The  lowan  has  only  to 
let  his  demand  be  known,  or,  at  most,  to  advance  a  small  sum  to 
the  public  conveyances,  and  all  the  laborers  he  requires  —  inde- 
pendent, small  capitalists  of  labor  —  gladly  bring  their  only  com- 
modity to  him  and  offer  it  as  a  loan,  on  his  promise  to  pay  a  better 
interest,  or  wages,  for  it  than  Eastern  capitalists  are  willing  to  do. 

The  lowan  next  sends  for  the  implements  and  machinery  which 
will  enable  him  to  make  the  best  use  of  the  labor  he  has  engaged. 
The  Texan  tries  to  get  on  another  year  without  them,  or  employs 
such  rude  substitutes  as  his  stupid,  uninstructed,  and  uninterested 
slaves  can  readily  make  in  his  ill-furnished  plantation  work-shop. 
The  lowan  is  able  to  contribute  liberally  to  aid  in  the  construction 
of  the  church,  the  school-house,  the  mill,  and  the  railroad.  His 
laborers,  appreciating  the  value  of  the  reputation  they  may  acquire 
for  honest,  good  judgment,  skill  and  industry,  do  not  need  con- 
stant superintendence,  and  he  is  able  to  call  on  his  neighbors  and 
advise,  encourage,  and  stimulate  them.  Thus  the  cliurch,  the  school, 
and  the  railroad  are  soon  in  operation,  and  with  them  is  brought 
rapidly  into  play  other  social  machiner\-,  which  makes  much  luxury 
common  and  cheap  to  all. 

The  Texan,  if  solicited  to  assist  in  similar  enterprises,  answers 
truly,  that  cotton  is  yet  too  low  to  permit  him  to  in\'est  monev  where 
it  does  not  promise  to  be  immediately  and  directly  productix'c. 

The  lowan  may  still  have  one  or  two  thousand  dollars,  to  be  lent 
to  merchants,  mechanics,  or  manufacturers,  who  are  disposed  to 
establish  themselves  near  him.  With  the  aid  of  this  capital,  not 
only  various  minor  conveniencies  are  brought  into  the  neighbor- 
hood, but  useful  information,  scientific,  agricultural,  and  political ; 
and  commodities,  the  use  of  which  is  educative  of  taste  and  the  finer 
capacities  of  our  nature,  are  attractively  presented  to  the  people. 

The  Texan  mainly  does  without  these  things.  He  confines  the 
imports  of  his  plantation  almost  eiitirclv  to  slaves,  corn,  bacon,  salt, 
sugar,  molasses,  tobacco,  clothing,  medicine,  hoes  and  plow-iron. 
Even  if  he  had  the  same  capital  to  spare,  he  would  live  in  far  less 


778  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

comfort  than  the  lowan,  because  of  the  want  of  local  shops  and 
efficient  systems  of  public  conveyance  which  cheapen  the  essen- 
tials of  comfort  for  the  latter. 

You  will,  perhaps,  say  that  I  neglect  to  pay  the  lowan  laborers 
their  wages.  It  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  do  so  :  those  wages 
remain  as  capital  to  be  used  again  for  the  benefit  of  the  community 
in  Iowa.  Besides,  the  additional  profit  which  has  accrued  to  the 
farmer  by  reason  of  the  more  efficient  tools  and  cattle  he  has 
acquired,  the  greater  cheapness  with  which  the  railroad  will  trans- 
port his  crops  to  be  sold,  the  smaller  subtractions  from  stock  and 
crops  he  will  have  met  with  from  the  better  employment  of  his 
neighbors,  and  the  influence  of  the  church  and  school  upon  them, 
will  go  far  towards  paying  these  debts. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  a  profitable  return  for  labor,  applied 
with  the  disadvantages  which  thus  result  from  slavery,  is  such  that 
all  but  the  simplest,  nearest,  and  quickest  promises  of  profit  are 
neglected  in  its  direction.  As  a  general,  almost  universal,  rule,  the 
Texan  planter,  at  the  beginning  of  any  season,  is  in  debt,  and  anx- 
ious to  acquire  money,  or  its  equivalent,  to  meet  his  engagements. 
The  quickest  and  surest  method  of  getting  it  before  the  year  ends, 
is  to  raise  cotton  —  for  cotton,  almost  alone,  of  all  he  can  produce 
under  these  disadvantages,  bears  the  cost  of  transportation  to  cash 
customers.  He  will  rarely,  as  I  have  supposed,  invest  in  a  carpen- 
ter ;  he  will  rarely  undertake  the  improvement  of  a  road.  He  will 
content  himself  with  his  pioneer's  log-cabin,  and  wait  the  pleasure 
of  nature  at  the  swamp  and  the  ford.  His  whole  income  will  be 
reinvested  in  field-hands. 

He  plants  cotton  largely  —  quite  all  that  his  laborers  can  culti- 
vate properly.  Generally,  a  certain  force  will  cultivate  more  than 
it  can  pick,  pack,  and  transport  to  public  conveyance.  Unwilling 
to  lose  the  overplus,  he  obtains,  upon  credit  again,  another  addi- 
tion to  his  slave  force.  Thus  the  temptation  constantly  recurs,  and 
constantly  the  labor  is  directed  to  the  quickest  and  surest  way  of 
sustaining  credit  for  more  slaves. 

After  a  certain  period,  as  his  capital  in  slaves  increases,  and  his 
credit  remains  unimpaired,  the  dread  of  failure,  and  the  temptation 
to  accumulate  capital  become  less,  and  he  may  begin  to  demand 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  ON  SOUTHERN  SOCIETY     779 

the  present  satisfaction  of  his  tastes  and  appetites,  I  labil,  however, 
will  have  given  him  a  low  standard  of  comfort,  and  a  high  standard 
of  payment  for  it ;  and  he  will  be  satisfied  to  dispense  with  many 
conveniences  which  have  long  before  been  acquired  by  the  lowan  ; 
and  to  pay  a  higher  price  for  those  he  demands,  than  more  recent, 
or  less  successful,  immigrants  to  his  vicinity  can  afford. 

Thus  he  will  have  personally  grown  rich,  perhaps  ;  but  few,  if 
any,  public  advantages  will  have  accrued  from  his  expenditures.  It 
is  quite  possible  that,  before  he  can  arrive  at  that  point  of  liberality 
in  expenditure  which  the  lowan  started  with,  the  fertility  of  his  soil 
will  have  been  so  greatly  reduced  that  the  results  of  labor  upon  it 
are  no  longer  accumulative  of  profit,  but  simply  enable  him  to  sus- 
tain the  mode  of  life  to  which  he  and  his  slaves  are  accustomed. 

This  occurs,  I  again  remind  you,  not  merely  because  labor  is 
applied  to  the  end  of  immediately  realizing  a  return  in  slaves,  but 
because  it  continues  constantly  to  be  applied  without  the  advantage 
of  efficient  machinery,  and  the  cheapest  means  of  marketing  its 
results  ;  also,  because  the  planter's  mind,  which,  by  a  freer  expend- 
iture of  capital  at  an  early  day,  would  have  been  informed  and 
directed  to  a  better  method  of  agriculture,  remains  in  ignorance  of 
it,  or  locked  against  it  by  the  prejudice  of  custom  and  habit.  .  .  . 

1  But  it  will  appear  that  the  institution  of  slavery  has  produced 
not  only  heathenish,  degraded,  miserable  slaves,  but  it  produces  a 
class  of  white  people  who  are  by  universal  admission,  more  heathen- 
ish, degraded,  and  miserable.  The  institution  of  slavery  has  ac- 
complished the  double  feat,  in  America,  not  only  of  degrading  and 
brutalizing  her  black  working  classes,  but  of  producing,  notwith- 
standing a  fertile  soil  and  abundant  room,  a  poor  white  population 
as  degraded  and  brutal  as  ever  existed  in  any  of  the  most  crowded 
districts  of  Europe. 

The  way  that  it  is  done  can  be  made  apparent  in  a  few  words. 
I,  The  distribution  of  the  land  into  large  plantations,  and  the 
consequent  sparseness  of  settlement,  make  any  system  of  common- 
school  education  impracticable.  2.  The  same  cause  operates  with 
regard  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.    3.  The  degradation  of  the 

1  Mrs.  Stowe,  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  [1S53],  PP-  1S4-1S5. 


7So  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

idea  of  labor,  which  results  inevitably  from  enslaving  the  working 
class,  operates  to  a  great  extent  in  preventing  respectable  working- 
men  of  the  middling  classes  from  settling  or  remaining  in  slave 
states.  Where  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  and  masons  are  advertised 
every  week  with  their  own  tools,  or  in  company  with  horses,  hogs, 
and  other  cattle,  there  is  necessarily  such  an  estimate  of  the  labor- 
ing class  that  intelligent,  self-respecting  mechanics,  such  as  abound 
in  the  free  states,  must  find  much  that  is  annoying  and  disagreeable. 
They  may  endure  it  for  a  time,  but  with  much  uneasiness  ;  and 
they  are  glad  of  the  first  opportunity  of  emigration. 

Then,  again,  the  filling  up  of  all  branches  of  mechanics  and 
agriculture  with  slave  labor  necessarily  depresses  free  labor.  Sup- 
pose, now,  a  family  of  poor  whites  in  Carolina  or  Virginia,  and  the 
same  family  in  Vermont  or  Maine ;  how  different  the  influences 
that  come  over  them  !  In  Vermont  or  Maine,  the  children  have 
the  means  of  education  at  hand  in  public  schools,  and  they  have 
all  around  them  in  society  avenues  of  success  that  require  only  in- 
dustry to  make  them  available.  The  boys  have  their  choice  among 
all  the  different  trades,  for  which  the  organization  of  free  society 
makes  a  steady  demand.  The  girls,  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the 
land  in  which  they  are  born,  think  useful  labor  no  disgrace,  and 
find,  with  true  female  ingenuity,  a  hundred  ways  of  adding  to  the 
family  stock.  If  there  be  one  member  of  a  family  in  whom  diviner 
gifts  and  higher  longings  seem  a  call  for  a  more  finished  course  of 
education,  then  cheerfully  the  whole  family  unites  its  productive  in- 
dustry to  give  that  one  the  wider  education  which  his  wider  genius 
demands  ;  and  thus  have  been  given  to  the  world  such  men  as 
Roger  Sherman  and  Daniel  Webster. 

But  take  this  same  family  and  plant  them  in  South  Carolina  or 
Virginia  —  how  different  the  result !  No  common  school  opens  its 
doors  to  their  children;  the  only  church,  perhaps,  is  fifteen  miles 
off,  over  a  bad  road.  The  whole  atmosphere  of  the  country  in 
which  they  are  born  associates  degradation  and  slavery  with  useful 
labor;  and  the  only  standard  of  gentility  is  ability  to  live  without 
work.  What  branch  of  useful  labor  opens  a  way  to  its  sons  ?  Would 
he  be  a  blacksmith }  —  The  planters  around  him  prefer  to  df/f  their 
blacksmiths  in  Virginia.    Would  he  be  a  carpenter.?  —  Each  planter 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  ON  SOUTHERN  SOCTETY  781 

in  hjs  neighborhood  owns  one  or  two  now.  And  so  coopers  and 
masons.  Would  he  be  a  shoemaker  ?  —  The  plantation  shoes  are 
made  in  Lynn  and  Natick,  towns  of  New  li^ngland.  In  fact  be- 
tween the  free  labor  of  the  North  and  the  slave  labor  of  the  South, 
there  is  nothing  for  a  poor  white  to  do.  Without  schools  or  churches, 
these  miserable  families  grow  up  heathen  on  a  Christian  soil,  in 
idleness,  vice,  dirt,  and  discomfort  of  all  sorts.  They  are  the  pest 
of  the  neighborhood,  the  scoff  and  contempt  or  pity  even  of  the 
slaves.  The  expressive  phrase,  so  common  in  the  mouths  of  the 
negroes,  of  "poor  white  trash,"  says  all  for  this  luckless  race  of 
beings  that  can  be  said.  From  this  class  spring  a  tribe  of  keepers 
of  small  groggeries,  and  dealers,  by  a  kind  of  contraband  trade, 
with  the  negroes,  in  the  stolen  produce  of  plantations.  Thriving 
and  promising  sons  may  perhaps  hope  to  grow  up  into  negro- 
traders,  and  thence  be  exalted  into  overseers  of  plantations.  The 
utmost  stretch  of  ambition  is  to  compass  money  enough,  by  any  of 
a  variety  of  nondescript  measures,  to  "buy  a  nigger  or  two,"  and 
begin  to  appear  like  other  folks.  Woe  betide  the  unfortunate  negro 
man  or  woman,  carefully  raised  in  some  good  religious  family,  when 
an  execution  or  the  death  of  their  proprietors  throws  them  into  the 
market,  and  they  are  bought  by  a  master  and  mistress  of  this  class ! 
Oftentimes  the  slave  is  infinitely  the  superior,  in  every  respect,  — 
in  person,  manners,  education,  and  morals;  but,  for  all  that,  the 
law  guards  the  despotic  authority  of  the  owner  quite  as  jealously,^ 

'^Btit  yoii  have  no  yeomen  in  the  South,  my  dear  Sir?  Beg 
pardon,  our  dear  Sir,  but  we  have  —  hosts  of  them.  /  tJionght 
yon  had  only  poor  White  Trash  I  Yes,  we  dare  say  as  much  — 
and  that  the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese!  You  have  fully  as 
much  right  or  reason  to  think  the  one  thing  as  the  other.    Do  tell, 

^  This  is  a  good  example  of  the  prevalent  northern  error  which  confounded 
the  whole  non-slaveholding  white  population,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  with  the  poor 
white  class.  The  conduct  of  the  southern  armies,  which  were  made  up  princi- 
pally of  non-slaveholding  white  farmers,  shows  the  absurdity  of  this  error.  A 
degraded  race  of  men  do  not  make  such  soldiers  as  they  were.  The  same  error 
appears  in  the  attempt  to  explain  the  poverty  of  the  South  by  attributing  it  to 
the  influence  of  slavery  in  causing  the  masses  of  the  whites  to  regard  labor  as 
degrading. 

2  Hundley,  Social  Relations  in  Our  Southern  States  [i860],  pp.  193-198. 


782  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

noiv;  zuant  to  kiunv?  Is  that  so,  our  good  friend?  do  you  really 
desire  to  learn  the  truth  about  this  matter?  If  so,  to  the  extent  of 
our  poor  ability,  we  shall  endeavor  to  enlighten  you  upon  a  subject, 
which  not  one  Yankee  in  ten  thousand  in  the  least  understands. 

Know,  then,  that  the  Poor  Whites  of  the  South  constitute  a 
separate  class  to  themselves ;  the  Southern  yeomen  are  as  distinct 
from  them  as  the  Southern  Gentleman  is  from  the  Cotton  Snob. 
Certainly  the  Southern  yeomen  are  nearly  always  poor,  at  least  so 
far  as  this  world's  goods  are  to  be  taken  into  the  account.  As  a 
general  thing  they  own  no  slaves;  and  even  in  case  they  do,  the 
wealthiest  of  them  rarely  possess  more  than  from  ten  to  fifteen. 
But  even  when  they  are  slaveholders,  they  seem  to  exercise  but 
few  of  the  rights  of  ownership  over  their  human  chattels,  making 
so  little  distinction  between  master  and  man,  that  their  negroes 
invariably  become  spoiled,  like  so  many  rude  children  who  have 
been  unwisely  spared  the  rod  by  their  foolish  guardians.  Such 
negroes  are  lazy  as  the  day  is  long,  saucy  and  impertinent,  and 
besides  are  nearly  as  useless  members  of  society  as  the  free  blacks 
of  the  North,  or  Jamaica,  or  the  Central  American  States.  In- 
dulged from  their  infancy,  never  receiving  a  stripe  unless  some 
one  of  their  young  masters  is  stout  enough  to  give  them  a  lam- 
ming  in  a  regular  fisticuffs  fight,  and  in  all  things  treated  more 
like  equals  than  slaves,  it  is  certainly  no  cause  of  wonder  that  they 
impudently  call  their  masters  by  their  proper  names,  and,  when 
permitted,  address  all  other  white  persons  in  the  same  ill-bred  and 
familiar  manner.  Indeed,  Senator  Seward  himself  could  not  de- 
mand any  greater  show  of  equality,  than  what  is  often  exhibited 
by  the  yeomen  of  the  South  in  the  treatment  of  their  negroes; 
and  we  think  it  would  cure  even  him  of  his  rabid  mania  on  the 
subject  of  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the  peculiar  institution,  could 
he  be  brought  into  personal  contact  with  some  of  the  free  and  easy 
specimens  of  poor  down-trodden  Africans  we  have  had  the  luck 
to  fall  in  with  now  and  then  in  the  Slave  States.  If  he  did  not 
carry  with  him  to  his  grave  a  very  unflattering  remembrance  of 
his  loutish,  lazy,  lousy,  and  foul-scented  black  "brothers,"  then  he 
is  not  the  dainty  gentleman  we  have  been  accustomed  to  consider 
him.    For,  after  all  their  demonstrations  in  behalf  of  the  Negro, 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  ON  SOUTHERN   SOCIETY    7S3 

the  people  of  the  I''ree  States  are  possessed  of  olfaetories  hke  the 
.rest  of  mankind,  and  individually  entertain  a  very  wholesome  dread 
of  coming  personally  in  contact  with  their  down-trodden  and  much- 
abused //vVri,''/,  however  lustily  they  may  bawl  about  his  being  both 
"a  man  and  a  brother."  We  know,  in  some  parts  of  the  North, 
Negroes  are  admitted  to  the  society  of  a  certain  class  of  fanatical 
free-lovers  and  socialists  —  dine  with  them,  sleep  with  them,  school 
with  them,  and  even  sometimes  intermarry  with  them  —  while  it 
does  occasionally  happen,  that  a  big  buck  African  will  familiarly 
slap  a  white  man  on  the  back,  with  a  '"  How  ar'  yer,  Tom?  Gib  a 
feller  a  treat,"  or,  "Harry,  my  boy,  how  goes  de  wedder?"  In  a 
majority  of  cases,  however,  as  we  have  already  declared,  decent 
people  in  all  the  Northern  States  entertain  a  very  wholesome  and 
sensible  prejudice  against  affiliating  on  terms  of  equality  with  per- 
sons of  color.  In  this  regard,  indeed,  they  are  far  more  scrupulous 
and  sensitive  than  any  class  of  whites  in  the  South. 

Now  it  is  chiefly  owing,  as  we  conceive,  to  this  universal  preju- 
dice against  color  in  the  North,  that  the  citizens  of  the  Free  States 
will  insist  free  labor  is  degraded  by  the  existence  of  African  slavery, 
and  that  the  Poor  Whites  of  the  South  because  thereof  prefer  to 
starve  rather  than  to  labor  side  by  side  with  slaves.  Because  they 
themselves  will  not  consent  to  work  on  a  level  with  the  free  negroes 
in  their  own  midst,  of  course  (such  is  their  reasoning)  any  poor 
Southerner  would  feel  degraded  to  labor  in  company  with  enslaved 
persons  possessing  the  same  objectionable  color.  Capital  logicians ! 
Now,  Sirs,  what  are  the  facts .?  Would  you  believe  the  declaration, 
that  honest  Southern  yeomen  (these  are  the  industrious  poor  whites 
of  the  South)  always  work  side  by  side  with  their  own  human  chat- 
tels in  the  fields,  in  the  forests,  and  everywhere  else.-'  Nothing, 
we  assure  you,  is  more  common.  No  man  can  travel  a  day  through 
any  thickly-settled  portion  of  the  South,  but  he  will  come  up  with 
some  sturdy  yeoman  and  his  sons  working  in  company  of  their 
negroes;  sometimes  their  own  property,  at  other  times  hirelings 
whom  they  have  employed  by  the  month  or  )'ear.  In  portions  of 
Western  Virginia,  particularly  in  the  districts  settled  b\-  the  Penn- 
sylvania Dutch,  such  spectiicles  are  to  be  witnessed  on  almost  every 
other  farm.    Passing  by  their  fields  of  rich  clover,  nearly  waist-high, 


784  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

and  Ijlusliing  as  red  in  a  rich  profusion  of  purple  blooms  as  the 
checks  of  the  plump  country  maiden  who  sits  singing  and  knitting, 
under  the  big  apple-tree  in  front  of  the  neat  farm-house,  you  can- 
not fail  of  being  amused  to  observe  the  lazy  deliberation  with  which 
the  broad-shouldered  farm-boys,  and  their  equally  broad-shouldered 
sooty  companions,  lay  down  their  hoes  or  scythes  to  gaze  at  a 
stranger  —  gazing  long  and  steadfastly,  with  hanging  lip  and  open 
mouth,  until  you  are  hidden  from  their  sight  by  a  turn  in  the 
green  lane,  when  they  all  simultaneously  burst  out  a  laughing,  (at 
what.  Heaven  knows !)  but  in  so  hearty  and  boisterous  a  manner  as 
to  wake  up  the  dozing  cattle,  whose  sleek  fat  sides  are  scarcely  visible 
about  in  spots  among  the  clover-leaves,  refulgent  and  glistening  in 
the  shimmering  rays  of  the  glorious  summer  sun.  So,  too,  if  you 
leave  Virginia  and  pass  down  into  the  Old  North  State  —  the  State 
so  famous  for  its  tar,  pitch,  and  turpentine  —  you  will  hear  the  axe 
of  master  and  man  falling  with  alternate  strokes  in  the  depth  of 
the  whispering  forests  of  dark  evergreens,  as  with  redoubled  blows 
they  attack  the  lofty  pines,  felling  them  to  the  ground  for  lumber, 
or  simply  barking  them  for  their  resinous  sap.  Here  you  will 
frequently  see  black  and  white,  slave  and  freeman,  camping  out 
together,  living  sometimes  in  the  same  tent  or  temporary  pine-pole 
cabin;  drinking,  the  darkeys  always  after  mas'r,  out  of  the  same 
tin  dipper  or  long-handled  gourd  their  home-distilled  apple-brandy ; 
dining  on  the  same  homely  but  substantial  fare,  and  sharing  one 
bed  in  common,  videlicet,  the  cabin  floo7\ 

Again,  should  you  go  among  the  hardy  yeomanry  of  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  or  Missouri,  whenever  or  wherever  they  own  slaves 
(which  in  these  States  is  not  often  the  case),  you  will  invariably  see 
the  negroes  and  their  masters  ploughing  side  by  side  in  the  fields ; 
or  bared  to  the  waist,  and  with  old-fashioned  scythe  vieing  with 
one  another  who  can  cut  down  the  broadest  swath  of  yellow  wheat, 
or  of  the  waving  timothy  ;  or  bearing  the  tall  stalks  of  maize  and 
packing  them  into  the  stout-built  barn,  with  ear  and  fodder  on, 
ready  for  the  winter's  husking.  And  when  the  long  winter  even- 
ings have  come,  you  will  see  blacks  and  whites  sing,  and  shout, 
and  husk  in  company,  to  the  music  of  "  ole  Virginy  "  reels  played 
on  a  greasy  fiddle  by  some  aged  Uncle  Edward,  whose  frosty  pow 


INFLUENCE  OF  SL.WI'.RV  ON  SOUTiri-.RN  Soriiyi'V    785 

proclaims  that  he  is  no  lon<;"cr  fit  for  any  more  active  duty,  and 
whose  loni;^  skinny  fmi^ers  are  only  useful  now  to  put  life  and  mettle 
into  the  finf^ers  of  the  younger  huskers,  by  the  help  of  "  de  fiddle 
and  de  bow." 

And  )et,  notwithstanding  the  Southern  yeoman  allows  his  slaves 
so  much  freedom  of  speech  and  action,  is  not  offended  when  they 
call  him  familiarly  by  his  Christian  name,  and  hardly  makes  them 
work  enough  to  earn  their  salt,  still  he  is  very  proud  of  being  a 
slaveholder  ;  and  when  he  is  not  such,  his  greatest  ambition  is  to 
make  money  enough  to  buy  a  negro. 

^The  population  of  the  southwest,  governed  as  it  is  by  the  pe- 
culiar institutions  of  the  states  in  this  region,  constitutes  the  most 
prominent  subject  of  consideration,  and  claims  the  attention  of  all 
who  would  desire  to  form  a  just  opinion  upon  the  subject  of  man- 
ufactures in  this  district.  The  free  population  of  the  south  may 
be  divided  into  two  classes,  the  slaveholder  and  the  non-slaveholder. 
I  am  not  aware  that  the  relative  numbers  of  these  two  classes  have 
ever  been  ascertained  in  any  of  the  states,  but  1  am  satisfied  that 
the  non-slaveholders  far  outnumber  the  slaveholders  ;  perhajDS  by 
three  to  one.  In  the  more  southern  portion  of  this  region,  the 
the  non-slaveholders  possess,  generally,  but  ver)-  small  means,  and 
the  land  which  they  possess  is  almost  universally  poor,  and  so 
sterile  that  a  scanty  subsistence  is  all  that  can  be  derived  from  its 
cultivation  ;  and  the  more  fertile  soil,  being  in  the  possession  of 
the  slaveholder,  must  ever  remain  out  of  the  power  of  those  who 
have  none. 

This  state  of  things  is  a  great  drawback,  and  bears  hea\il\-  upon 
and  depresses  the  moral  energies  of  the  poorer  classes.  Man  requires 
encouragement ;  the  desired  end  must  appear  attainable,  or  he  will 
in  time  cease  to  strive  for  it.  So  it  is  with  these  people  ;  the  ac- 
quisition of  a  respectable  position  in  the  scale  of  wealth  appears  so 
diflftcult  that  they  decline  the  hopeless  pursuit,  and  many  of  them 
settle  down  into  habits  of  idleness,  and  become  the  most  passive 
subjects  of  all  its  consequences.    And  I  lament  to  say  that  I  haw 

1  De  Bow,  Manufactures  in  the  South  and  West,  in  Industrial  Resources  of 
the  Southern  and  Western  States  [1852],  II,  107-110,  113,  114. 


786  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

observed  of  late  years  that  an  evident  deterioration  is  taking  place 
in  this  part  of  the  population,  the  younger  portion  of  it  being  less 
industrious,  and  in  every  point  of  view  less  respectable  than  their 
ancestors. 

Such  a  state  of  things  should  not  exist  in  the  present  age,  in 
in  such  a  country  as  ours.  It  should  be  sufficient  to  challenge  the 
attention  and  arouse  the  energies  of  the  philanthropist  and  the 
patriot.  It  is,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  interest  of  the  slaveholder 
that  a  way  to  wealth  and  respectability  should  be  opened  to  this 
part  of  the  population,  and  that  encouragement  should  be  given  to 
industry  and  enterprise  ;  and  what  would  be  more  likely  to  afford 
this  encouragement  than  the  introduction  of  manufactures  ?  Diver- 
sify the  labor  and  pursuits  of  the  countiy,  and  while  many  will  be 
induced  to  enter  upon  these  new  pursuits,  and  become  industrious, 
enterprising,  and  useful  citizens,  a  market  will  be  opened  for  the 
produce  of  the  small  agriculturalist,  who  will  also  be  stimulated  to 
better  his  condition  ;  and  not  many  generations  will  pass  away 
before  this  portion  of  the  southern  population  will  rival  their  eastern 
neighbors  in  enterprise  and  industry. 

To  the  slaveholding  class  of  the  population  of  the  southwest,  the 
introduction  of  manufactures  is  not  less  interesting  than  to  the 
non-slaveholding  class.  The  former  possess  almost  all  the  wealth 
of  the  country.  The  preservation  of  this  wealth  is  a  subject  of  the 
highest  consideration  to  those  who  possess  it.  Wealth  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes,  natural  and  artificial.  The  natural  wealth 
of  a  country  consists  of  the  soil,  forests,  minerals,  streams,  etc. 
Artificial  wealth  is  that  permanent  accnmnlation  of  the  prodncts 
of  Jiunian  labor  and  skill  zvhieh  remains  after  the  immediate  and 
'daily  wants  of  the  prodncer  are  snpplied ;  and  whatever  may  be 
the  skill  and  capacity  of  a  community  to  produce  the  means  of 
human  comfort,  this  residuum  must  be  regarded  as  the  only  true 
test  of  its  prosperity.  Labor,  skill,  and  capacity  for  producing  do 
not  constitute  wealth  in  this  sense  of  the  term  ;  they  are  merely 
the  means  of  its  acquisition.  The  capacity  of  producing  may  be 
very  great  and  much  labor  may  be  performed,  and  still  an  individ- 
ual or  a  state  may  not  increase  in  wealth.  Nay,  so  far  from  it, 
examples  may  be  found  in  our  own  country  of  states  having  become 


INFLUENCE  Ol"  Sl.WERV  ON   SOUTHERN  SOCIETV  7S7 

poorer  by  a  steady  perseverance  in  an  unwise  application  of  their 
labor.  Such  is  the  case  in  the  Atlantic  States  south  of  the  Toto- 
mac,  as  I  think  will  be  granted  by  e\'ery  intelligent  and  candid 
individual  who  is  acquainted  witli  the  country,  and  I  think  it  will 
be  admitted  that  these  st^ites  are  poorer  than  they  were  twenty 
years  ago.  There  is  a  small  increase  in  the  number  of  laborers, 
and  there  may  have  been  something  gained  in  skill  ;  but  the 
great  source  of  all  wealth  in  an  agricultural  country  —  the  soil  — 
has  been  greatly  deteriorated  and  diminished,  and  it  may  be  af- 
firmed, without  the  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  no  ccjuntry, 
and  more  especially  an  agricultural  one,  can  increase  in  wealth 
while  the  soil  is  becoming  more  and  more  exhausted  every  year, 
for  it  is  most  clear  that  sooner  or  later  an  absolute  state  of  exhaus- 
tion must  be  the  result,  and  no  wealth  that  could  be  acquired  by 
the  sale  of  those  products,  the  growth  of  which  had  caused  this 
state  of  things,  could  compensate  for  the  loss  of  the  soil. 

Why  are  not  the  sandy  pine  barrens  of  these  states  settled  and 
cultivated  by  a  prosperous  and  intelligent  population  ?  It  is  cer- 
tainly because  the  soil  will  not  repay  the  laborer  with  bread.  And 
when  the  once  fertile  hills  and  valley  of  this  region  shall  have  been 
exhausted  by  an  unwise  and  improvident  system  to  the  same  state 
of  sterility  as  the  pine  barrens,  they  likewise  will  fail  to  reward  the 
laborer  with  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  must  be  deserted  and 
return  to  the  same  state  of  desolation.   .   .   . 

It  is  said  that  evils  sometimes  cure  themselves,  and  when  man 
pursues  a  course  of  folly  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  necessity  sometimes 
performing  the  oflfice  of  reason,  warns  him  of  the  danger,  and 
compels  him  to  change  his  course.  And  if  the  people  of  the  south- 
west do  not  voluntarily  abandon  their  present  s\stem  of  api)lying 
all  their  labor  to  the  production  of  a  few  agricultural  staples,  neces- 
sity will  in  time  compel  them  to  do  that  which  the  dictates  of  reason 
and  common  sense  should  long  since  have  taught.  This  necessity 
has  been  operating  for  many  }'ears,  but  still  the  people  seem  re- 
solved to  disobey  its  mandates  ;  for  rather  than  submit  to  a  change, 
they  prefer  to  abandon  the  country  of  their  fathers  and  of  their 
own  birth,  and  seek  homes  in  other  lands.  This  is  abundantly 
proven  by  the  Census  of  the  year  1 840,  whereby  it  is  shown  that 


788  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

the  increase  of  the  population  of  the  whole  United  States  in  the 
ten  preceding  years  was  about  thirty-three  per  cent. ;  yet  the 
increase  in  Virginia  was  but  2.19  per  cent.  ;  the  increase  of  North 
Carolina  2.15  per  cent.;  and  of  South  Carolina  2.21  per  cent. 
The  ratio  of  Georgia  was  sustained,  but  for  the  reason  that  within 
that  time  a  large  area  of  new  territory  within  her  limits  was  being 
opened  for  settlement.  That  necessity  must  be  strong  and  urgent 
which  induces  thirty-one  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  a  state  in 
/the  short  space  of  ten  years,  to  break  all  the  social  and  individual 
ties  that  bind  man  to  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  seek  his  fortunes 
in  other  lands.  It  may  be  questioned  if  such  an  instance  of  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  population  of  any  civilized  community  has 
ever  been  known  to  emigrate  in  so  short  a  period.  I  am  aware 
that  the  great  quantity  of  new  lands  which  were  brought  into 
market  in  the  southwest,  operated  as  a  great  inducement  to  emi- 
gration, and  imder  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  constituted  the 
principal  inducement.  But  if  the  soil  in  the  old  states  had  been 
properly  husbanded,  and  kept  up  to  its  primitive  state  of  produc- 
tiveness, instead  of  being  reduced  to  a  state  of  sterility  ;  had  manu- 
factures been  introduced  and  established,  so  as  to  give  employment 
to  the  surplus  labor  that  was  not  required  in  agriculture,  this  large 
drain  could  not  have  taken  place.  The  capital  invested  in  manu- 
factures cannot  be  readily  transferred  from  one  country  to  another. 
In  most  of  the  leading  branches  the  fixtures  constitute  a  large  part 
of  the  outlay,  and  cannot  be  removed  without  great  loss  ;  hence 
when  capital  is  once  invested  in  manufacturing,  it  becomes  per- 
manently located,  and  gives  permanency  to  the  population.  This 
view  of  the  subject  is  sustained  by  reference  to  the  state  of  Massa- 
chusetts. With  a  population  proverbially  enterprising,  and  much 
more  crowded  than  that  of  the  southern  states  ;  with  a  soil  origi- 
nally greatly  inferior,  and  a  climate  decidedly  unfriendly  to  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  she  still  shows  an  increase  of  twenty-one  per  cent, 
in  her  population,  while  in  the  same  time  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
and  South  Carolina,  only  show  an  increase  of  about  two  per  cent. 
And  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  within  this  same  space  of 
ten  years,  a  very  large  quantity  of  the  finest  lands  in  the  northwest 
were  brought  into  market ;  lands  consisting  of  plains  ready  for  the 


1NF]>UKNCK  OF  SLAVERY  ON   SOUTHERN   SOCIE'I'V  789 

plough,  located  near  the  great  thoroughfares  of  navigation,  and  a 
climate  suitable  to  the  agricultural  habits  of  the  New  Englander. 
With  such  temptations  and  inducements  to  emigrate,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  but  that  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  of  Massa- 
chusetts would  have  changed  their  homes  had  it  not  been  for  the 
establishment  of  manufactures  in  that  state.  Owing  to  the  estab- 
lishment and  encouragement  of  manufactures,  Massachusetts  has 
retained  not  only  the  wealth  which  has  been  produced  by  the  labor 
and  skill  of  her  po]:)ulation,  but  she  has  kept  her  population  at 
home,  contented  and  prosperous,  while  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas 
have  been  great  losers  in  both,  b^jr  when  the  agriculturalist  re- 
moves, he  carries  with  him  almost  every  thing  which  he  possesses 
in  the  form  of  property,  except  his  land,  and  that  is  usually  so 
exhausted  that  it  would  not  be  worth  transportation,  even  if  it 
were  as  portable  as  bank  notes. 

The  loss  of  wealth  and  population  is  not  the  only  evil  attending 
this  propensity  to  emigrate,  —  the  moral  and  social  condition  of 
those  who  remain,  as  well  as  those  who  remove,  must  ever  be 
disturbed,  and  more  or  less  retarded  in  their  advancement.  This 
unsettled  state  of  society  prevents  the  establishment  and  encourage- 
ment of  any  permanent  and  efficient  system  of  common  schools. 
And  here  again,  by  reference  to  the  Census  of  1 840,  will  be  seen 
how  disadvantageously  these  southern  states  compare  with  Massa- 
chusetts and  other  eastern  states  upon  this  vital  policy.  In 
Massachusetts  nearly  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  persons 
over  twenty  years  of  age  can  read  and  write ;  in  Virginia  but 
about  eighty-two  out  of  every  hundred  ;  in  North  Carolina  but 
about  seventy-three  out  of  every  hundred  ;  and  in  South  Carolina 
but  about  eighty-two  in  every  hundred  adults  can  read  and  write. 
Such  facts  as  these,  one  would  suppose,  were  sufficient  to  arouse 
the  attention  of  the  citizens  of  the  southern  states  to  an  inquiry 
into  the  cause  of  their  being  so  far  behind  the  eastern  states  in 
regard  to  education,  and  the  general  dilfusion  of  useful  knowledge 
among  the  poorer  classes. 

When  a  spirit  of  emigration  prevails  in  a  country,  those  who 
are  under  its  influence  cease  to  feel  themselves  as  individuals  iden- 
tified with  the  community  in  which  they  live  ;  they  husband  all 


790  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

their  resources  for  the  purpose  of  enabHng  them  to  remove  and 
estabHsh  new  homes  ;  and  they  will  not  enter  into  any  schemes  for 
the  improvement  of  either  the  moral  or  physical  condition  of  the 
country  which  they  have  resolved  to  abandon.  This  influence  ex- 
tends far  beyond  the  number  who  actually  remove,  for  very  many 
continue  to  consider  their  removal  as  probable,  for  many  years 
together,  who  do  not  eventually  emigrate  ;  and  thus  their  moral 
energies  are  paralyzed,  and  the  country  is  deprived  of  their  useful- 
ness. Any  change  in  the  pursuits  of  the  country  that  would  allay 
this  spirit  of  emigration,  would  constitute  the  beginning  of  a  new 
and  better  state  of  things.   .  .  . 

In  looking  into  the  history  of  the  south  and  southwest  since  the 
earliest  settlement,  we  find  that  the  almost  entire  labor  of  the 
country  has  been  applied  to  agriculture,  and  that  the  surplus 
products  have  been,  up  to  within  a  few  years  past,  almost  entirely 
shipped  to  foreign  markets.  The  country  seems  to  have  labored 
under  the  impression  that  wealth  could  be  acquired  only  by  draw- 
ing it  from  other  countries.  Acting  upon  this  principle,  they  have 
gone  on  from  year  to  year  producing  cotton,  tobacco,  and  grain 
for  exportation,  until  their  best  lands  have  become  exhausted,  and 
they  find  themselves  as  poor  in  all  the  appliances  of  comfort 
as  they  were  many  years  past.  The  price  of  the  crops  being 
returned  to  the  country  in  articles  of  daily  consumption,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  each  year's  crop  is  consumed  without  leaving  anything 
to  be  added  to  the  wealth  of  the  community  ;  and  the  only  in- 
crease to  be  found  in  the  elements  or  means  to  procure  wealth, 
consists  of  the  increase  of  slaves  —  an  increase  in  no  way  con- 
nected with  the  exportation  of  produce,  but  would  have  been  the 
same,  or  in  all  probability  greater,  if  all  the  produce  had  been 
consumed  at  home. 

If  one  unacquainted  with  the  present  condition  of  the  southwest, 
were  told  that  the  cotton-growing  district  alone  had  sold  the  crop 
for  fifty  millions  of  dollars  per  annum  for  the  last  twenty  years,  he 
would  naturally  conclude  that  this  must  be  the  richest  community 
in  the  world.  He  might  well  imagine  that  the  planters  all  dwell 
in  palaces,  upon  estates  improved  by  every  device  of  art,  and  that 
their  most  common  utensils  were  made  of  the  precious  metals ; 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAYFRV  ON  SOUTIIKRX  SOCIiri'V  791 

that  canals,  turnpikes,  railways,  and  every  other  improvement  de- 
signed either  for  use  or  for  ornament,  abounded  in  every  part  of 
the  land  ;  and  that  the  want  of  money  had  never  been  felt  or  heard 
of  in  its  limits.  He  would  conclude  that  the  most  splendid  edifices 
dedicated  to  the  purposes  of  religion  and  learning  were  everywhere 
to  be  found,  and  that  all  the  liberal  arts  had  here  found  their  re- 
ward and  a  home.  But  what  would  be  his  surprise  when  told,  that 
so  far  from  dwelling  in  palaces,  many  of  these  j^lanters  dwell  in 
habitations  of  the  most  primitive  construction,  and  these  so  inarti- 
ficially  built  as  to  be  incapable  of  protecting  the  inmates  from  the 
winds  and  rains  of  heaven  ;  that  instead  of  any  artistical  improve- 
ment, this  rude  dwelling  was  surrounded  by  cotton  fields,  or  proba- 
bly by  fields  exhausted,  washed  into  gullies  and  abandoned  ;  that 
instead  of  canals,  the  navigable  .streams  remain  unimproved,  to  the 
great  detriment  of  transportation  ;  that  the  common  roads  of  the 
country  w'ere  scarcely  passable  ;  that  the  edifices  erected  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  learning  and  religion  were  frecjuently  built  of  logs, 
and  covered  with  boards  ;  and  that  the  fine  arts  were  but  little  en- 
couraged or  cared  for.  Upon  receiving  this  information,  he  w^ould 
imagine  that  this  was  surely  the  country  of  misers  —  that  they  had 
been  hoarding  up  all  the  money  of  the  world,  to  the  great  detri- 
ment of  the  balance  of  mankind.  But  his  surprise  would  be  greatly 
increased  when  informed,  that  instead  of  being  misers  and  hoarders 
of  money,  these  people  were  generally  scarce  of  it,  and  many  of 
them  embarrassed  and  bankrupt.  Upon  what  principle  could  a 
stranger  to  the  country  account  for  this  condition  of  things  ? 
How  could  he  account  for  the  expenditure  of  the  enormous  sum 
of  071C  billion  of  dollars  in  the  short  space  of  twenty  years  .?  In- 
deed I  think  it  would  puzzle  the  most  observing  individual  in  tlie 
country  to  account  for  so  strange  a  result. 

It  is  true  that  much  has  been  paid  for  public  lands  within  this 
period  of  twenty  years,  but  the  price  of  two  crops  would  more  than 
cover  that  account.  The  purchase  of  slaves  and  private  lands  should 
not  be  taken  into  the  account,  because  the  money  paid  for  these 
should  have  remained  in  the  country,  except  that  portion  paid  for 
the  slaves  purchased  out  of  the  cotton  region,  which  is  inconsider- 
able when  compared  to  the  number  brought  into  it  by  emigrants  ; 


79:2  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

and  as  to  the  natural  increase  of  the  slaves  in  the  cotton  region, 
that  has  no  relation  to  the  subject. 

What,  then,  has  become  of  the  other  nine  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  ?  Much  of  it  has  been  paid  to  the  neighboring  states  for 
provisions,  mules,  horses,  and  implements  of  husbandry  ;  much 
has  been  paid  for  clothing  and  other  articles  of  manufacture,  all  in- 
duced by  the  system  of  applying  all,  or  nearly  all  the  labor  of  the 
country  to  the  production  of  one  staple  only,  and  by  neglecting 
the  encouragement  of  manufactures.  No  mind  can  look  back  upon 
the  history  of  this  region  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  not  feel 
convinced  that  the  labor  bestowed  in  cotton  growing  during  that 
period  has  been  a  total  loss  to  this  part  of  the  country.  It  is  true 
that  some  of  the  neighboring  states  have  been  benefited  to  some 
extent,  and  it  has  served  to  swell  the  general  commerce  of  the 
nation  ;  the  manufacture  of  the  raw  material  has  given  employ- 
ment to  foreign  capital  and  to  foreign  labor,  and  has  also  served 
to  swell  the  volume  of  foreign  commerce.  But  the  country  of  its 
production  has  gained  nothing,  and  lost  much  ;  —  it  has  lost  much 
because  it  has  not  kept  its  relative  position  in  the  rapid  march  of 
improvement  which  marks  the  progress  of  other  countries  ;  and 
more  than  all,  in  the  transportation  of  its  produce,  it  has  trans- 
ported much  of  the  productive  and  essential  principles  of  the  soil, 
which  can  never  be  returned,  thereby  sapping  the  very  foundation 
of  its  wealth. 

^  Says  William  Gregg,  in  an  address  delivered  before  the  South 
Carolina  Institute,  in  185 1  :  — 

From  the  best  estimates  that  I  have  been  able  to  make,  I  put  down  the 
white  people  who  ought  to  work,  and  who  do  not,  or  who  are  so  employed  as 
to  be  wholly  unproductive  to  the  State,  at  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thou- 
sand. Any  man  who  is  an  observer  of  things  could  hardly  pass  through  our 
country,  without  being  struck  with  the  fact  that  all  the  capital,  enterprise,  and 
intelligence,  is  employed  in  directing  slave  labor ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that 
a  large  portion  of  our  poor  white  people  are  wholly  neglected,  and  are  suf- 
fered to  while  away  an  existence  in  a  state  but  one  step  in  advance  of  the  Indian 
of  the  forest.  It  is  an  evil  of  vast  magnitude,  and  nothing  but  a  change  in 
public  sentiment  will  effect  its  cure.    These  people  must  be  brought  into  daily 

1  Helper,  The  Impending  Crisis  [1859],  pp.  376-377. 


ADVANTAGKS  Ol'  SLAVERY  TO  THE  NORTH       793 

contact  with  the  rich  and  intelligent  —  they  must  be  stimulated  to  mental 
action,  and  taught  to  appreciate  education  and  the  comforts  of  civilized  life ; 
and  this,  we  believe,  may  be  affected  only  by  the  introduction  of  manufactures. 
My  experience  at  Graniteville  has  satisfied  me  that  unless  our  poor  people  can 
be  brought  together  in  villages,  and  some  means  of  employment  afforded  them, 
it  will  be  an  utterly  hopeless  effort  to  undertake  to  educate  them.  We  have 
collected  at  this  place  about  eight  hundred  people,  and  as  likely  looking  a  set 
of  country  girls  as  may  be  found  —  industrious  and  orderly  people,  but  de- 
plorably ignorant,  three-fourths  of  the  adults  not  being  able  to  read  or  to  write 
their  own  names. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  build  a  manufacturing  village  of  shanties,  in  a 
healthy  location,  in  any  part  of  the  State,  to  have  crowds  of  these  people 
around  you,  seeking  employment  at  half  the  compensation  given  to  operatives 
at  the  North.  It  is  indeed  painful  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  such  igno- 
rance and  degradation. 

V.    ECONOMIC  ADVANTAGES   OF   SLAVERY   TO   THE    NORTH 

1  That  superabundance  of  land  to  which  the  Enghsh  economists, 
from  Adam  Smith  downwards,  attribute  the  prosperity  of  new  col- 
onies, has  never  led  to  great  prosperity  without  some  kind  of  slav- 
ery. The  states  of  New-England,  in  which  negro  slavery  was  never 
permitted,  form  no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  Adam  Smith, 
in  his  chapter  on  "  the  causes  of  the  prosperity  of  new  colonies," 
tries  to  establish  by  a  pretty  long  argument  that  the  wonderful 
prosperity  of  the  Greek  colonies  was  owing  to  "  dearness  of  labour," 
to  "  high  wages,"  which  enabled  the  bulk  of  the  people  to  save  and 
to  increase  as  rapidly  as  possible  :  whereas  the  unquestionable  fact 
is,  that  all  the  work  performed  in  those  colonies,  whether  in  agri- 
culture or  manufactures,  was  performed  by  slaves.  All  work  in 
Brazil  has  been  performed  by  the  labour  of  slaves.  In  New  South 
Wales  and  Van  Dieman's  Land,  prosperous  colonies,  capitalists  are 
supplied  with  slave-labour  in  the  shape  of  convicts.  That  they  set 
the  greatest  value  on  this  labour,  is  proved  by  their  extreme  fear 
lest  the  system  of  transportation  should  be  discontinued  ;  although 
the  evils  which  it  produces  arc  too  many  to  be  counted,  and  too 
great  to  be  believed  in  England.  Finally,  though  the  Puritms  and 
the  followers  of  Penn,  who  founded  the  colonies  of  New-England, 

^  Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1S34],  pp.  212-215. 


794  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

flourished  with  superabundance  of  land  and  without  negro  slaves, 
they  did  not  flourish  without  slaveiy.  Though  their  religious  sen- 
timents prompted  them  to  abstain  from  the  purchase  of  negroes,  so 
severely  did  they,  on  that  very  account,  feel  the  want  of  constant 
and  combined  labour,  that  they  were  led  to  cany  on  an  extensive 
traffic  in  white  men  and  children,  who,  kidnapped  in  Europe,  were 
virtually  sold  to  those  fastidious  colonists,  and  treated  by  them  as 
slaves.  But  the  number  of  Europeans  kidnapped  for  the  purpose 
of  sale  in  those  parts  of  America  where  negroes  could  not  be  sold, 
though  considerable,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  settlers  then 
wanting  combined  labour,  was  small  when  compared  with  the  num- 
ber of  Europeans,  who,  first  decoyed  to  America  by  the  offer  of  a 
passage  cost  free,  and  the  promise  of  high  wages,  were  then  trans- 
ferred for  terms  of  years  to  colonists  who  paid  for  their  passage. 
These,  under  the  name  of  rcdcmptioncrs,  were,  for  a  long  period, 
the  principal  servants  of  those  colonies  in  which  slavery  was  for- 
bidden by  law.  Even  so  lately  as  within  the  last  twenty  years,  and 
especially  during  the  last  war  between  England  and  America,  which 
put  a  stop  to  Irish  emigration,  vast  numbers  of  poor  Germans  were 
decoyed  to  those  states  which  forbid  slavery,  and  there  sold  for  long 
terms  of  years  to  the  highest  bidder  by  public  auction.  Though 
white  and  free  in  name,  they  were  really  not  free  to  become  inde- 
pendent landowners,  and  therefore  it  was  possible  to  employ  their 
labour  constantly  and  in  combination.  Lastly,  even  in  those  colo- 
nies which  never  permitted  negro  slavery,  negroes  have  always  been 
considered,  what  indeed  there  seems  reason  to  conclude  that  they 
are  by  nature,  an  inferior  order  of  beings.  A  black  man  never  was, 
nor  is  he  now,  treated  as  a  man  by  the  white  men  of  New- England. 
There,  where  the  most  complete  equality  subsists  among  white  men, 
and  every  white  man  is  taught  to  respect  himself  as  well  as  other 
white  men,  black  men  are  treated  as  if  they  were  horses  or  dogs. 
Thus,  notwithstanding  superabundance  of  land,  black  men  have 
always  found  it  difficult  to  rise  above  the  condition  of  labourers  for 
hire  ;  and  thus  such  blacks  as  either  escaped,  or  were  allowed  to 
go  free,  from  the  slave  states,  to  settle  in  other  states,  provided 
servants  for  the  capitalists  of  those  other  states.  The  large  propor- 
tion of  black  servants  in  New- England  has  always  been  remarked, 


ADVANTAGES  OF  SLAVERY  TO  THE  NORTH      795 

and  it  is  remarkable  at  this  nioiiU'iU  in  I'hiladdphia,  the  strong 
hold  of  Uuakcrism.  In  this  way,  the  slavery  of  some  states  has, 
not  very  indireetly,  bestowed  upon  other  states  much  of  the  good 
and  some  (^f  the  evil  that  arise  from  slaxery. 

In  another  way,  the  states  which  forbid  slavery  have  gained  by 
it  immensely  without  any  corresponding  evil.  The  States  (jf 
America  must  be  viewed  as  one  country,  in  which  there  is  a  con- 
siderable distribution  of  employments,  and  in  which  exchanges 
take  place  of  the  different  productions  raised  in  different  parts  of 
the  Union.  "  The  division  of  labour,"  says  Adam  Smith,  meaning 
the  distribution  of  employments,  "  is  limited  by  the  extent  of  the 
market."  The  great  fishing  establishments  of  the  non-slaveholding 
colonies  were  set  up  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  slaves  of  the 
West  Indies,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Georgia,  and  the  Carolinas,  who 
were  employed  in  raising  tobacco,  rice,  and  sugar  ;  commodities  ex- 
changeable in  the  markets  of  Europe  ;  commodities  which  have 
never  been  raised  on  any  large  scale  in  America  except  by  the  com- 
bined labour  of  slaves.  A  great  part  of  the  commerce  of  the  north- 
ern states,  of  Boston,  New- York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  has 
always  consisted  of  a  carrying  trade  for  the  southern  states  ;  the 
one  work  of  raising  produce  for  the  markets  of  Europe  and  con- 
veying it  thither  being  so  divided,  that  the  produce  was  raised  by 
the  southern  and  conveyed  by  the  northern  states ;  a  division  of 
employments  which  depended  on  the  labour  of  slaves,  since,  if  a 
produce  had  not  been  raised  fit  for  distant  markets,  carriers  would 
not  have  been  required,  and  since  such  produce  could  not  have 
been  raised  by  labour,  uncertain  and  scattered  as  free  labour  always 
is  with  superabundance  of  good  land.  At  the  present  time,  which 
is  the  great  market  for  the  surplus  produce  of  farmers  in  the  non- 
slaveholding  states  on  the  western  rivers  .''  New-Orleans.  And  how 
could  that  great  market  have  existed  without  slavery  ?  Capitalists 
again,  natives  of  the  states  which  forbid  slavery,  reside  during  part 
of  every  year  in  the  slave  states-  and  reap  large  profits  by  dealing 
in  rice,  sugar,  and  cotton,  exchangeable  commodities,  which,  it  must 
be  repeated,  have  never  been  raised  to  any  extent  in  America  ex- 
cept by  the  labour  of  slaves.  A  New-Englander  may  boast  that 
slavery  was  never  permitted  in  his  state,  as  a  baker  may  pride 


796  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

himself  on  being  less  cruel  than  his  neighbour  the  butcher  ;  but 
the  dependence  of  the  northern  on  the  southern  states  for  a  market 
for  their  surplus  produce,  for  a  demand  for  the  produce  of  their  in- 
dustry in  a  thousand  shapes,  is  as  close  as  the  dependence  on  each 
other  of  the  baker  and  the  butcher  who  deal  together.  In  the  di- 
vision of  employments  which  has  taken  place  in  America,  the  far 
preferable  share,  truly,  has  fallen  to  the  northern  states  ;  but  that 
division  of  employments  did  not  precede,  on  the  contrary  it  fol- 
lowed, combination  of  labour  in  particular  works,  and  the  surplus 
exchangeable  produce  obtained  by  that  first  improvement  in  the 
productive  powers  of  industry.  The  states,  therefore,  which  forbid 
slavery,  having  reaped  the  economical  benefits  of  slavery,  without 
incurring  the  chief  of  its  moral  evils,  seem  to  be  even  more  in- 
debted to  it  than  the  slave  states.  If  those  who  forbid  slavery 
within  their  own  legal  jurisdiction  should  also  resolve  to  have  no 
intercourse  or  concern  with  slave-owners,  to  do  nothing  for  them, 
and  to  exchange  nothing  with  them,  we  should  see  an  economical 
revolution  in  America,  that  would  prove  better  than  a  thousand  ar- 
guments the  value  of  slavery  in  a  country  where  every  free  man 
can  obtain  plenty  of  good  land  for  a  trifle.   .   .   .^ 

VI.    STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS   OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE 
UNITED    STATES 

^.  .  .  The  establishment  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States  was 
accounted  for  by  its  superiority  in  an  economic  point  of  view  over 
free  labour,  in  the  form  in  which  free  labour  existed  in  America 
at  the  time  when  that  continent  was  settled.  Now,  the  superiority 
of  slavery  over  free  labour  to  which  its  establishment  was  originally 
owing,  is  by  no  means  to  be  assumed  as  still  existing  in  virtue  of 
the  fact  that  slavery  is  still  maintained.  Of  two  systems  one  may 
at  a  given  period  be  more  profitable  than  the  other,  and  may  on 
this  account  be  established,  but  may  aftervvards  cease  to  be  so,  and 
yet  may  nevertheless  continue  to  be  upheld,  either  from  habit,  or 
from  unwillingness  to  adopt  new  methods,  or  from  congeniality 
with  tastes  which  have  been  formed  under  its  influence.    It  is  a 

1  For  further  treatment  of  this  subject  see  the  extracts  printed  on  pp.  280-301. 

2  Cairnes,  The  Slave  Power  [1861],  pp.  48-49. 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         797 

difficult  and  slow  process  under  all  circumstances  to  alter  the  in- 
dustrial system  of  a  country  ;  but  the  difficulty  of  exchanging  one 
form  of  free  industry  for  another  is  absolutely  inappreciable  when 
compared  with  that  which  we  encounter  when  we  attempt  to  sub- 
stitute free  for  servile  institutions.  It  is  therefore  quite  possible — • 
how  far  the  case  is  actually  so  I  shall  afterwards  examine  —  that  the 
persistent  maintenance  of  the  system  at  the  present  day  may  be  due 
less  to  its  economical  advantages  than  to  the  habits  and  tastes  it 
may  have  engendered,  and  to  the  enormous  difficulty  of  getting  rid 
of  it.  Since  the  settlement  of  the  Southern  States  a  vast  change 
has  taken  place  in  the  American  continent.  Free  labour,  which 
was  then  scarce  and  costly,  has  now  in  many  of  the  large  towns 
become  superabundant ;  and  it  is  quite  possible  that,  even  with  ex- 
ternal conditions  so  favourable  to  slavery  as  the  southern  half  of 
North  America  undoubtedly  presents,  free  labour  would  now,  on  a 
fair  trial,  be  found  more  than  a  match  for  its  antagonist.  Such  a 
trial,  however,  is  not  possible  under  the  present  regime  of  the 
South.  Slaveiy  is  in  possession  of  the  field,  and  enjoys  all  the 
advantages  which  possession  in  such  a  contest  confers. 

The  concession  then  in  favour  of  slavery,  involved  in  the  ex- 
planation given  of  its  definite  estabhshment  in  certain  portions  of 
North  America,  amounts  to  this,  that  wider  certain  conditions 
of  soil  and  climate,  cnltivation  by  slaves  may  for  a  time  yield  a 
larger  7tet  revenue  than  cnltivation  by  certain  forms  of  free  labour. 
This  is  all  that  needs  to  be  assumed  to  account  for  the  original 
establishment  of  slavery.  But  the  maintenance  of  the  institution 
at  the  present  day  does  not  imply  even  this  quantum  of  advantage 
in  its  favour ;  since,  owing  to  the  immense  difficulty  of  getting  rid 
of  it  when  once  established  on  an  extensive  scale,  the  reasons  for 
its  continuance  (regarding  the  question  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  slaveholders)  may,  where  it  has  once  obtained  a  firm  footing, 
prevail  over  those  for  its  abolition,  even  though  it  be  far  inferior 
as  a  productive  instrument  to  free-labour.  .  .   . 

^  But  there  is  yet  another  motive,  which  is  more  cogent  than  all 
the  others  :  the  South  might,  indeed,  rigorously  speaking,  abolish 

1  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  [1836],  I,  475-476,  477-47S,  479- 
480,  481-482. 


798  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

slavery  ;  but  how  should  it  rid  its  territory  of  the  black  population  ? 
Slaves  and  slavery  are  driven  from  the  North  by  the  same  law  ;  but 
this  two-fold  result  cannot  be  hoped  for  in  the  South.   ... 

It  is  evident  that  the  most  Southern  States  of  the  Union  cannot 
abolish  slavery  without  incurring  great  dangers,  which  the  North 
had  no  reason  to  apprehend  when  it  emancipated  its  black  popu- 
lation. We  have  already  shown  how  the  Northern  States  made  the 
transition  from  slavery  to  freedom,  by  keeping  the  present  genera- 
tions in  chains,  and  setting  their  descendants  free  ;  by  this  means, 
the  Negroes  are  only  gradually  introduced  into  the  society ;  and 
whilst  the  men  who  might  abuse  their  freedom  are  kept  in  servi- 
tude, those  who  are  emancipated  may  learn  the  art  of  being  free 
before  they  become  their  own  masters.  But  it  would  be  difficult  to 
apply  this  method  in  the  South.  To  declare  that  all  the  Negroes 
born  after  a  certain  period  shall  be  free,  is  to  introduce  the  princi- 
ple and  the  notion  of  liberty  into  the  heart  of  slavery ;  the  blacks 
whom  the  law  thus  maintains  in  a  state  of  slavery  from  which  their 
children  are  delivered,  are  astonished  at  so  unequal  a  fate,  and 
their  astonishment  is  only  the  prelude  to  their  impatience  and  irri- 
tation. Thenceforward  slavery  loses,  in  their  eyes,  that  kind  of 
moral  power  which  it  derived  from  time  and  habit ;  it  is  reduced 
to  a  mere  palpable  abuse  of  force.  The  Northern  States  had  noth- 
ing to  fear  from  the  contrast,  because  in  them  the  blacks  were  few 
in  number,  and  the  white  population  was  very  considerable.  But  if 
this  faint  dawn  of  freedom  were  to  show  two  millions  of  men  their 
true  position,  the  oppressors  would  have  reason  to  tremble.  After 
having  enfranchised  the  children  of  their  slaves,  the  Europeans  of 
the  Southern  States  would  very  shortly  be  obliged  to  extend  the 
same  benefit  to  the  whole  black  population. 

In  the  North,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  a  twofold  migration 
ensues  upon  the  abolition  of  slavery,  or  even  precedes  that  event 
when  circumstances  have  rendered  it  probable ;  the  slaves  quit 
the  country  to  be  transported  southwards  ;  and  the  whites  of  the 
Northern  States,  as  well  as  the  emigrants  from  Europe,  hasten  to 
fill  their  place.  But  these  two  causes  cannot  operate  in  the  same 
manner  in  the  Southern  States.  On  the  one  hand,  the  mass  of 
slaves  is  too  great  to  allow  any  expectation  of  their  being  removed 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         799 

from  the  country  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  Europeans  and 
Anglo-Americans  of  the  North  are  afraid  to  come  to  inhabit  a 
country  in  which  labor  has  not  yet  been  reinstated  in  its  rightful 
honors.  Besides,  they  very  justly  look  upon  the  States  in  which 
the  number  of  the  Negroes  equals  or  exceeds  that  of  the  whites, 
as  exposed  to  very  great  dangers ;  and  they  refrain  from  turning 
their  activity  in  that  direction. 

Thus  the  inhabitimts  of  the  South  would  not  be  able,  while 
abolishing  slavery,  like  their  Northern  countrymen,  to  initiate  the 
slaves  gradually  into  a  state  of  freedom  ;  they  have  no  means  of 
perceptibly  diminishing  the  black  population,  and  they  would  remain 
unsupported  to  repress  its  excesses.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  a  great  people  of  free  Negroes  would  exist  in  the  heart  of  a 
white  nation  of  equal  size.  .  .  . 

As  soon  as  it  admitted  that  the  whites  and  the  emancipated 
blacks  are  placed  upon  the  same  territory  in  the  situation  of  two 
foreign  communities,  it  will  readily  be  understood  that  there  are 
but  two  chances  for  the  future  ;  the  Negroes  and  the  whites  must 
either  wholly  part,  or  wholly  mingle.  I  have  already  expressed  my 
conviction  as  to  the  latter  event.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  white 
and  black  races  will  ever  live  in  any  country  upon  an  equal  footing. 
But  I  believe  the  difficulty  to  be  still  greater  in  the  United  States 
than  elsewhere.  An  isolated  individual  may  surmount  the  prejudices 
of  religion,  of  his  country,  or  of  his  race  ;  and  if  this  individual  is 
a  king,  he  may  effect  surprising  changes  in  society ;  but  a  whole 
people  cannot  rise,  as  it  were,  above  itself.  A  despot  who  should 
subject  the  Americans  and  their  former  slaves  to  the  same  yoke, 
might  perhaps  succeed  in  commingling  their  races  ;  but  as  long  as 
the  American  democracy  remains  at  the  head  of  affairs,  no  one 
will  undertake  so  difficult  a  task  ;  and  it  may  be  foreseen  that,  the 
freer  the  white  population  of  the  United  States  becomes,  the  more 
isolated  will  it  remain.  .  .  . 

If  I  were  called  upon  to  predict  the  future,  I  should  say  that  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  South  will,  in  the  common  course  of 
things,  increase  the  repugnance  of  the  white  population  for  the 
blacks.  I  found  this  opinion  upon  the  analogous  obser\ation  I 
have  already  made  at  the  North.    I  have  remarked  that  the  white 


8oo  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

inhabitants  of  the  North  avoid  the  Negroes  with  increasing  care, 
in  proportion  as  the  legal  barriers  of  separation  are  removed  by  the 
legislature  ;  and  why  should  not  the  same  result  take  place  in  the 
South  ?  In  the  North,  the  whites  are  deterred  from  intermingling 
with  the  blacks  by  an  imaginary  danger ;  in  the  South,  where  the 
danger  would  be  real,  I  cannot  believe  that  the  fear  would  be 
less.  .  ,  . 

I  am  obliged  to  confess  that  I  do  not  regard  the  abolition  of 
slavery  as  a  means  of  warding  off  the  struggle  of  the  two  races  in 
the  Southern  States.  The  Negroes  may  long  remain  slaves  with- 
out complaining ;  but  if  they  are  once  raised  to  the  level  of  free- 
men, they  will  soon  revolt  at  being  deprived  of  almost  all  their 
civil  rights  ;  and,  as  they  cannot  become  the  equals  of  the  whites, 
they  will  speedily  show  themselves  as  enemies.  In  the  North, 
everything  facilitated  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  ;  and  slavery 
was  abolished  without  rendering  the  free  Negroes  formidable,  since 
their  number  was  too  small  for  them  ever  to  claim  their  rights. 
But  such  is  not  the  case  in  the  South.  The  question  of  slavery 
was  a  commercial  and  manufacturing  question  for  the  slave-owners 
in  the  North  ;  for  those  of  the  South,  it  is  a  question  of  life  and 
death.  God  forbid  that  I  should  seek  to  justify  the  principle  of 
Negro  slavery,  as  has  been  done  by  some  American  writers  !  I  say 
only,  that  all  the  countries  which  formerly  adopted  that  execrable 
principle  are  not  equally  able  to  abandon  it  at  the  present  time.  .  .  . 

^The  subjection  of  the  negroes  of  the  South  to  the  mastership 
of  the  whites,  I  still  consider  justifiable  and  necessary,  and  I  fully 
share  the  general  ill-will  of  the  people  of  the  North  toward  any 
suggestion  of  their  interfering  politically  to  accomplish  an  immedi- 
ate abolition  of  slavery.  This  is  not  from  idolatry  of  a  parchment, 
or  from  a  romantic  attachment  to  the  word  Union ;  it  certainly  is 
not  from  a  low  estimation  of  the  misfortune  of  slavery,  or  of  the 
flagrant  wrong  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  slave  States.  It  is 
from  a  fair  consideration  of  the  excellence  of  our  confederate  con- 
stitution when  compared  with  other  instruments  of  human  associ- 
ation, and  from  a  calculation  of  the  chances  of  getting  a  better, 

1  Olmsted,  A  Journey  in  the  Back  Country  [i860],  pp.  vii,  viii. 


STRENGTH  AND  WIvVKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         8oi 

after  any  sort  of  rcx'olution  at  this  time,  toj^ethcr.  with  the  ehances 
of  thereby  aeeomphshinj^'  a  radical  and  satisfactory  remedy  for  the 
evils  which  must  result  from  slavery.  I  do  not  see  that  a  mere 
setting  free  of  the  blacks,  if  it  could  be  accomplished,  would 
surely  remedy  these  evils.  An  extraction  of  the  bullet  does  not 
at  once  remedy  the  injury  of  a  gun-shot  wound  ;  it  sometimes 
aggravates  it.   .  .   . 

Popular  prejudice,  if  not  popular  instinct,  points  to  a  separation 
of  black  from  white  as  a  condition  of  the  abolition  of  slavery.  It 
may  be  hoped  that  something  will  occur  which  will  force,  or  en- 
courage and  facilitate,  a  voluntary  and  sj^ontaneous  separation.  If 
this  is  to  be  considered  as  a  contingency  of  emancipation,  it  is 
equally  to  be  anticipated  that  an  important  emigration  of  whites  to 
the  slave  districts  will  precede  it.  1  do  not  now  say  that  it  is,  or 
is  not,  right  or  desirable,  that  this  should  be  so,  but,  taking  men 
as  they  are,  I  think  a  happy  and  peaceful  association  of  a  large 
negro,  with  a  large  white  population,  cannot  at  present  be  calcu- 
lated on  as  a  permanent  thing.  I  think  that  the  emancipation  from 
slavery  of  such  part  of  the  existing  actual  negro  population  as  shall 
remain  in  the  country  until  the  white  population  is  sufficiently 
Christianized,  and  civilized,  and  properly  educated  to  understand 
that  its  interests  are  identical  with  its  duty,  will  take  place  gradu- 
ally, and  only  after  an  intermediate  period  of  systematic  pupilage, 
restraint,  and  encouragement,  of  such  a  nature  as  is  suggested  in 
this  volume.   .  .  . 

1  The  slave  region  consists  of  two  divisions  :  one,  in  which  slaves 
are  kept  principally,  or  largely,  with  reference  to  their  increase,  or 
the  slave-breeding  region  ;  the  other,  in  which  slaves  are  kept  wholly, 
or  principally,  for  their  labor,  and  which  may  be  called  the  slave- 
working  region.  If  these  regions  were  equally  salubrious,  the  in- 
crease of  slaves  would  be  greater  in  the  slave-breeding  region,  from 
lighter  labors,  more  abundant  food,  and  better  attention  ;  but  in 
truth,  a  portion  of  the  slave-working  region,  on  the  Atlantic  and 
Gulf  coasts,  is  malarious.    In  addition  to  this,  the  system  of  labor 

1  Weston,  Progress  of  Slavery  [1S57],  pp.  76,  237,  238-239,  240-241,  206-210, 

151-152. 


8o2  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

applied  to  the  production  of  sugar,  as  actually  practiced,  is  espe- 
cially exhausting.  The  destruction  of  negro  life  in  the  rice  fields 
of  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  on  the  plantations  of  Louisiana, 
is  far  short,  indeed,  of  what  has  been  witnessed  in  times  past  in 
the  tropical  slave  colonies  on  the  continent  and  islands  of  America, 
and  is  still  going  on  in  Cuba.  It  is,  however,  distinctly  marked  and 
well  known.  .  .   . 

The  truth  really  is,  that  the  increase  of  negro  slaves  in  the 
United  States  is  wholly  attributable  to  the  continual  enlargement 
of  the  area  upon  which  they  are  employed,  and  to  that  combina- 
tion of  a  slave-breeding  region  with  a  slave-working  region,  which 
is  peculiar  to  this  country.  This  increase  is  exceptional.  It  is  ob- 
served nowhere  else.  It  will  cease  with  the  causes  which  produce  it. 
The  number  of  slaves  will  adapt  itself  to  the  limits  of  their  profitable 
occupation.  The  breeding  and  raising  of  slaves  will  fall  off,  as  the 
prices  of  slaves  fall  off.  No  population,  slave  or  free,  can  pass  the 
boundaries  fixed  by  the  necessities  of  subsistence,  .  .  . 

It  has  already  been  noticed,  that  within  existing  external  limits, 
the  fields  for  slave  labor  not  yet  touched  are  so  large,  that  no  abrupt 
abandonment  of  it  is  likely  to  be  forced. 

L2ven  if  some  further  territorial  expansion  be  given  to  slavery  in 
the  United  States,  it  cannot  be  extensive.  Its  utmost  limits  must 
be  soon  reached,  if  they  are  not  so  already.  Sooner  or  later,  the 
slave-holders  must  reconcile  themselves  to  the  consequences,  what- 
ever they  may  be,  of  finding  no  remaining  outlet  for  their  institu- 
tion. At  the  utmost,  it  is  only  a  question  of  the  time  when  this 
condition  of  things  shall  be  reached  ;  and,  under  all  the  circum- 
stances, the  possible  range  of  this  time  is  not  great.  No  amount 
of  political  activity  and  good  fortune  can  enlarge  it  much. 

That  slavery  in  the  Southern  States,  when  its  external  limits  are 
fixed,  must  decline,  and  perhaps  be  extinguished,  is  a  proposition 
which  may  be  stated  in  a  single  sentence,  and  be  comprehended  at  a 
single  glance  ;  but  the  fact  itself  must  be  spread  over  a  long  period 
of  time  and  more  than  one  generation,  be  realized  by  insensible 
graduations,  and  be  attended  at  every  step  by  palliatives  and  com- 
pensations. As  the  historians  of  the  present  day  are  unable  to  fix 
the  precise  time  when  villanage  terminated  in  England,  so  future 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         803 

historians  may  be  unable  to  fix  the  precise  time  wlien  slavery  termi- 
nated in  the  United  States.  The  destruction  in  a  single  day  of  the 
convertible  value  of  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  slave  prop- 
erty, would  convulse  the  whole  social  fabric  of  the  community  in 
which  it  exists.  The  same  thing,  protracted  over  half  a  century, 
would  scarcely  attract  notice.  The  same  causes,  which  would  re- 
duce the  value  of  slaves,  would  raise  the  price  of  land.  l"he  insti- 
tution of  property  would  suffer  no  shock,  although  its  forms  might 
undergo  a  change.   .  .   . 

In  that  considerable  portion  of  the  South  which  purchases  slaves, 
a  fall  in  price  of  slaves  has  its  advantages  as  well  as  disadvantages, 
and  it  would  seem  that  opinions  there  are  by  no  means  agreed  as 
to  which  preponderate.  South  Carolina  imported  slaves  from  Africa 
down  to  the  last  moment  before  the  importation  was  prohibited  by 
the  United  States  ;  and  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade, 
so  that  slaves  may  become  abundant  and  cheap,  is  now  an  object 
extensively  and  avowedly  desired  in  the  States  which  raise  cotton 
and  sugar. 

It  is  upon  the  slave-breeding  States  only  that  a  fall  in  the  price 
of  slaves  would  be  viewed  as  an  evil  without  compensations,  and  it 
is  here  that  we  may  look  for  the  most  obstinate  defence  of  that 
policy  of  furnishing  outlets  for  slaver)^  which  has  so  long  and  so 
cruelly  deluded  us.  It  is  this  class  of  States  which  alone  have  any 
pecuniary  interests  to  be  subserved  by  the  extension  of  slavery, 
which  is  supported  by  the  slave-working  States,  only  because  they 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  economical  considerations  for  the  sake  of 
political  power.   .   .   . 

It  is  not  easy  to  perceive  that  the  Southern  States,  as  a  whole, 
have  any  present  pecuniary  interest  in  the  extension  of  slavery  over 
new  regions.  That  sort  of  interest  is  peculiar  to  Virginia,  and  to 
two  or  three  other  States  engaged  in  the  business  of  selling  slaves. 
The  major  pecuniary  interest  of  the  South  is  to  have  slave  labor 
cheap.  To  make  it  cheap,  it  is  even  desired  b)'  man}'  persons  at 
the  South  that  the  African  slave  trade  should  be  reoi)ened.  Yet  a 
course  of  policy,  calculated  to  make  it  dear,  is  supported  at  the 
South  with  zealous  unanimity,  and  quite  as  warmly  in  the  Gulf 
States,  which  are  large  purchasers  of  slaves,  as  anywhere  else. 


8o4      ■  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

Everywhere  else,  in  South  America,  and  in  the  West  Indies,  the 
constant  effort  of  those  engaged  in  prosecuting  agriculture  by 
servile  labor,  has  been  to  increase  its  supply  and  abundance.  It  is 
only  in  the  United  States,  that  we  see  in  the  same  class  the  con- 
trary effort,  to  make  it  scarce  and  higli,  by  opening  new  and  com- 
peting markets  for  it.  If  this  is  explicable  in  respect  to  Virginia 
and  two  or  three  States  similarly  situated,  it  is  inexplicable,  upon 
economical  considerations,  in  respect  to  all  the  remainder. 

Never  before,  in  any  country,  or  under  any  system  of  labor,  free 
or  servile,  have  we  seen  those  who  own  all  the  land  and  property 
of  a  community,  and  whose  incomes  depend  upon  its  industry, 
endeavoring  to  diminish  the  number  of  laborers  by  opening  up 
fields  of  enterprise  elsewhere  to  draw  them  off. 

If,  sometimes,  emigration  is  viewed  with  complacency,  it  is  where 
labor  is  superabundant,  and  where  the  emigrants  engage  in  different 
pursuits  from  those  of  the  parent  countiy,  and  thereby  give  it  new 
markets.  It  is  upon  this  principle  that  Great  Britain  is  satisfied 
with  the  annual  transfer  of  large  numbers  of  her  people  to  agricul- 
tural colonies  ;  and  it  is  this  consideration,  among  others,  which 
serves  to  reconcile  New  England  to  the  movement  of  her  people 
to  the  West.  The  South  finds  no  such  compensation  as  this  for 
the  emigration  of  slave  labor,  but  to  the  first  loss  of  population  is 
added  the  second  loss  of  a  new  competition  in  the  same  pursuits. 
The  people  transferred  from  the  old  cotton  States  do  not  become 
purchasers  of  cotton  in  their  new  situations,  but  producers  of  it, 
and  under  circumstances  of  so  much  advantage,  by  reason  of  the 
fertility  of  new  soils,  as  seriously  to  impair  the  profit  of  its  cultiva- 
tion in  its  former  seats.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  growth  of  the 
extreme  Southwest,  not  only  depletes  the  South  of  its  wealth  and 
people,  but  is  the  growth  of  a  rival  in  the  same  pursuits,  and  thus 
inflicts  a  double  injury.  It  is  true,  that  such  individual  citizens  of 
the  South  as  are  in  a  condition  to  emigrate,  may  escape  this  injury 
by  shifting  it  upon  others  ;  and  that  the  number  of  those  who  can 
and  do  emigrate  is  considerable.  The  habits  of  the  Southern  peo- 
ple are  migratory  ;  their  local  attachments  are  feeble  ;  and  their 
property  is  chiefly  movable.  But  if  the  emigrants  are  numerous, 
the  non-emigrants  are  still  more  numerous,  and  even  the  emigrants 


STRENGTH  Ax\I)  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         805 

do  not  avoid  loss  altogether.  They  can  transfer  their  slaves,  but 
they  must  sell  their  lands,  and  at  the  reduced  prices  which  attend 
upon  stationary  population  and  the  decay  of  general  wealth.  That 
important  element  of  the  increase  of  private  fortunes,  the  constant 
enhancement  of  the  value  of  real  property  which  results  from  an 
augmenting  density  of  population,  which  is  in  full  activity  at  the 
North,  does  not  exist  at  all  at  the  South,  and  cannot  exist,  until 
the  policy  of  territorial  enlargement  is  abandoned.  That  policy, 
which  aims  at  political  results  only,  sacrifices,  in  short,  every 
pecuniar)'  and  industrial  interest  of  the  South,  except  the  single 
one  of  slave-breeding,  which  is  confined  to  a  locality  comparatively 
narrow  and  unimjjortiint. 

The  depreciation  of  lands,  the  decay  of  towns,  and  the  general 
failure  of  works  of  public  improvement,  in  the  older  Southern 
Stiites,  although  attributiible,  in  part,  to  the  system  of  slavery,  are 
attributiible,  in  part,  also,  to  that  unnatural  diffusion  of  their  pop- 
ulation over  new  territories,  which  has  been  stimulated  by  j^olitical 
objects,  and  by  the  cupidity  of  slave-breeders.  Many  persons  at 
the  South,  observing  the  consequences  of  this  diffusion,  resist  and 
denounce  it.  It  was  discussed  ably  and  elaborately,  a  year  since, 
in  one  of  the  commercial  newspapers  of  Charleston,  S.C.,  and  the 
sound  conclusion  arrived  at,  that  if  new  territories  are  to  be  occu- 
pied by  slave  labor,  it  can  only  be  done  by  the  ruin  and  exhaustion 
of  the  old  slave  States,  unless  the  African  slave  trade  is  revived. 
Those  who  intelligently  contemplate  the  spread  of  slavery  over 
New  Mexico  and  Central  America,  undoubtedly  intend  to  renew 
the  African  slave  trade,  as  the  only  means  to  the  proposed  end,  if 
the  civilized  world  will  permit  it,  as  happily  it  will  not.  Four  mil- 
lions of  slaves,  and  the  slaves  in  the  United  States  will  hardly  reach 
that  number  in  i860,  may  accomplish  a  good  deal,  but  they  cannot 
occupy  a  continent.  Even  within  their  present  limits,  their  defi- 
cient numbers  and  enormous  prices,  cripple  industrial  operations, 
and  seriously  impair  the  value  of  land  and  of  all  other  natural  ele- 
ments of  wealth.  Nothing,  indeed,  but  the  madness  of  party  pas- 
sions could  blind  the  South  to  the  practical  folly  of  sending  away 
their  laboring  population,  of  which  they  possess  so  little  in  com- 
parison with  their  area  and  their  resources. 


8o6  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

The  case  of  the  South  is  not  that  of  a  country  which  has  a  sur- 
plus and  dangerous  population  which  it  desires  to  get  rid  of,  and 
for  which  outlets  must  be  found,  from  overruling  considerations 
of  safety,  and  at  whatever  sacrifice  of  other  interests.  A  large 
number  of  the  Southern  States  voluntarily  import  slaves,  and  some 
of  them,  to  an  important  extent.  For  the  present,  then,  it  is  idle  to 
represent  that  outlets  are  desired  for  slaves,  or  that  their  accumula- 
tion has  become  alarming.  If  this  was  really  so,  the  domestic  slave 
trade  would  be  prohibited  by  the  States,  whose  slave  population  is 
increased  by  it,  but  as  yet  we  have  seen  no  efficient  and  steady 
legislation  having  that  object  in  view.  And  not  only  would  the 
domestic  slave  trade  be  prohibited,  but  fugitive  slave  laws  would 
be  repealed,  or  cease  to  be  enforced  ;  and,  instead  of  the  pursuit  of 
runaway  slaves,  they  would  be  encouraged  and  assisted  to  get  off. 

Undoubtedly,  agriculture  by  slave  labor,  according  to  the  methods 
now  practiced  by  planters,  requires  a  constant  supply  of  new  lands  ; 
but  of  these,  a  sufficiency  exists,  within  the  present  limits  of  the 
slave  States,  for  the  wants  of  the  present  generation  at  least.  To 
acquire  still  other  new  lands,  is  only  to  depreciate  the  value  of 
those  already  possessed.  .   .   . 

The  abolition  of  the  domestic  slave  trade  in  this  country  would 
cut  up  by  the  roots  the  industrial  and  political  connection  of  the 
slave-breeding  with  the  slave-working  States  ;  a  connection  which, 
in  all  its  aspects,  is  full  of  mischief.  It  would  leave  the  system  of 
slavery  to  stand  or  fall,  in  each  State,  upon  its  own  economical  ad- 
vantages within  each  State.  It  would  diminish  the  total  increase  of 
slaves,  and  would  save  the  Gulf  States  from  being  overwhelmed  by 
the  black  flood  which  is  now  settling  upon  them.  It  would  speed- 
ily and  peacefully  terminate  slavery  in  the  whole  tier  of  Northern 
slave  States.  It  would  extinguish  the  motive  which  now  instigates 
the  acquisition  of  foreign  territories,  to  serve  as  new  areas  for  the 
employment  of  slave  labor ;  which  acquisition  is  now  pressed  upon 
the  Government  as  a  leading  policy,  to  the  manifest  hazard  of  our 
external  peace.  It  would  terminate  slavery  agitation,  by  withdraw- 
ing that  subject  from  the  arena  of  national  contests,  and  leaving 
it  to  be  settled  by  each  State  for  itself.  It  would  make  slavery  a 
State  institution  merely,  and  save  the  country  from  any  further 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVER\'         807 

disturbance  from  it,  in  matters  of  national  policy,  foreign  and  do- 
mestic. It  would  end  a  traffic  which  is  demoralizing  and  disgrace- 
ful.  And,  above  all,  it  is  demanded  by  humanity  and  by  justice.  .  .  . 

^To  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  southwestern  states,  it  is 
known  that  except  in  the  state  of  Texas,  nearly  all  the  gcx^d  and 
fertile  uplands  in  the  cotton  region  have  been  reduced  to  cultiva- 
tion ;  and  although  there  is  a  large  quantity  of  the  poorer  uplands, 
and  a  considerable  quantity  of  bottom  land  that  may  yet  be  brought 
into  cultivation,  yet  from  the  rapid  deterioration  of  the  lands  now 
under  cultivation,  and  the  necessity  of  increasing  the  quantity  cul- 
tivated in  grain  to  supply  the  increasing  population,  it  is  fair  to 
conclude  that  the  cotton  crop  east  of  Texas  has  nearly  reached 
its  maximum.   .   .   ? 

^When  I  first  entered  the  Slave  States  I  could  see  no  prospect 
of  improvement.  Indeed,  things  seemed  going  from  bad  to  worse, 
and  I  had  to  fall  back  for  comfort  on  the  intuitive  trust  of  the  hu- 
man heart  on  the  ultimate  prevalence  of  the  right.  15ut  a  nearer 
acquaintance  with  the  state  of  the  country  has  led  me  to  believe, 
that  even  now  influences  are  at  work  which  may  bring  about  a 
revolution  in  the  internal  economy  of  the  Slave  States. 

I  put  no  faith  in  political  or  philanthropic  nostrums.  If  the 
South  is  to  be  regenerated,  it  must  be  by  economical  influences. 
Slavery  will  be  abolished  now,  as  heretofore,  simply  because  slav- 
ery is  unprofitable.  An  unworthy  motive,  some  may  say.  True  ; 
but  it  is  the  way  of  God  to  bring  good  out  of  evil,  turning  even 
our  unworthy  motives  to  his  own  good  ends.   ... 

To  me  it  seems  clear  that  the  course  of  social  reformation 
which,  for  half  a  centur)'-,  has  seemed  suspended,  is  now  about 
to  be  renewed.    Many  circumstances  are  combining  to  bring  about 

1  De  Bow,  Industrial  Resources  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States  [1S52], 
II,  III. 

2  It  is  evident  that  in  i860  the  field  for  the  further  expansion  of  slavery  in  the 
United  States  was  very  limited.  When  it  had  occupied  Texas  and  a  part  of  the 
Indian  Territory  its  extension  would  have  ceased.  This  must  have  put  an  end  to 
the  influence  which  maintained  the  value  of  slaves  outside  the  cotton  belt. 

3  Stirling,  Letters  from  the  Slave  States  [1S57],  pp.  302,  304-306,  307-308,  309- 
3'°'  315-321- 


8o8  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

this  result.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  strong  demand  for 
cheaper  and  better  labour  in  the  South.  This  applies  both  to 
the  corn  and  cotton-growing  Slave  States.  .  .  , 

.  .  .  The  increase  of  cotton  culture  is  regulated  by  the  increase 
of  the  slave  population.  This  is  somewhat  more  than  three  per 
cent,  per  annum  for  the  whole  Slave  States  ;  but  in  the  cotton 
States  it  is  nearly  six  per  cent.,  almost  the  whole  natural  increase 
of  the  frontier  States  being  drained  towards  the  South.  By  this 
increase  of  slave  population,  and  improved  methods  of  production, 
the  total  annual  increase  of  the  cotton  production  has  been  latterly 
about  nine  per  cent,  per  annum  :  but  as  the  demand  has  increased 
at  the  same  time  about  sixteen  per  cent.,  the  pressure  of  demand 
on  supply  still  continues.  The  average  price  of  cotton,  which  had 
been  falling  regularly  for  thirty  years,  up  to  1850,  has  risen  since 
that  time  as  under  :  — 

Average  Price  of  Cotton 

Cents 

Ten  years,  ending   1830 13.3 

Ten  years,  ending   1S40 12.4 

Ten  years,  ending    1850 8.2 

Five  years,  ending  1855 9.6 

Since  1855  the  price  of  cotton  has  risen  still  higher. 

Now,  slave-labour  being  a  limited  commodity,  any  increase  in 
the  demand  for  it  immediately  raises  its  price.  It  is  estimated  that 
every  additional  cent  per  lb.  of  cotton  adds  a  hundred  dollars  to 
the  average  value  of  negroes.  This  rise  in  the  price  of  slaves  is  an 
important  consideration,  not  only  in  the  economy  of  cotton  culture, 
but  in  the  whole  social  system  of  the  South.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  cotton  culture,  in  its  earlier  stages,  by  giving  increased  value 
to  negro  property,  arrested  the  progress  of  emancipation  ;  but  the 
exorbitant  value  now  obtained  bids  fair  to  reverse  this  influence, 
and  to  force  on  a  renewal  of  emancipation,  in  order  to  enable  ne- 
gro labour  to  compete  with  free  labour.  Inefficient  labour  may 
pay  when  the  labourer  costs  only  500  dollars  ;  but  when  he  costs 
1000  or  1500  dollars,  his  inefficiency  becomes  ruinous.  .  .  . 

The  imperious  necessity  which  exists  in  the  cotton  States  for  an 
increased  supply  of  labour  is  clearly  recognised  by  the  South,  and 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OK  SLA\'1;R\'         809 

has  given  rise  in  South  CaroHna,  among  extreme  poHticians,  to 
the  proposals  to  re-open  the  slave-trade.  Our  cotton  monopoly, 
says  Governor  Adams,  Governor  of  that  State,  can  only  be  main- 
tained by  a  sufficient  supply  of  cheap  labour :  a  sufficient  supply 
of  slave-labour  can  only  be  got  by  importation  ;  cr^o,  the  slave- 
trade  must  be  re-opened.  .  .  . 

Now,  what  power  of  resistance  can  the  South  oppose  to  the  im- 
mense economic  force,  which  this  demand  for  labour  is  bringing  to 
bear  upon  the  institution  of  slavery  ?  Is  the  South  an  unanimous 
whole,  animated  in  defence  of  slavery  by  one  spirit,  one  interest, 
one  fanaticism  }  At  first  sight  it  appears  so.  If  we  listen  only  to 
her  orators,  editors,  governors,  and  other  organs  of  public  opinion, 
we  should  say  the  South  is  unanimously  in  favour  of  slavery.  But 
if  we  look  closer  into  the  social  state  of  the  South,  and  weigh 
the  meaning  of  silent,  yet  expressive  facts,  we  shall  see  that, 
under  this  seeming  unanimity,  there  is  much  diversity  of  senti- 
ment ;  that  among  the  States  themselves  there  is  division  ;  and 
that  within  the  States  there  is  still  further  variety  of  interest  and 
opinion.  .  .  . 

To  me  it  seems  clear,  that  the  views  and  interests  of  the  frontier 
States  are  very  different  from  those  of  the  cotton  States,  and  that 
in  them  the  slave  power  will  look  in  vain  for  hearty  and  unanimous 
support,  if,  indeed,  it  does  not  meet  with  open  opposition.  Symp- 
toms are  not  wanting  of  anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  frontier  Slave 
States  ;  and  even  without  the  gift  of  political  second-sight  one  can- 
not but  see  the  shadows  of  coming  changes.  Delaware  is  already, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  free  State.  A  slave  population  of  two 
and  a  half  per  cent.,  every  year  decreasing,  is  surely  too  trivial  a 
remnant  of  the  curse  to  make  it  worth  her  while  to  bear  much 
longer  the  plague  and  shame  of  slavery.  Maryland,  by  her  late 
Presidential  vote,  showed  how  completely  she  is  separated  in  spirit 
from  the  fanatical  portion  of  the  South.  In  Missouri  and  Ken- 
tucky, Abolitionist  movements  ha\'c  already  taken  place  ;  and  per- 
haps, ere  long,  the  grand  'Old  Dominion'  herself  will  re-assert  the 
noble  abhorrence  of  slavery  that  yet  breathes  and  burns  in  the 
words  of  her  wise  men  of  olden  time.  The  progress  of  emancipa- 
tion will  be  in  an  accelerating  ratio  ;  for  the  resisting  force  will 


8lO  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

be  getting  less  as  the  invading  force  gains  in  strength.  Every 
Slave  State  emancipated  will  count  as  a  double  gain  to  the  cause 
of  freedom. 

I  am  not  here  indulging  in  mere  hallucination  ;  there  are  eco- 
nomical facts  to  bear  me  out.  The  demand  for  lands  in  the  frontier 
States  for  increased  corn  culture,  and  the  recognised  impossibility, 
in  the  opinion  of  unprejudiced  practical  men,  of  high  farming  by 
slave-labour,  are  the  basis  of  my  anticipations.  How  soon  or  how 
late  they  may  be  verified,  is  of  course  beyond  my  knowledge  ;  that 
depends  on  an  unforeseen  combination  of  favourable  or  unfavour- 
able circumstances.  Among  the  cotton  States  themselves  are  two, 
peculiar  in  position  and  character.  Arkansas  and  Texas,  situated  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  are  also  essentially  frontier  States  ; 
and  there  also  the  slave  power  may  encounter  hostile  feelings  and 
interests.  Arkansas  and  Texas  have  been  chiefly  settled  by  the 
smaller  fartners  of  the  principal  cotton  States,  who  have  been 
crushed  out  of  their  original  homes  by  the  aggrandizement  of  their 
more  aristocratic  neighbours.  In  the  older  cotton  States  the  con- 
stant tendency  is  towards  extension  of  land-holding  and  slave-hold- 
ing. Whatever  a  planter  gains,  and  that  is  saved  from  the  ravening 
maw  of  Newport  and  Saratoga,  is  invested  in  more  cotton-land,  and 
more  niggers  to  till  it.  The  small  fry  bought  out  in  this  process 
betake  themselves  across  the  Mississippi,  and  settle  in  the  cheap  yet 
fertile  lands  of  Arkansas  or  Texas.  The  latter  also  contains  a  con- 
siderable population  of  foreigners,  chiefly  Germans,  with  an  admix- 
ture of  Northerners  —  a  population  which,  small  as  it  is,  may  yet 
exercise  a  mighty  influence  on  the  destinies  of  the  nation.  You  will 
observe  that  the  more  democratic  character  of  Texas  and  Arkansas 
is  marked  strongly  in  that  most  essential  point,  the  number  of  slaves 
held  by  each  proprietor.  The  average  of  the  two  is  7.68,  against 
1 1.29  in  the  eight  aristocratic  States.  The  proportion  of  slave  pop- 
ulation, also,  is  much  less  than  in  the  eight  larger  States,  being 
24.8  in  the  former  to  43.0  in  the  latter.  In  respect,  therefore, 
to  the  all-important  element  of  slavery,  Texas  and  Arkansas  hold 
a  middle  place  between  the  frontier  and  the  eight  other  cotton 
States ;  and,  indeed,  approach  more  nearly  to  the  former  than 
to  the  latter. 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         8ll 

It  is  from  Texas,  especially,  that  opposition  to  slavery  may  be 
expected.  Bordering  on  free  Mexico,  it  affords,  in  its  Western 
portion,  great  facilities  for  the  escape  of  slaves,  and  will,  on  that 
account,  be  less  affected  by  slave-owners.  There  is,  besides,  in  that 
region,  a  considerable  population  of  Germans  and  Northern  men, 
strongly  opposed  to  slavery,  and  proving  by  their  example  the 
possibility  of  successful  cotton  culture  without  the  aid  of  slavery. 
These  men  will  strenuously  oppose  the  introduction  of  slavery 
into  Western  Texas,  should  a  New  State  be  there  erected,  as  most 
Hkely  will  soon  be  the  case.  Thus,  the  slave  power  may  find  itself 
vigorously  assailed  in  the  rear,  and  that  by  its  own  fancied  allies, 
at  the  moment  it  is  directing  all  its  energies  to  oppose  the  enemy 
in  front.  Placed  thus  between  two  fires,  slavery  could  not  long 
sustain  the  unequal  combat. 

Besides  these  great  divisions  betw'een  the  States,  there  are 
minor  divisions  in  the  interior  of  the  several  States,  which  will 
prevent  united  action  in  defence  of  slavery.  Thus  the  planters  of 
the  lowland  districts  are  socially  and  politically  opjDosed  to  the 
small  farmers  of  the  upland  districts.  The  former  are  _the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  South  —  the  slave  power  par  excellence  ;  the  latter 
are  essentially  a  democracy,  and  have  but  a  slight  interest  in  the 
institution  of  slavery.  In  the  upland  districts  of  Virginia  and  Ten- 
nessee, the  percentage  of  slave  population  is,  respectively,  11.3 
and  8.6  ;  while  in  the  aristocratic  lowlands  it  is  47.5  and  31.7,  or 
nearly  four  times  as  great.  In  Beaufort,  Colleton,  and  Georgetown 
—  three  important  planting  counties  on  the  seaboard  of  South 
Carolina  —  the  slaves  constitute  eighty-four  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population,  while  in  the  three  upland  counties  of  Pickens,  Spartan- 
burg, and  Greenville  they  only  amount  to  thirty  per  cent. 

In  the  mountainous  regions  of  the  Slave  States  —  even  of  the 
Carolinas  —  there  is  an  industrious  yeomanry,  who  till  their  farms, 
themselves  and  their  sons,  with  little  negro  help.  This  is  a  stalwart, 
laborious,  independent  population  ;  the  pith  of  the  Slave  States. 
The  Alleghenies  are  the  backbone  of  the  United  States,  and  their 
inhabitants  are  the  strength  of  the  American  people. 

This  yeoman  class  is  also  —  as  in  the  North  —  decidedly  dem- 
ocratic in  its  political  leanings.    The  slave-aristocracy  has  hitherto 


8l2  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

managed  —  mainly  by  working  on  their  pro-slavery  prejudices  — 
to  enlist  this  fierce  democracy  in  the  cause  of  the  oligarchical 
supremacy  of  the  South  ;  but  this  political  maneuver  cannot  suc- 
ceed much  longer.  The  democratic  farmers  of  the  upland  districts 
will  not  always  consent  to  sacrifice  themselves  for  the  benefit  of 
the  lordly  planters.  Already  there  are  symptoms  of  defection. 
The  more  intelligent  of  the  yeomen  are  tiring  of  this  catspaw  sys- 
tem. Their  direct  interest  in  slavery  is  too  slight  to  make  it  an 
object  of  preeminent  importance  in  their  eyes,  and  they  feel  even 
more  keenly  than  the  North  the  undue  political  influence  which 
the  planter-aristocracy  wields,  by  virtue  of  its  slave  representation. 
Further ;  among  the  commercial  class  of  the  South  there  is 
much  concealed  hostility  to  slavery.  This  is  particularly  the  case 
in  the  large  trading  towns  of  the  frontier  States  ;  in  Wheeling, 
Virginia ;  in  Louisville,  Kentucky ;  and,  above  all,  in  St.  Louis, 
Missouri.  In  St.  Louis  there  are  about  30,000  Germans,  all  to  a 
man  opposed  to  slavery.  Indeed,  slavery  in  St.  Louis  exists  only 
in  name.  When  the  time  comes,  the  party  of  freedom  in  the  Slave 
States  will  find  itself  suddenly  endowed  with  unlooked-for  strength. 
Two-thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the  commercial  business  of  the 
South  are  carried  on  by  Northern  men  or  foreigners.  At  present 
these  men  hold  their  peace  ;  they  bide  their  time.  But  many  of 
them  hate  the  system  they  are  forced  to  endure.  They  see  clearly 
the  evils  for  themselves  and  others  of  a  system  that  is  forced  upon 
the  community  by  a  privileged  class,  and  will  lose  no  opportunity 
of  putting  an  end  to  it.  .  .   . 

^  The  attempt  of  the  Cotton  States  to  divide  the  country  upon 
the  line  between  free  and  slaveholding  territory,  has  signally 
failed.  In  large  portions  of  every  State  in  which  slaves  are  held, 
they  are  not  the  paramount  interest.  In  such  the  conviction  is 
universal  that  they  must,  ere  long,  give  way  to  labor  better  adapted 
to  their  soil  and  climate,  and  to  the  development  of  their  resources. 
In  all  such  districts,  consequently,  we  find  loyalty  to  government, 
and  sympathy  with  the  North. 

1  The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the  Commercial  Relations  between  the  North 
and  South  [1861],  pp.  66-70. 


STRENCxTII    \M)  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY 


8i 


This  want  of  liomot^cncousncss  has  ah'cady  divided  the  people 
of  the  Southern  States  into  two  hostile  camps.  It  is  the  South 
secedin<^  from  the  South,  showing  a  confederacy  co-extensive  with 
territory  in  which  slaves  are  held  to  be  impossible.  In  more  than 
one-half  of  this  territory,  the  staples,  for  the  cultivation  of  which 
slave  labor  is  considered  necessary,  cannot  be  grown.  Where 
they  cannot,  its  industries  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Northern 
States.  It  has  the  climate  of  the  North,  from  its  great  elevation 
above  the  sea.  Upon  it  the  slave  comprises  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  population.  If  we  start  from  the  southwest  corner  of  Mary- 
land, and  follow,  to  the  southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  the  ridge 
separating  the  waters  flowing  into  the  Ohio  from  those  flowing 
into  the  Atlantic,  w^e  shall  divide  the  State  into  nearly  equal  parts. 
Continued  southward  in  the  same  general  direction,  we  include 
mountainous  portions  of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  follow- 
ing west  in  the  direction  of  the  Alleghany  range,  the  northern 
portion  of  Alabama.  The  western  boundary  of  this  territory  would 
include  one-third  of  Kentucky  and  three-eighths  of  Tennessee, 
the  whole  embracing  about  75,000  square  miles,  forming  a  com- 
pact and  contiguous  mass.  It  has  a  width,  from  east  to  west,  of 
over  two  hundred  miles,  and  a  length,  from  north  to  south,  of 
over  four  hundred,  and  embraces  the  whole  elevated  plain  from 
which  the  Alleghanies  rise.  It  presents  similar  topographical  and 
climatic  features  for  its  entire  extent. 

The  population  of  this  territory,  by  counties,  free  and  slave, 
according  to  the  Census  of  1850  was  as  follows: 


Alabama 


Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Blount  

Cherokee  .... 
Hancock  .... 
Lawrence       .     .     . 
Marion 

7,367 
13,884 

1,542 
14,088 

7,833 
8,846 

426 

1,691 

62 

2,292 

908 

868 

Randolph  .... 
St.  Clair    .... 
Walker      .... 

Total      .... 

11,584 
6,829 

5,124 

i,32r 
266 
936 

Marshall    .... 

77,097 

8,770 

8i4 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 


Georgia 


Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  .Slaves 

Cass      .    .•   .     .     . 

13,300 

3,008 

Lumpkin  .... 

8,955 

939 

Chatoga    . 

6,815 

1,680 

Murray      .... 

14,433 

1,930 

Cherokee 

12,800 

i>i57 

Paulding    .... 

7,039 

1,377 

Floyd    .     . 

8,205 

2,999 

Rabum 

2,448 

no 

Forsythe  . 

8,550 

1,027 

Walker      .... 

13,109 

1,664 

Gilmer  .    . 

8,440 

200 

Gordon     . 

5.984 
8,895 

828 
1,218 

Total      .... 

Habersham 

"8,973 

18,137 

Virginia 


Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Barbour     .... 

9,005 

"3 

Monroe     .... 

10,204 

1 ,06 1 

Boone  .    . 

3,237 

183 

Nicholas    . 

3,963 

73 

Braxton     . 

4,2r2 

89 

Ohio      .     . 

18,066 

164 

Brooke 

5,054 

31 

Pocahontas 

3,598 

267 

Cabell   .    . 

6,299 

389 

Preston      . 

11,708 

87 

Carroll  .    . 

5,409 

154 

Pulaski 

5,118 

1,471 

Dodridge  . 

2,750 

32 

Putnam 

5,338 

632 

Fayette 

3,955 

156 

Raleigh     . 

1,765 

23 

Floyd    .    . 

6,458 

443 

Randolph 

5,243 

201 

Giles     .     . 

6,570 

657 

Ritchie       . 

3,902 

16 

Gilmer  .    . 

3,475 

72 

Russell 

11,919 

982 

Grayson    . 

6,677 

499 

Scott     .     . 

9,829 

473 

Greenbrier 

10,022 

1,317 

.Smythe 

8,162 

1,064 

Hancock  . 

4,050 

3 

Taylor 

5,367 

1 68 

Harrison  . 

11,728 

4S8 

Tazwell 

9.942 

1,060 

Jackson     . 

6,544 

53 

Tyler     .     . 

5,498 

38 

Kahnawa  . 

15,353 

3,140 

Washington 

14.612 

2,131 

Lee  .    .     . 

10,267 

7S7 

Wayne  .     . 

4.760 

189 

Lewis    .     . 

10,131 

368 

Wetzell      . 

4,284 

17 

Logan  .    . 

3,620 

87 

Wirt      .    . 

3,353 

32 

Marion 

10,552 

94 

Wood    .    . 

9,450 

373 

Marshall    . 

10,138 

49  . 

Wyoming 

1,645 

6r 

Mason  .    . 

7,539 

647 

Wythe  .    . 

12,024 

2,. 85 

Mercer 

4,222 
12,387 

177 
176 

Monongalia 

Total      .    . 

339,404 

22,912 

S'i'RENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY 


«I5 


Tknnksskk 


Inlal 

Nuinix-.- 

ImmI 

N  umber 

Couiuics 

Population 

of  Slaves 

Couiuics 

I'opulalion 

of  Slaves 

Anderson       .     .     . 

6,938 

506 

McMinn    .... 

I  3,906 

1,564 

Bledsoe     . 

5'959 

827 

Marion 

6,314 

55' 

lilount  . 

12,424 

1,084 

Meigs    . 

4.879 

395 

Ihadlcy 

12,259 

744 

Monroe 

11,874 

1,188 

Campbell 

6,068 

918 

Morgan 

3.430 

lOI 

Carter   . 

6,296 

353 

(Overton 

I  1,21  I 

1.065 

('larbornt' 

9-369 

660 

I'olk.     . 

6.338 

400 

Cdoke   . 

8,310 

719 

Rhea 

4.4 '5 

436 

Fentress 

4,464 

148 

Roane  . 

12,185 

1,544 

Grainger 

12,370 

1.035 

Scott     . 

1,905 

Zl 

Greene 

17.824 

'.093 

Sevier   . 

6,920 

403 

Hamilton 

10,075 

672 

Sullivan 

11,742 

1,004 

Hancock 

5,660 

202 

Van  Buren 

2.674 

175 

Hawkins 

'3.371 

1 ,690 

Washington 

13,861 

930 

Jackson 

'5-^73 

1.558 

White    .     .     . 

11,444 

1,214 

lefferson 

13,204 

1,628 

Johnson 

3.705 
18,807 

206 
2,193 

Knox     . 

Total 

306,874 

27.243 

Kentucky 


Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Breathitt   .... 

3.785 

170 

Letcher     .... 

2,512 

62 

Carter  . 

6,241 

257 

Lewis    .     . 

7,202 

322 

Clay  .     . 

5,421 

515 

Morgan 

7,620 

1S7 

Clinton 

4,889 

262 

Owsley 

■      3.774 

136 

Estill      . 

5.785 

411 

Perry     .     . 

3.092 

117 

Floyd     . 

5.714 

149 

Pike .     .     . 

5.365 

98 

Greenup 

9.654 

606 

Pulaski 

14.195 

1.307 

Harlan  . 

4.268 

1^3 

Rockcastle 

4.697 

375 

Johnson 

3.873 

30 

Wayne  .     . 

8,692 

830 

Knox     . 

7,050 

612 

Whitley     . 

7.447 

201 

Laurell  . 

4-445 

i(;2 

Lawrence 

6,2s  I 

'37 

Total      .... 

132,002 

7.099 

8i6 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 


North  Carolina 


Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Counties 

Total 
Population 

Number 
of  Slaves 

Alexander     .     .     . 

Ashe 

Buncombe     .     .     . 

Burke    

Caldwell    .... 
Catawba    .... 
Cherokee  .... 
Cleveland      .     .     . 

5,220 

8,777 
13,425 
7,772 
6,317 
8,862 
6,838 
10,396 
7,074 

543 

595 
1,717 
2,132 
1,203 
1,569 

337 
1,747 

418 

Henderson    .     .    . 
McDowell     .     .     . 

Macon 

Rutherford    .     .     . 
Watauga    .... 
Wilkes  ..... 
Vancey      .... 

Total      .... 

6,853  ■ 

6,246 

6,389 

13,550 
3,400 

12,099 
8,205 

924 
1,262 

549 
2,905 

129 
1,142 

346 

Haywood  .... 

131,023 

17,518 

The  whole  territory  described,  which  forms  a  compact  and  con- 
tiguous body,  contained  in  1850,  a  population  of  1,105,313,  of 
whom  101,079,  o^  9  per  cent,  only,  were  slaves.  We  have  not  the 
returns,  by  counties,  for  1 860,  but  the  rate  of  increase  of  the  white 
population  for  the  past  ten  years  must  have  been  equal  to  20  per 
cent.,  while  that  of  slaves  must  have  remained  very  nearly  station- 
ary. At  the  present  moment  this  great  district  must  have  a  i^opu- 
lation  of  1,300,000,  of  whom  not  over  eight  per  cent.,  or  104,000, 
are  slaves.  It  has  an  excellent  climate,  probably  the  best  in  the 
United  States.  Much  of  it  is  elevated  from  2,000  to  3,000  feet 
above  the  sea,  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  grazing  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  grains,  while  beneath  the  soil  is  the  greatest  profusion 
of  the  most  valuable  minerals.  Upon  no  portion  of  it  can  cotton  be 
successfully  cultivated,  nor  the  slaves  profitably  employed.  Though 
at  present  thinly  settled,  it  is  capable  of  a  much  denser  population 
than  an\-  portions  of  the  States  of  which  it  forms  a  part,  and  is  only 
wanting  in  means  of  inter-communication,  which  are  now  being 
supplied,  to  render  it  the  most  attractive  field  for  emigration  and 
industry  in  the  United  States.  Its  people,  in  their  habits,  ideas 
and  interests,  as  well  as  in  the  physical  features  of  their  country, 
present  contrasts  to  the  cotton  districts  as  striking  as  exists  between 
these  and  the  North.  They  control  the  Secession  movement  in 
Virginia,  North  C'arolina,  and  Tennessee,  and  would  control  it  in 
Georgia  and  Alabama  could  they  have  been  permitted  to  vote  upon 


STRKAGJ-Jl  A\I)  WKAKXKSS   OK  SLAVERY  817 

it,  as  were  those  of  Tennessee  and  North  Carohna.  They  will  no 
more  submit  to  the  dictation  of  the  Montgomery  oligarchs  than 
New  York  or  Pennsylvania.  Their  interests  are  more  directly  op- 
posed than  those  between  the  Cotton  States  and  the  extreme  North, 
because  the  wide  distance  that  separates  the  latter  renders  them 
inde])endent  of  each  other,  while  the  Cotton  States  are  seeking,  by 
every  possible  means,  to  drag  all  the  Slave  States  with  them,  for 
the  purpose  of  compelling  them  to  share  their  burdens,  and  of  giv- 
ing greater  strength  and  dignity  to  their  cause. 

This  great  tongue  or  wedge  of  land  carries  Northern  ideas. 
Northern  industry,  and  Northern  population  right  into  the  heart  of 
Cottondom,  and  witliin  two  hundred  miles  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
It  is  now,  and  must  continue  to  be,  the  strategical  line  controlling 
the  whole  question  of  Secession.  It  now  holds  the  Border  States. 
Should  luistern  Virginia  go.  Western  Virginia  would  not.  If 
Western  Tennessee  should,  the  Eastern  portion  of  the  State  would 
not.  They  are  very  well  satisfied  with  things  as  they  are.  They 
do  not  propose  to  cultivate  cotton  fields  ;  but  to  grow  grain,  raise 
stock  and  work  minerals,  and  in  time  to  become  a  great  manufac- 
turing people.  They  are  not  going  to  submit  to  enormous  taxes  for 
the  benefit  of  sla\"e  propagandism.  The\'  tolerate  sla\'er\',  but  want 
no  more,  and  soon  hoj^e  to  get  rid  of  the  few  slaves  they  have. 

The  accompanying  map  illustrates,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  re- 
lation of  this  territory  to  the  question  of  Secession.  The  figures 
upon  it  show  the  ratio  of  the  slave  to  the  white  population,  which 
is  also  shown  by  the  different  degrees  of  shade.  The  territory  upon 
which  the  slave  does  not  exceed  one-tenth  of  the  population  is  left 
white.  W' here  the  population  is  so  small  its  protection  and  devel- 
opment can  never  guide  the  legislation  of  a  State.  Where  such 
territory  is  contiguous,  so  that  its  inhabitants  can  sustain  and  sup- 
port each  other,  they  are  not  to  be  overawed  or  driven  in  any  di- 
rection adverse  to  their  interest. 

^  Will  the  Americans  voluntarily  set  free  their  slaves,  not  having 
any  substitute  for  the  combined  and  constant  labour  of  slaves .'' 
The  answer  is,  that  they  will   not,  of  their  own  accord,  destroy 

1  Wakefield,  England  and  America  [1S34],  pp.  220,  221-223. 


8i8  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  SLAVERY 

property  which  they  value  at  ^120,000,000,  and  which  is  really 
worth  that  sum  at  market. 

Is  there  any  prospect  of  such  a  fall  in  the  value  of  slaves  as  might 
render  slaveiy  not  worth  preserving  ?  Of  this  there  is  not,  at  pres- 
ent, the  slightest  prospect ;  because  the  white  populaticju  wanting 
slaves  increases  as  fast  almost  in  number  as  the  slaves  themselves, 
and  faster  in  capital,  for  using  which  slaves  are  wanted  ;  because 
superabundance  of  good  land  will  continue  to  make  slaves  valuable, 
by  enabling  every  freeman  who  so  pleases  to  become  an  independ- 
ent land-owner.  .  .  . 

Still,  as  in  America,  the  whites  are  ten  millions  and  the  blacks 
but  two  millions  ;  and  as  the  whites  increase  at  nearly  as  great  a 
rate  as  the  blacks  ;  as  the  twelve  millions  will,  there  can  hardly  be 
any  doubt,  become  twenty-four  millions  in  the  course  of  twenty-five 
years  or  less,  is  there  no  prospect  that  land  will  rise  in  value,  so 
that  every  freeman  shall  no  longer  be  able  to  obtain  for  a  trifle 
more  good  land  than  he  can  possibly  cultivate  ;  so  that  the  value 
of  slaves  shall  fall  ;  so  that  the  proprietors  of  slaves,  being  most  of 
them  proprietors  of  land,  shall  be  ready  to  liberate  their  slaves, 
gaining  on  the  one  hand  as  much  as  they  might  lose  on  the  other, 
or  more.''  Of  this  there  is  no  prospect;  for  three  reasons.  First, 
because,  however  rapidly  poj^ulation  may  increase,  the  quantity  of 
land  appropriated  by  individuals  will  increase  at  the  same  rate  ; 
because,  in  short,  the  colonization  of  new  wilderness  will  go  on  as 
fast  as  population  shall  increase,  so  that  every  freeman  will  still  be 
able  to  obtain  for  a  trifle  more  good  land  than  he  can  possibly  cul- 
tivate. Secondly,  because  the  land  east  of  the  Allegheny  Moun- 
tains has  been  exhausted  to  a  considerable  extent,  not  merely  for 
the  growth  of  sugar,  as  in  the  West  Indies,  but  fairly  worn  out  by 
unskillful  cultivation  ;  and  thus,  from  this  exhausted  district  to  new 
land  in  the  western  districts,  emigration,  both  of  whites  and  slaves, 
has  taken  place  to  a  great  amount,  and  is  still  going  on  rapidly ;  so 
that  in  those  exhausted  districts,  a  fall  rather  than  a  rise  in  the 
value  of  land  may  be  expected.  Thirdly,  because  where  the  moral 
evils  of  slavery  exist,  there  wliites  settle  for  one  purpose  only,  that 
of  gaining  by  the  combined  labour  of  slaves.  But  the  greater  part 
of  the  whites  of  America  are  content  to  share  from  a  distance  the 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  SLAVERY         819 

economical  a(l\antaf:,a's  of  slawn',  withoul  imunin;;'  its  moral  evils 
by  goiii};'  to  li\c  among  slaves.  The  new  settler  on  the  ( )hio  can 
sell  his  hone\-,  which  may  be  raised  witliont  combined  labour,  in 
that  particular  work,  for  tobacco,  which  may  not,  without  hearinj^ 
the  smack  of  a  slaxe-driver's  whij),  or  the  responding  cry  of  slaves. 
If  the  white  population  of  America  were  to  be  doubled  e\ery  five 
years,  instead  of  five-and-twcnty  years,  the  population  of  the  slave 
states,  where  slave-owners  own  land,  would  not  become  sulficientl)' 
dense  to  raise  the  xaUie  of  land,  and  lower  the  value  of  slaves.  .   .   . 


UNIVERSITY    OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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